The Chrysler TC -a Maserati Money Pit

Today’s ramblings center around wasting money.   It’s a theme that picked up a little over a week ago, and was reinforced today when I found myself getting up in the AM after getting off work a few hours into that same AM span.  Why would I do this to myself?  The answer is, so that I could drive over to the E.M. Pearson Theatre in St Paul to attend the 10:30 show of my Niece’s elementary school spring musical.
I like theater… plays, actually, I like plays and performance art.  However, I despise musicals.  Still, I love my niece, so to show my support for her, I figure I can endure musical theater for an hour or two… or not.

I fell asleep somewhere along the line during one of the off-key belting out of tunes (acceptable, and even cute when kids do it, though), and woke up when the lights came up for intermission, during which time, the ushers started passing around a collection plate.  -I might not have mentioned that my niece is enrolled in a parochial school (her November birth date meant she was too young to start kindergarten in public schools the year she was ready to enroll, so private school was the best alternative to waiting until the next school year).  So, there’s a healthy dose of religion mixed in with her learning.

I hadn't anticipated getting hit up for money at my niece’s musical thingie, and I seldom carry cash.  Luckily, I was able to locate a few dollars floating around in my bag and I put them in the plate -not because I want to encourage more musicals to be produced… Mostly, I did it because I felt like an asshole for sleeping through the first half of the show.

I vowed I would do better after the intermission.  I didn't.  Some of the religious content of the show must have seeped into my subconscious while I slept, because when audience applause woke me up as the show ended, I distinctly recall thinking to myself  "Thank God it's over!"  On the bright side, I felt very well rested as I walked out into the daylight, and I had a great drive back home to Minneapolis.  The downside was that I spent however many dollars on gas to drive to St Paul, only to sleep through a musical, during which I got soaked for a few more bucks.  One could bring up those old Visa or Mastercard commercials where they list the price of stuff but then bring up some sentimental thing that money ended up financing and claim it was “priceless”, only it wouldn’t even apply here, because I don’t think my niece even realized I was in the audience.  The kids who were in the chorus were marched out of the theater and directly onto their school bus after the show, so I didn’t even get to see her afterward.  Hell, I could have just stayed in bed this morning and later claimed I went to her musical!

In other acts of throwing money down holes, never to be seen again, a small road trip to Iowa in my sister’s Honda Odyssey (shown in the background of the photo with my motorcycle, and also a vehicle which this blog has covered with a link to mythology, even) ended up being more costly than anticipated.  I’ve driven Mustangs long enough to know that there isn’t a whole lot of stuff I can get away with behind the wheel of a car like that.  A ubiquitous gray minivan ought to be more or less invisible to law enforcement, I should think.  I mean, who says to themselves, “Dang, those soccer moms really need to be taught a lesson -always whippin’ around with their hot-rodding minivans and grocery getters!  Somebody needs to give them a citation!”?  As it turns out, Iowa State Patrol says that very thing to themselves.

I openly admit, I was exceeding the speed limit.  However, there’s a difference between speeding and dangerous driving.  Considering that I was keeping pace with the traffic around me and that weather and road conditions were perfect, there’s no reason to hand a citation to anybody doing exactly what I was doing other than to generate revenue  -and that sucks even more than having somebody shove a collection plate at you during intermission at a musical you didn’t even care for to begin with.  Well, whatever.  Enjoy your pound of my flesh, state of Iowa.  I’m mostly stewing over the fact that of all the things I’ve driven lately, it was in a damn minivan that I got a speeding ticket.

Which brings us to our real feature today -a car that didn’t even seem like a good idea at the time it was made, and has spent the past couple decades reinforcing its status as a money pit.  I spotted this little gem in the very same parking lot where earlier I saw the Cree SAM electric vehicle featured in the last post.  Presenting the Chrysler TC by Maserati.

Behold, what looks like a rebadged Chrysler Lebaron is actually more like a rebadged Lebaron with some body tweaks by Innocenti (An Italian subsidiary of DeTomaso, whose friendship with Lee Iacocca at the time when Iacocca was running Chrysler and DeTomaso was running Maserati resulted in TC), made in Milan, Italy, and sitting on a modified Dodge Daytona chassis.  These things were offered from 1989-1991 as Grand Touring cars.  They were convertibles that also came with removable hard tops that featured porthole windows (or, in this case, we call them “Opera” windows, since the TC was trying to be all upscale).  I don’t mind opera windows, after all, the cool old Thunderbirds had them.

