2003 Ford

E350 XLT CNG Minivan/Van

8 Cylinder

Automatic

1fdne31m03hb39122

CNG

Air Conditioning

All great relationships come to an end eventually. This is the case with our van. We are moving to an “all electric” house next month. Up to this point, we were blessed with owning our own FuelMaker hooked to the Southwest Gas meter while enjoying $1.00 per gallon equivalent gas. Now, well, it’s back to gas stations for us. This means new cars. It’s hard to give up. This has been the perfect van. We bought it used from a friend in Texas who also moved to an all electric house. It had about 12,000 miles on it then. We even bought his FuelMaker and he put it in the back of the van and brought it over to Arizona. It became the perfect “family van.” It’s not pretty, but it’s so damn comfortable. When we take it to the airport, the curb police let us park all day if we want, they think it’s a shuttle. Our son was working at the Glendale Arena one afternoon and wanted to come home and take a shower but we didn’t have the employee pass or a way to get into where he was waiting. I threw my coroner’s vest on and we were waved on in. We still laugh about it. Everyone sees the van a little differently, we just used it as our station wagon. It’s the E350 XLT Club Wagon with three (3) 3600PSI tanks and almost 20 equivalent gallons of fuel. It’s not the biggest dedicated CNG van Ford made, but it’s sure the most comfortable. It was made for family use, not commercial, so it has the nicer interior amenities. The fabric seats make jumping in and out in the heat so much easier. The windows are tinted just a bit, taking the UV out of the sunlight. The AC is amazing, it will freeze you right out of the car if you leave it on maximum. The Negatives: Our son’s Doberman chewed one of the rear bench seat belts up when he was a puppy. (Now, as with all college kid’s dogs, it’s our dog. I don’t know why I wanted to point that out but it does feel better. It’s not even fair, he’s a great dog.)Our Texas friend had backed it into something and creased the back bumper, and after about a year, I DID THE SAME DAMN THING. So there are two little dings in the rear bumper, side by side, almost looks like one. If you add a third, we will have executed a trifecta.On the roof, the paint is fading. You can’t see it unless you play in the NBA, but you need to know and keep it waxed.I let my dogs in it. If you are allergic to dogs, avoid this car. It doesn’t have hair all over it, it doesn’t smell like dogs, you would never know. But like I said, if you are allergic to dogs, you buy our van and you have a seizure, we would feel horrible. The Positives: It runs on natural gas at about a $1 a gallon if you fill up at home.It’s ridiculously comfortable.It has the best air-conditioning you have ever experienced, front and rear.The color is beautiful.The CNG engine from the factory added $6,000 over the price of a regular van.It has about half the tire life left. Goodrich Commercial TA heavy duty tires, most amazing tires for a truck or van I have ever owned.It was within 5,000 miles of needing new brakes. So we put new brakes in it, repacked the bearings, etc. We didn’t want someone buying it and being disappointed in six months.I put new plugs, wires and boots, air filter, and wiper blades at the same time as the brakes. I figured at 50,000 miles, it was due.I have it detailed every six months.Always had synthetic oil running it.You could eat off the engine.Check out the exhaust pipe, it always looks like that.It has all three factory tanks (was an option,) so it holds almost twenty equivalent gallons.It runs like a clock.Its under warranty until the summer of 2011.It’s been babied.