Ford keeps trying for game changers. EcoBoost engines were one; maybe the aluminum-bodied F-150 will become another. But one of Ford’s least-appreciated recent successes is the Transit Connect line of vans and wagons.
First the company stole a march on the competition in 2010 by introducing a new kind of vehicle that would fill a need most Americans didn’t even know existed: for a downsized small-business van that drove and operated like a car, with car-like fuel economy, and also hauled around the requisite amount of stuff. That worked well, creating a 40,000-vehicle niche for Ford, with most sales incremental to those of its traditional E-Series commercial vans.
Source
Forbes