In the first model year, 1989, a TC came with a price tag of about $33,000, which was a lot of money then.  It also featured a 160HP 2.2L inline 4 cylinder turbo engine and a 3 speed automatic.  The next year, 1990 saw a 3.0L V6 offered with 141 HP and a 4 speed automatic transmission along with a price tag of about $35,000.  In its last year, the TC featured a specially made (by Maserati) 2.2L I4 turbo with 200 HP and an optional manual transmission.  This came at a price of about $37,000.

The 200 HP 2.2L offered in the final year, paired with a manual transmission was probably pretty fun to scoot around in, I’d bet…  Up until it needed engine work, at which point, things would get expensive very fast due to the cost of getting new parts for that Maserati motor.  The fact that these cars only lasted for 3 years on the market is a good indication of how well they were received by car buyers.  What was supposed to be a turning point for Chrysler -showing the world a sophisticated, upscale side to the brand by combining Chrysler looks with Italian performance and swanky interior treatments, was instead a flop for the brand.  Why spend that kind of money to look like you’re driving around in a Lebaron that could be had for a fraction of the cost?

Here’s a Lebaron with some shitty hood scoops slapped on it to show you the similarities.  Stand by while we briefly launch on yet another of my many tangents  -Many years ago, my brother got his hands on an old Chrysler Lebaron coupe, which I borrowed a few times.  Similar to how the TC’s removable hardtop had Opera windows, the Lebaron coupe had little circular lights on the interior at about where those windows would have been if it had been a TC.  They were actually nice, solid fixtures with metal bezels.  While the rest of the car was kind of crappy with one of those horrible digital dashboards and constant engine problems, I did like those light fixtures.  But, back to the topic at hand.

Of course, the TC had company in its day.  Longtime readers may recall two posts from a while back discussing another couple of cars from about this same era:

The Cadillac Allante, which used the formula of putting Italian body work into an American Grand Touring convertible (at even greater expense than what the TC cost)

...and the Buick Reatta, which was actually much cheaper than the TC and American designed (but plenty of people think it was farmed out to Italian design firms), made in an attempt to keep up with the trend set by the Allante and the TC.  Neither of those cars lasted long or had many enthusiastic buyers, either.

Much like having to pay a speeding ticket from the Iowa State Patrol, or handing over cash to support not just musicals (which is bad enough), but religious-themed musicals (which are even worse due to every single song having to work in a God aspect) because you feel guilty for sleeping through the show; buying a Chrysler TC (by Maserati), a Cadillac Allante, or to a lesser extent, the Buick Reatta brand new when they were still being made, is to take a loss with little to show for it.      

Montero, Pajero -nostalgic fun with Mitsi-bishi

From one black SUV to another.  Today, we're going to take a quick look at a Mitubishi Montero.  I spotted this one in a used car lot a couple weeks back.  I've never owned a Mitsubishi, but I do vividly recall going along with while my parents took one out for a test drive at Militello Motors back in the mid 1980s.  I believe it was a Mitsubishi Montero, even, in a kind of camel brown.

That Montero was boxy even by 1980's standards. My sister and I rode in the backseat (I have no idea where my brother was for this) and drove our parents nuts by loudly and obnoxiously coming up with different ways to pronounce "Mitsubishi" during the car ride.  I recall my sister and I directing my dad to drive over some railroad tracks along a gravel road that my dad used to call his "super secret spy route" back to civilization from the outskirts of town.  These tracks were rather prominent in the roadway, and when my dad would drive over them in our old station wagon, my siblings and I, who would often sit in the way back section of the wagon unsecured in any way, would go tossing up into the air, our heads brushing or sometimes even bopping the ceiling of the station wagon.  It was awesome fun.  Of course, nowadays, parents wouldn't dream of letting their kids ride in the cargo area of a vehicle without safety restraints.  -And that's probably a good thing, but I do pity kids nowadays for never being able to know the fun of riding in an old Chrysler station wagon complete with faux wood grain siding while blasting 80's rock over a tape deck and sailing airborne over a railroad crossing on the Super Secret Spy route.  Yes, kids these days have sure missed out, but I suppose they all have iphones and slick video games that blow the super sweet Atari 2600 console I had as a kid out of the water, so there's some consolation for them.

