A long-established best-seller is much improved
Ford Nugget
BASED on the Transit and developed by Westfalia, the Nugget is Ford’s own campervan and it has been a popular model since its launch in 1985. However, it only arrived here as an official Ford model, sold through Transit Centres, in 2020. Now, following the debut of the all-new Transit Custom, there’s a new Nugget camper and we were very excited to see not just the orange left-hand drive example debuting at Caravan Salon Düsseldorf, but a RHD model too!
The new Nugget is instantly familiar, but also refreshingly feels very new. It retains the multi-zone layout, which is such a contrast to the many side kitchen models with which it competes, and, in right-hand drive form, there’s the convenience of twin sliding doors.
Of course, the new camper is here because there’s an all-new Transit Custom, replacing the van that’s been such a success (at times Britain’s best-selling vehicle, outstripping any passenger car) since 2012. But the new Nugget isn’t just built on the panel van; instead, it uses the plusher Tourneo Custom people-carrier as its basis. To start with, it’s only the Titanium spec that will be available, complete with a 2-litre 170PS EcoBlue diesel engine and new eight-speed automatic transmission. The last of the previous-generation Nuggets were priced from £74,787, so the new one is sure to be close to £80k.
For that you now get a vehicle that makes the old Transit Custom look dated. The bold grille of the new model gives the newcomer an instantly recognisable face, while the Nugget is now just over 5m in length and it’s still over 2m in height. It keeps the front-hinged pop-top but now with a new roof canvas that folds more easily without having to be tucked in manually. A 350W solar panel can now be specified on the top.
In the cab, it’s a transformation. You can hardly believe that you’re in what’s basically still a van from the blue oval. The instrument panel is now fully digital and the touchscreen seems huge, at 13in. Just as importantly, perhaps, the parking brake is now a switch, so there’s nothing to hinder swivelling the seats or walking through to the rear. That squared off steering wheel might take some getting used to, though!
There’s no suggestion of a fully electric drivetrain for the Nugget yet (the new Transit Custom van will come as an EV with a range up to 236 miles), but the plug-in hybrid version that’s promised is sure to be popular with city dwellers. Assuming that it
