Ford Transit review

The 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 someway to make up for a lack of parking sensors if you’ve attempted to save some cash (you can spec them, though, 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 upon key handover, as your furniture fits more snugly in there than it did in the van that delivered it.

Among the convoluted configurations available are double cab and Kombi options. Both seat six rather than three, the main difference being the double cab has a metal partition after the rear seats and the Kombi doesn't.    

*Other regretful hot drink and meal choices are available