Anyway, my dad did comply with our pleading for the spy route and took the brand new tan Montero over those tracks, though he went slower than usual, perhaps not wanting to inflict any undue wear and tear on so-new-it-didn't-even-have-an-owner-yet vehicle.  It was a rather lackluster experience due to this, and my sister and I did not give the Montero glowing reviews based entirely upon that railroad bump.  We did, however, spend the rest of the day goofing around saying "Mitsubishi" until we mangled it into sounding like "Miss Sue Bitchy", which turned out to be our favorite iteration of the vehicle maker's name.  I suspect the prospect of having to deal with my sister and I incessantly cracking jokes and giggling like the little girls we were over the name of the vehicle may have had a lot to do with why my parents did not purchase that particular SUV back then.


So, I don't know if it was childhood nostalgia or what, but when I spotted this Montero in that used car lot, I cornered hard into the lot to take a look at it.  Granted, this one is 20 years newer than a certain "Miss Sue Bitchy" that my family took out for a spin back when I was 7 or 8 years old, but I couldn't help but giggle all childishly when I thought back to that test drive my sister and I went on.

What we're looking at today is a 2006 Mitsubishi Montero.  It turns out that elementary school aged versions of my sister and I aren't the only people who find fun with names in the Mitsubishi lineup.  In some other parts of the world, the Montero is known as the Pajero, which is a name for a small Columbian wild cat.  The name Pajero also used as Spanish slang for a chronic masturbator/wanker.  You can see how this might not translate well into strong sales figures, right?  So, here in the states and many other places as well, the Pajero is known as the Montero, which means Huntsman, but as far as I know, has no affiliations with any type of embarrassing sexual activities. Montero it is, then.

The Montero lasted from 1982-2006 and this one is an example of its last model year and 3rd generation version of the nameplate.  This last generation featured a 3.8L single overhead cam V6 that created 215 HP and 248 lb-ft of torque while getting 15/19 MPG.  None of those stats are particularly impressive, but the Montero was appreciated as a good off road vehicle with decent handling.  This, the last generation Montero, was a bump up in size from the previous two iterations of the vehicle, which were both mid sized SUVs.  This 2006 model is considered a full sized SUV, though if you park it next to something like a Lincoln Navigator, it would look a tad tiny, I think.

 Anyway, it's not the boxy, brown Mitsi from Militello Motors back in the 1980's, but I do think this is a nice looking vehicle.  It's 8 years old already but I really like the lines created by the flared curve worked into the front fenders, stretching from the vehicle's vertical planes to its horizontal hood plane.  It takes the rig away from its awkward boxiness and gives it a muscular, flexing feel to it.  I tend to find vehicles with accentuated fender flares attractive because they remind me of older car designs.  I'm not wild about the gas mileage, but I've owned SUVs before and know that's what to expect.  It would be nice to see more power, but this is about on par for the time this vehicle was made.

To see the Mitsubishi lineup now, this Montero puts their looks to shame.  The stuff I saw on display in the Mitsi booth at the Auto show was all so smoothed over and boring.  This one has some flare -literally, with those fenders!  I like the looks of it, and better yet, I like that its name plate brings to mind a fun memory from childhood.

Why the Lincoln Aviator flew the coop

Today’s vehicle is one that could be counted as a sales failure, but it’s actually a decent vehicle.  For whatever reason (probably the price and its mini-me looks that take after its big sibling) it just didn’t take off with buyers the way it should have.  I bring you the Lincoln Aviator.  Like Howard Hughes, about whom there was a movie made called The Aviator (starring Leonardo DiCaprio), the Lincoln Aviator is a bit of an odd duck, but this contraption is definitely no Spruce Goose

Without any context for scale in the photographs, you might think you’re looking at a first generation Navigator.  The Navigator shares its platform with Ford’s Expedition, whereas the Aviator shares its platform with Ford’s Explorer.  The Explorer was a great success for Ford, and the Navigator went over well with Lincoln shoppers, so a combination of the two ought to have been a home run for Lincoln.  That was not the case.

