2006 Ford E-Series Van

This is my second E-350 15 passenger. I'm in a touring band, and we put about 70K miles a year on our vans. The last Ford (a 2001 E-350) now has over 300K miles, and has been retired from long road trips, but still runs great. We did have to replace the transmission at about 250K, but overall; a very solid, dependable vehicle. I've also owned two conversion vans, one Ford E150 and one Dodge Ram 1500. I wish I had good things to say about them; after the first 100K, they seem to be nothing but trouble, and neither one has any power. The Dodge struggles to get up the slightest hill.
The major drawback with the E-350 is an utter lack of comfort. You can order these new from the dealer with a variety of seating options, but the standard seems to be 4 benches behind the front driver/passenger captain's chairs. These benches are very uncomfortable on long trips: no head rests at all, and the top of the back of the bench only comes to below your shoulders if you are tall. Since we typically drive anywhere from 4-24 hours at a time, we take turns trying to sleep on these benches. The bench seats incline slightly down towards the back of the bench, and it is impossible to get comfortable lying down. The front driver's and passenger's "captain's" seats aren't much better. They only have armrests on the side opposite the door, and after a couple of hours in one I start to squirm and feel my back getting tight. I am always more comfortable reclining in one of the captain's seats in the conversion van. I suppose you could have the van equipped with more comfortable seats at your local conversion van company, but you would almost certainly lose some of your seating capacity doing so.
One plus is that the seating is all removable. We remove the two back benches and use that space for cargo.
A couple of other drawbacks are the noise level and the fuel efficiency. They are what they are, I suppose, but vans tend to be a lot more noisy than your typical family car. I have seen one of the 350 vans customized as a "limo van". So for another $20K you can have them stuffed with extra soundproofing, and decked out with comfy seating and a mini-bar.
The fuel-efficiency is abhorrent, about 14 mpg. Again, they are what they are, and I guess you wouldn't expect a vehicle this size to have great gas mileage, but what happened to Ford's announcement a few years ago that by now they would be offering all of their vehicles in a hybrid model? That would be a dream come true for us, and I would be the first person in line to buy one.
Our's have both been gasoline models, but I've heard amazing things about the deisel version of this van. I've been told you can put 500K on a deisel before you have to start to make major repairs.

This is my second E-350 15 passenger. I'm in a touring band, and we put about 70K miles a year on our vans. The last Ford (a 2001 E-350) now has over 300K miles, and has been retired from long road trips, but still runs great. We did have to replace the transmission at about 250K, but overall; a very solid, dependable vehicle. I've also owned two conversion vans, one Ford E150 and one Dodge Ram 1500. I wish I had good things to say about them; after the first 100K, they seem to be nothing but trouble, and neither one has any power. The Dodge struggles to get up the slightest hill.
The major drawback with the E-350 is an utter lack of comfort. You can order these new from the dealer with a variety of seating options, but the standard seems to be 4 benches behind the front driver/passenger captain's chairs. These benches are very uncomfortable on long trips: no head rests at all, and the top of the back of the bench only comes to below your shoulders if you are tall. Since we typically drive anywhere from 4-24 hours at a time, we take turns trying to sleep on these benches. The bench seats incline slightly down towards the back of the bench, and it is impossible to get comfortable lying down. The front driver's and passenger's "captain's" seats aren't much better. They only have armrests on the side opposite the door, and after a couple of hours in one I start to squirm and feel my back getting tight. I am always more comfortable reclining in one of the captain's seats in the conversion van. I suppose you could have the van equipped with more comfortable seats at your local conversion van company, but you would almost certainly lose some of your seating capacity doing so.
One plus is that the seating is all removable. We remove the two back benches and use that space for cargo.
A couple of other drawbacks are the noise level and the fuel efficiency. They are what they are, I suppose, but vans tend to be a lot more noisy than your typical family car. I have seen one of the 350 vans customized as a "limo van". So for another $20K you can have them stuffed with extra soundproofing, and decked out with comfy seating and a mini-bar.
The fuel-efficiency is abhorrent, about 14 mpg. Again, they are what they are, and I guess you wouldn't expect a vehicle this size to have great gas mileage, but what happened to Ford's announcement a few years ago that by now they would be offering all of their vehicles in a hybrid model? That would be a dream come true for us, and I would be the first person in line to buy one.
Our's have both been gasoline models, but I've heard amazing things about the deisel version of this van. I've been told you can put 500K on a deisel before you have to start to make major repairs.