Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
I'm not seeing the usefullness here-we have 2 Transits, and they are USELESS in snow! There's no way the Fiat/Dodge would be able to carry the 4K in weight that I do, nor pull a 7K trailer!
I think they are claiming 4200 pounds inside,and if it was a rwd it would need that weight for traction.
My only concern is the tranny,or would this thing have a transaxle? Either way I'd like to see them with 100k miles on,with a full load,before I'd be comfortable buying one for our fleet.
I really like the front wheel drive idea,my only concern is are they able to build a drivetrain durable enough in a fwd platform to handle actual work duty.
I'm sure they'd be fine as a delivery type van only half loaded but what about a full load from the first driven mile.
I'll reserve judgement til I see posts in the forums about what kinds of issues are arising.
Looks like dodge is putting a lot of faith in the pentastar. And it looks like its putting down some good power numbers with some decent fuel consumption numbers as well.
If they put an mds type system in the pentastar they could get rid of the 4 cylinder option in some models,coupled with the 8 speed could give dodge a very interesting line up.