This isn’t the first flop that Lincoln had.  In fact, just prior to bringing the Aviator to the public, Lincoln made fewer than 3,000 units of a pimped-out truck called the Blackwood.  Those trucks had a starting price of over $50,000 and were so preciously detailed and so ornate that they more or less negated their truck-ness.  They were gorgeous, though ridiculous, technically functional, but so elaborately ostentatious and so over-wrought that you’d feel like a real scumbag if you actually tried to use one to muscle through any hard work.  - I tell you this now; the Blackwood (a pristine or well preserved example) will prove to be a good investment some day if bought well now, due to its rarity and the elaborate detail they featured…  But the Blackwood isn’t today’s featured vehicle.

The Aviator wasn’t quite the sales flop that the Blackwood was, but it didn’t sell like expected.  Production ran from 2002-2005, and after the 2006 model year (made in 05), it was replaced by one of those dreaded alphabetical designation names, the MKX which was Lincoln’s version of the Ford Edge, and no longer used the Explorer platform -Why!!!!  Aviator is a perfectly good name, just like Zephyr was.  It wasn’t the name that flopped, it was a combination of other things like price point and not carving out its own significant niche.

The Lincoln Aviator is probably not going to be the future gem that I predict the Blackwood will be.  However, these are decent and solid rigs with lots of nice options that can be had for small sums of money at present.  The one we’re looking at today was sitting in the fresh trade row at a Ford dealership a couple weeks ago.  I suspect that the age (2005) and mileage (unknown) made this particular Aviator destined for the auto auction, where it will be snapped up by some used car lot and priced probably around $12,500 or more (depending on what that mileage was).  Prices I found online varied between around $7,000 on up to around $15,000 depending on mileage and whether or not the rig is RWD or AWD.

The Aviator’s AWD system was able to split the power it sent to the wheels, with 65% directed to the rear and 35% to the front.  I’m a big fan of AWD for its ability to get things going in the winter as well as its capability to claw through road ruts of snow along the streets that could otherwise rail-skid you into a curb or worse.  The sure-footedness of an AWD system is something that a lot of people will scoff at, saying that with proper snow tires and RWD you can do just fine.  Well, I drive a RWD car with some pretty nice winter tires through Minnesota winters, and even I’ll say that AWD beats the pants off my car when the weather gets crappy.  Couple the system with some winter tires, and nothing short of completely bottoming out in deep snow will stop you from clawing your way through snow, sleet, mud or loose roadways.  

Beyond being a downsized Navigator on an Explorer platform, the Aviator featured the heart of the Mustang of its day: a 4.6L DOHC V8 that was good for 302 HP and 300 lb-ft of torque.  A vehicle that is comprised of goodies from the Navigator, the Explorer AND the Mustang?  How on earth did it fail to strike a chord with buyers?  Perhaps it just looked too much like the Navigator, and why settle for the baby Nav when you can get the big one for a bit more?  At the price point, a potential Aviator buyer could get a well-loaded Ford Expedition and have a bigger rig with more capability.  Yes, the Aviator and the Navigator were nice looking SUVs, and the Aviator had a great interior, too.  But it needed to strike out on its own instead of hanging out in its big brother’s shadow.  Too late now, though.  The Aviator has flown off into the sunset.

Get connected with Ford's Transit Connect. I did!

Other distractions are now behind me, and it’s time to get back to blogging about cars.  Aside from my day job, I maintain other activities and goals, and sometimes, my vehicle obsession needs to take a backseat to pressing matters.  Most recently, it was helping my sister get her big house ready for the home tour (the one I jokingly but not ironically refer to as “The Gatsby Mansion” -because it’s an enormous house and The Great Gatsby has been my sister‘s favorite book since she was a teenager).  As per my usual pattern of writing, it’s tangent time, so let me tell you a little story about my sister’s big ol’ house, and then we’ll get into today’s big ol’ vehicle (even though it’s not so big, nor is it old).

