Ford Transit review

The full-size Transit interior is full of extremely well-thought-out touches, some of which may be inadvertent, but we doubt it.

The cupholders couldn’t be a better match for a takeaway petrol station Costa. A large McDonald’s fries box slides neatly into a tray in front of the middle passenger seat (you could probably get two in side-by-side, in fact)*. A tall flask or water bottle will sit neatly in each door bin. People who actually use these things to ply their trade have tangibly been consulted, because anything you need to sustain your endeavours has a perfectly judged place in which to safely and neatly store it.

Using a Transit for the first time is a constant surprise-and-delight experience as the genius of its ergonomics further reveals itself. Quite the opposite of some of those aforementioned crossovers, which frustrate with further exposure as you find new and infuriating examples of design getting in the way of engineering. The Transit clears our foggy heads of that nonsense like an Alka Seltzer soothes a New Year’s Day hangover.

And the basics have been absolutely nailed: in our very base-spec Transit, the seats initially looked flat and uninviting, but 400 miles in a day didn’t yield a single ache or pain. Forward visibility is substantial and goes some way to make up for a lack of parking sensors if you’ve attempted to save some cash (you can spec them, as well as an active parking system).

Most pivotal of all will be the space behind you, though, else you’d not be buying a van. How big this is will depend on which boxes you’ve been ticking – of course – but needless to say Ford, in its sixth decade of making the Transit, is pretty good at minimising intrusions and keeping the space as boxy as possible.

Move to your new flat in a long-wheelbase, high-roof Tranny there’s every chance you’ll feel a bit less pleased with the size of your new abode when you get there, as your furniture fits more snugly in there than it did in the van that delivered it. Heck, even the smallest Transits have space for two Euro pallets, and the mid-range Custom comes in two different wheelbases to offer loadspaces between 4.3 and 6.4 cubic metres, with a maximum gross payload of 1,327kg.

Among the convoluted configurations available are double cab and Kombi options for various sizes of Transit with extra seating. The main difference between being the double cab has a metal partition after the rear seats and the Kombi doesn't.

Don’t think that Transits haven’t moved with the times either. The little Courier gets digital dials and an 8.0-inch touchscreen as standard, while the Custom now comes complete with a massive 13.0-inch touchscreen in the middle of its dash. We would prefer if both of those still came with separate climate control panels though so that warming the cabin up didn’t require a delve into the menus. Preferably not in the style of the Connect, which gets all VW cabin tech including 10-inch central display complete with infuriating touch sensitive buttons and sliders beneath. Sigh.

*Other regretful hot drink and meal choices are available