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.
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.
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.
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