A few years ago, I was helping my sister out with restoration on another of her properties (She’s a national award winning architect and one of her passions is restoring and fixing up old houses).  Anyway, we were installing ceramic tile in the kitchens and bathrooms in this old duplex she owns, and she borrowed a tile saw from a guy she met through one of the neighborhood list serves.  We trekked to a little known alcove of North Minneapolis where housing stock is above and beyond the already staggeringly beautiful old houses that are readily available on the market -For those not local, North Minneapolis is kind of like a microcosm version of Detroit in terms of crime, housing and livability issues, though with the advantage of having some really viable options still left to explore solutions.  People around here do keep an eye on what happens in Detroit to get some ideas about what may or may not work in application to deal with the Northside’s woes.  Anyway, there we were, still well into North Minneapolis, picking up a tile saw, surrounded by gorgeous and huge houses with lawns bigger yet that featured swimming pools, fountains, and tennis courts.  We met the guy, a middle aged gentleman who had distinct taste in headwear, as he was donning a little alpine hat complete with a feather in it.  I learned later that this was kind of his signature look.

Anyway, as we arrived, and again as we left this man’s house, my sister pointed out the massive French Country style mansion across the street.  I remember her saying “Look at house, Val.  Can you imagine how beautiful it must be inside?  If I could have any house in Minneapolis, that’s the one.  Look at that yard!”  I kind of shrugged it off because I’m more of a car person than a house person anyway, and besides, the house was so huge and the yard so sprawling that it just looked to me like endless work… and besides, it’s not like the place was for sale or anything.

*What my house looked like immediately after the Tornado*

A year or two later and the 2011 Tornado hits North Minneapolis, dropping a tree on my little Tudor style house and ripping a path of destruction from one end of Northside to the other.  I went into work that day in spite of being at home when the tree fell onto my house (what was I going to do, pick it up and move it myself?  Might as well do my job, you know?).  It was during the cleanup efforts in the days immediately after the tornado that the nice man in the Alpine hat who loaned my sister his tile saw died of a heart attack while helping neighbors clear fallen trees from their homes.  The big, beautiful house across the street from his that my sister fell in love with had its slate roof ripped off, all kinds of damage done, and lost over 30 trees from its yard (the 2nd biggest residential yard in all of Minneapolis, I would later learn -the house with first biggest yard is just up the street from it, but that house is much smaller than the Gatsby).  

About a year after that, I’m at home, minding my own business when I get a phone call from my sister.  “Val!!!  You won’t believe this!!!  Remember that house?  The big one, the one I showed you when we borrowed the tile saw?  There’s an estate sale there today!”  I went with my sister to the estate sale at the house.  I ended up buying some artwork from the homeowner’s art collection, whereas my sister was there mostly to see the inside of the house.  The most damaged areas, the upstairs and 3rd floor were off limits due to the destruction, and the ground floor even showed some signs of damage still from the tornado.  My sister was sizing up what the house needed even as I went around picking out drawings and prints from the estate sale items.

The house wasn’t even for sale yet, but my sister is one of those people who doesn’t wait for things to happen:  she makes them happen.  She went home and placed two calls.  One was to the Realtor I bought my house from, and the other was to another realtor friend of hers. She said the first one to call her back would get her business, and so when the other Realtor (not mine) called her, she set him to work. She said she wanted to buy a specific house.  He said “Great!  Which one?”  then she told him it was a house that wasn’t even for sale.  She wrote letters to the owner of the home (The widow of a man who had died not long after the tornado (not the Alpine hat guy) -the home had been in his family for a couple generations).  The house eventually did go on the market, but only for a span of a few days during which the homeowner would accept offers all well above and beyond the price listed on the MLS.  My sister ended up getting her house about a year and a half ago and has been working on it ever since.  The home tour was a lofty goal, and some simple cosmetic stuff wasn’t complete when it was time to show the house, like some trim painting upstairs and stripping and refinishing some of the woodwork, but overall, an astounding amount of work got done in the time that my sister has had her home, and I was there helping out with a lot of it, especially in the weeks leading up to the home tour.  When I wasn’t manning the basement portion of the tour, I went around to a few of the other homes in Minneapolis that were also on the tour.  The chatter I heard and the people I spoke to as well as the other homes toured made it clear that the Gatsby was pretty much the star of the Tour.  The 2nd day, I met several people who had been through the day before but came back with friends of family specifically to show them my sister’s house.  It was an amazing showing, and made all the work leading up to it seem worthwhile.

