Is Ford dropping their Econoline E Series Van?

Van ambulances

Robert Shepard said:
There are rumors that Ford will drop their Econoline E Series van in 2013. If this is true; what will become the most popular platform for ambulance builders?
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I would guess it will be the Chevy Express/GMC Savana 3500 series vans for Type II ambulance use. The Mercedes/Freightliner Sprinter vans are too expensive for most ambulance services. Ford will continue to build the E Series cutaway chassis past 2013 for use as a Type III ambulance platform.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20111208/AUTO01/112080355/1148/auto01/Ford-steers-fleet-to-Transit
 
The full size Ford Transit van has been made in Europe for many years, and will soon replace the Econoline van.
It is scheduled to o into production in Kansas City (along with a small cutaway) as a 2014 model. If you google up some pictures of the current transit, you will see a resemblance to a Mercedes Sprinter.

The second generation Sprinter is growing in popularity with private ambulance operators very rapidly, and we have built approximately 300 units thus far.

The big Econoline cutaways (E350 and E450) will continue to be made at the Ford Avon Lake Ohio plant.
 
I hated to see dodge do away with their full size van and go to sprinter and if ford does away with econoline they will be really screwing up like they did by dropping the ranger, crown vic, marquis, lincoln town car.
 
The "One Ford" corporate turnaround strategy encourages global chassis platforms. In other words, what works in Europe ought to work here. We'll see how it flies in this case.

Dodge lost the Sprinter during their divorce from Daimler. I predict you will see a Fiat Ducato (you can Google image search that one up as well) full-size van with Dodge nameplate in the US market in the not too distant future.
 
Curious, so I did a Google search for Images, found this...
800px-Ford_Transit_van_hearse.jpg
 
I certainly hope not, it will be harder to find parts in the future. We're due for a brand new PL Custom E Series in 34 days. They had Cadillac units from '51-'74 and Horton's ever since. It will have a lot to live up to, b/c our '99 Horton rides like a dream.
 
It is Like Ford is Committing Suicide

First they do away with the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor an now this. Oh yes they replaced it with their lame Taurus replacement but junk! And now get rid of the most popular ambulance base. I really do not understand manufacturers.
 
Ranger Pick-ups

And this morning Ford announced it was discontinuing the Ranger Pick up series, the F-100 will be their smallest truck.:my2cents:
 
Government fuel-economy standards are causing almost all of this. Manufacturers make their share of dumb moves, but nothing beats governments in that regard.
 
Ron Devies said:
And now get rid of the most popular ambulance base. I really do not understand manufacturers.
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Ford has NOT been the most popular ambulance base since the 6.0 fiasco. I've noticed a big uptick in Chevy, Dodge and Sprinter in my area. Many departments after getting hung out to dry by Fords lack of warranty support and huge down times won't buy anything from them. When the PCS toured PL Custom the VP there said demand for Chevy was so strong it was exceeding supply. Ford did have 97% of the ambulance chassis market at one time, and most likely is still the single largest, but certainly isn't dominating.
 
I have to agree with Scott about people abandoning the Ford E series in droves. At one time we had 35 Ford E350's in the fleet. The 6.7 diesels ran for ever, never lost an engine. Then the 2005's and 2006 6 Litres came along and we started loosing engines at 50,000 km. (30,000 miles) We bought extended warranty (5 yrs and 180,000 km) and we had trucks go thru as many as 5 engines in 5 years. We just retired our last Ford in October and the fleet now consists of 35 Chev diesels (Type III) and one Mercedes Sprinter. Have Chevs with 5 years and 200,000 miles and no engine issues. I think both Chev and Ford will be out of the large vans by 2015 and they will be replaced by European style trucks. Our builder, Crestline, has built a number of Type III cutaways on the IVECO (Fiat) chassis for Europe. IVECO offers a wider range of wheelbases, crew cabs, 4 wheel drive and many other engine and transmission options than the Sprinter. Only a matter of timebefore Dodge branded IVECO's show up here in North America.
 
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