Ford Transit Van

Davydd wrote:
What logic? The Econoline doesn't have the variety of configurations, volumes and payloads of a Transit.

So far Roadtrek has been hesitant on its Transit plans and Hammill already publicly stated reservations because the cost differential is not that great with the Sprinter and he expressed the luxury brand reputation was a factor. Whether Hammill was blowing smoke to belay competition and anticipation, no one knows. The ace in the hole, though, is the Transit is American made and the dealership is widespread. Those two factors should resonate well with a large segment of people.

The Sprinter still holds an advantage of volume and payload capability over the Transit but the Transit I think has a wider advantage over the promaster in volume and load as well as practical design considerations especially for under floor.

JMHO, Roadtrek has the name recognition and eventually will go Sprinter only, because they seem to wanting to evolve into a high-end "B" maker. This way, they don't have to compete on volume with Winnebago. For RT, the ProMaster wasn't worth their time, and the Transit will just cannibalize sales from their other rigs, either the Sprinters, or their Express vans.

However, with the "B" market seeming to be about making Cadillacs and no Chevies, it does leave a market vacuum, and Winnebago is the only company as of now dipping a toe into these waters. I can see something like the Travato, except about $5000 more, on the EB gasser Transit platform. I can see it having a floorplan similar to a short ERA 70X. Since the Transit's design wouldn't require the engineering gymnastics that the ProMaster did, I can see this being a model that WGO would make money on by volume.

Winnebago would still sell the ERA because the four-banger 2015 Sprinter gets extremely good MPG, but for a lot of people, a Transit based "B" might be a happy medium.