One of the cool things that my sister did was round up me and two other artists friends to display our work throughout her house.  I made her a painting to keep for herself as a gift, and to thank her for doing this.  Then, I  put up a few drawings and paintings as well as a few sculptures along with the other artist’s work.  We all put out our business cards for people go grab, and now I’ve only got like four left.  It actually turned out pretty well because I’ve gotten some inquiries and am selling a couple of the pieces of original artwork that were on display during the home tour (a portion of the proceeds from which will be going to my motorcycle fund). -Yay!

Now that we’ve got my latest activities out of the way, let’s talk automobiles.  As you may or may not know, I go to the Twin Cities Auto Show every year.  I get in for free courtesy of Morrie’s Minnetonka Ford giving me complimentary tickets, and when I’m there, I cash in by signing up to test drive stuff.  It’s like getting paid to have fun at the auto show!  Our last post about the Chevy Impala came from a test drive that netted me a $50 Target gift card (it arrived just this past week).

After that, I went to Ford and got a $50 Mastercard gift card for testing out one of their vehicles, and that is what brings us to today’s vehicle.

I’ve covered a lot of stuff in the Ford lineup already, so my choices were kind of narrow when I started out this year (though next year, if they do the test drive incentive, you’d better believe there will be a 2015 Mustang getting acquainted with me).  The night before I went to the Ford dealership, I stayed up late finishing a painting for above the Mantle in my sister’s house (the noticeably bare spot called for a roughly 5 foot by 3 foot something to fill the void).  I knew her house was more French Country style, but I also knew she loves Art Nouveau things and that one of the rooms does feature distinct and original to the home Art Nouveau style tiles, so I didn’t think it would be too out of line to paint her something in that vein.  I used Acrylic paints because I didn’t want to have to count on waiting weeks for oils to dry, and besides, I wanted to go in and do some hatch line work over the top of the paints with wax crayon, so Acrylics were the most suitable medium.

Anyway, I completed this thing you see featured above in about a day during which I did little else but paint.  Then, I was faced with the prospect of moving it over to my sister’s house where I could build a frame for it.  No way could I fit this in my Mustang, so I ended up borrowing her Odyssey Minivan.  Ideally though, today’s vehicle would have been the thing to use, which is why when I went to do my test drive the next day, I specifically requested a Ford Transit Connect.

I walked into Brookdale Superior Ford and talked to a sales guy named John Uhde who met me inside the door.  It took a little while for him to fetch the vehicle, as it was at the far end of the lot, and they just got the new 2014 model in so it didn’t have much gas in the tank.  I was waiting for quite a while, but I understood it was because he was prepping the vehicle.

 John said this was their first 2014 Transit Connect at the store and he hadn’t had a chance to play with it much yet.  Together, we went through the vehicle, flipping seats down (the passenger van version can still offer a flat load floor with the seats down) and looking at all the stuff the little van can do.  A base model Transit Connect costs $22,000, and the top of the line Titanium wagon (able to accommodate passengers) starts at $29,000, in case you were wondering.

As vans go, the Transit Connect is little, but as cargo hauling goes, it can handle a lot of stuff.  It’s a bit over 72” tall, 84” wide, and about 190” long.  The load floor height is low enough that you can put stuff in there without having to heft it up high at all (23.4”).  In terms of being able to accommodate anything I would have to move from place to place, this thing is more than adequate, and could definitely handle most of my larger sculptural work.  The painting would have been a piece of cake for this rig.

You can get a longer wheel base Transit Connect for an extra $1,000 if you have even bigger hauling aspirations.  For an extra $295, the Transit Connect comes equipped with rear doors that swing out to a 180 degree angle so you have nothing in your way when loading up the vehicle.  If you have even more stuff to tote around than the vehicle can hold, for an extra $395, you can get the trailer tow package.

