A Ford for the future: 2010 Transit Connect

My Transit Connect was like the attractive person you see across a room to whom you are immediately drawn. But when you get up close, you find that person is still attractive — yet not quite as perfect as you first imagined.

And so it was with this unique, futuristic vehicle. More and more Americans like their vehicles to be useful as well as stylish and the Transit Connect is more useful than any vehicle I can think off.

With room for five (thanks to a full-width second seat), loads of storage space, an extra-high roof, and easy-opening cargo doors, this vehicle lives for Saturday morning errands or the stop-and-go demands of a small business. It is a Honda Element raised to a higher level of carrying capacity; a PT Cruiser with an extra helping of mojo.

But my ardor began to fade after some time behind the wheel. Creeping through rainy-day, rush-hour traffic on New York’s Henry Hudson parkway, the TC felt right at home, its oversize windshield giving me a clear view of the action.

Once I encountered the twistier Saw Mill Parkway, though, it was a different story. The TC handled the curves all right, but the hills were too much of a challenge for the 2.0-liter engine and four-speed transmission. The TC was constantly downshifting and seemed to struggle, even though I was carrying nothing close to a full load.

Trying to change radio frequencies as I left New York was another disappointment. The touch-screen tuning seemed to resist my finger pokes, and trying to tune in distant stations required punching their frequencies into a virtual keyboard — not a recipe for smooth driving in stop-and-go conditions.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally has instructed his product planners to create common driver interfaces on all Ford vehicles just like the cockpit controls on in Boeing airplanes. I hope that the TC touch screen isn’t spreading throughout the model line.

Otherwise, the TC felt rock solid, returned decent gas mileage (its combined EPA estimate is 23 miles per gallon) and carried a reasonable base sticker price (including delivery) of just over $23,000 (my as-tested vehicle came in at $24, 975).

One of the shortlisted vehicles for the North American Truck of the Year award (voted by some 50 automotive journalists), the TC gets high marks for functionality and originality. It creates a whole new segment — call it “compact hyper-functional utility vehicle” or “super high-roof stuff carrier.”

With a rear cargo space large enough to sleep in, it should be popular with ski bums, surfers, and college students who can’t drive home from the party. But until it gets a little more get-up-and-go, the TC is likely to remain more alluring from afar.