This new version is the UK’s best-selling vehicle, but is there joy to be found in a van?
MODEL TESTEDL2H1 320 2.0 ECOBLUE 150PS LIMITED
Price £47,748 Power 148bhp Torque 266lb ft 0-60mph 12.1sec 30-70mph in fourth 13.0sec Fuel economy 36.2mpg CO2 emissions 191g/km 70-0mph 72.3m
Autocar doesn’t dip into the world of light commercial vehicles very often, but when a staple of British roads like the Ford Transit Custom gets renewed for a new generation, we must take note.
Don’t worry: we shall leave bin lorries and London buses to the odd Christmas road test. However, for the past few years, the best-selling vehicle in the UK hasn’t been the Vauxhall Corsa or Nissan Qashqai but the Ford Transit Custom. They are everywhere, not just as a work van but also as a leisure vehicle that effortlessly swallows bikes, camping equipment or – in the right specification – up to nine people. So it’s more than worth an extended look by way of a full road test.
Our test van was very much a van: a long-wheelbase, high-load-capacity panel van with a single row of seats and a fixed bulkhead. And while it is possible to kit out a modern Transit with most of the luxuries and features available on passenger cars, this one was relatively sparse, so it should give us a good idea of what all those people are really getting.
DESIGN AND ENGINEERING
The Ford Transit started as a single model back in the 1960s, but over the course of many decades it has developed into a full product line-up. You could even argue it’s a fully fledged sub-brand. Right now, there are four Transit lines, each with their Tourneo twins. Where the Transit is always the working vehicle, the Tourneo is the more luxurious passenger version.
The Courier is the smallest, using the Ford Puma’s platform. The Connect is one size up, being based on the Volkswagen Caddy. Then there’s what we have here: the Custom. Often referred to as a medium or one-tonne (referring to the approximate payload capacity) van, it’s the most popular category because it’s large enough for most businesses, while remaining wieldy enough in cities and down tight country lanes. Standard-height versions are also under two metres, which means they can fit below the barriers of most car parks.
This is only the second generation of the Transit Custom. The first was launched in 2012 to more clearly differentiate the medium-van version from the full-size Transit (which has no suffix in its name).