*Here's a really cool little Transit Connect that was on display at the Auto Show*

The Transit Connect is a front wheel drive van that can be had with a 1.6L EcoBoost (turbo) 4 cylinder coupled with a 6 speed automatic transmission.  That set up pulls down 178HP and 184 lb-ft of torque while delivering 22/30 MPG.  That EcoBoost option engine will cost an extra $795.   The one I drove featured the standard 2.5L 4 cylinder engine that whips up 169 HP and 171 lb-ft of torque.  That little power plant worked just fine to bring the rig up to speed, and granted, I didn’t have it loaded down with anything other than myself and John, the sales guy when I drove it, but it seemed happily adequate.  You’re not going to burn up any race tracks with this thing, but who in their right mind buys a van like this thinking they will?

The Transit Connect I drove was an XLT Wagon package with a sticker price of $29,070 after all its options had been included.  Here’s the breakdown of Transit Connect packages and some of the options I found to be of interest. Note that the “Van” designation means a cargo van with seating for two, whereas the “Wagon” designation means seating for 7 passengers.

XL Van -$22,000
XLT Van -$23,525
XLT Wagon -$24,525
XL Wagon-$25,000
Titanium Wagon -$29,000

To give you some idea of the differences between the packages:
The bottom rung XL Van has seating for two, and an am/fm stereo with an audio jack -thus concludes the list of options on that vehicle.

The top of the line Titanium comes with the 7 passenger capacity along with power adjustable heated mirrors with body colored caps, leather trimmed heated front seats, leather wrapped steering wheel, dual zone temperature control, an upgraded stereo and rear view camera.

Here are some of the options that may be useful:

Long wheel base version: +$1,000
1.6L EcoBoost Engine upgrade: +$795
180 degree swing angle rear doors: +$295 (good for loading big things into the back)
2nd row fixed glass for both sides: +$70 (useful for checking blind spots while changing lanes)
Adaptive cornering fog lights: +$125 (probably not really needed, but they sound kind of cool)
Auto headlights: +$125 (not totally needed, but they do make life a bit more hassle free)
Electric rear defroster: +$125 (I’d spring for this one)
Rear Cargo area light: +$70 (This is one I would definitely include)
Keyless entry keypad: +$70 (way cheaper than paying a locksmith to come out if you lock your keys inside, so get it)
Engine block heater: +$35 (A definite must have in Minnesota)
Front and rear parking aid: +$495 (Get it because it’s cheaper than paying an insurance deductible if you back this boxy little rig into something)
Rearview camera: +$225  (I used this while backing the Transit Connect into its parking stall after the test drive, and it was actually really handy, featuring little graphic lines that help you maneuver the vehicle to the perfect position)
Windshield Defogger: +$300 (why is this optional?  You have to have this because you’ll need it to see where you’re going when its rainy or cold out)
Anti Theft system: +$195 (might as well get it -it can help make you aware of when somebody is messing with your van trying to take it, or more likely, the cargo inside of it)
Tow package: +$395 (get it for in case you need it)
You can get a package that combines the Quickclear windshield defogger (which, now that I look at it, may be above and beyond the typical defroster system) with an AM/FM CD system with Sync for $750, so that’s something to think about.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with this little van.  After driving one, I keep finding situations and scenarios where I could use one.  Most of these involve hauling artwork around, but also some trips to Menards, Lowes, or Home Depot for yard and landscaping stuff would call for a vehicle like this, as well as hauling around a motorcycle (I have my MC permit now and am setting aside spare cash to buy a cheap beater bike to practice on before deciding if I want a nice bike -though knowing how I get emotionally attached to my vehicles, I’ll probably end up fawning over whatever cheapo bike I get and devoting time and money to fixing it up).

My take on the Transit Connect is this:  I want one -even though it‘s about the furthest thing in the Ford lineup from the stuff that I usually lust after (Focus ST, Fiesta ST, Taurus SHO, Raptor, MUSTANG!!!).  The list of things I could accomplish with this vehicle is endless -and all while getting great gas mileage, too!  I’d probably just get the van set up that can accommodate two passengers so I don’t have to mess around with folding down seats (Sales guy John and I did have some difficulty working that stuff when testing it out) but the Wagon version like the one I drove is also awesome for toting things around.  The newly redesigned 2014 looks nice for what it is, and now that I’ve played around with one, I would happily welcome one in my driveway.