HAS Mystic Meg got a brother or sister working at Ford?
I only ask because Ford always know what we want before we do?
They’ve either got a crystal ball or they’ve pre-wired our brains.
Take the new Transit family you see here today. You want one don’t you? Or at the very least you think the big F O R D lettering on the front grille looks class.
To test my theory, I sent a picture of the red Transit Custom to mates who earn a living with their hands. Here are the replies:
Plumber Alex: “A-Team”.
Painter Rich: “Brilliant”.
Sparky Dan: “People will go mad for them pal.”
Desirable
But don’t think Ford has just copied the Raptor pick-up to give Transit some T-shirt muscles. There’s a lot more to it than that. The Transit Custom Trail has a mechanical limited-slip differential as standard to improve grip on snotty surfaces.
And if I said it was the same Quaife diff used in the Focus RS and Fiesta ST you’d be impressed, right? Good.
Because it is. The big daddy two-ton Transit Trail (the blue van) has the option of intelligent all-wheel drive with a lock mode to split torque 50:50.
So it’s got the minerals to keep itself out of trouble on a building site. Prices from £29k for the Custom Trail and £35k for the Transit Trail.
Now we come to the second new trim line called Active, which is only available on the Transit Custom and eight-seat Tourneo Custom for now.
As the name suggests, Active is for adventurers and Mamils (middle-aged men in Lycra) and everyone else who spends their weekends outdoors doing goodness knows what.
You get SUV-inspired looks (plastic cladding, roof rails) and the seat mounting points on the Tourneo Custom can be used for in-vehicle bike racks. Clever.
Add hybrid diesel engines delivering 40mpg and all of the above just makes Britain’s No1 van even more versatile and even more desirable.
Key facts: FORD TRANSIT CUSTOM PLUG-IN HYBRID
Price: £32,215
Engine: 1-litre petrol with 93kW electric motor
Power: 126hp
Range: 310 miles
Economy: 91mpg
CO2: 60g/km
Ford boss Andy Barratt said: “Vans have become crossover — not like an SUV — but between business and leisure. People use their work vehicle at the weekend to have fun.
“Transit drives like a car, feels like a car and it continues to grow and add more style.”
I was just about to say that myself.
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