The Vauxhall Vivaro has made huge steps in the van market as the Transit has simply been unavailable. But Ford have concentrated on building what they believe will be the market leading van with improved performance, economy, reduced whole of life costs, increased load carrying ability, improved servicing facilities and technology that saw the light of day in their car division
My 10 most important points are:
1.Although Ford have switched production of the Transit from the UK, they have kept the design, all research and testing, gearbox and engine production in the UK. Only its main competitor, Vauxhall can compete with that
2.Ford have maintained a choice of Front Wheel Drive, Rear Wheel Drive and Four wheel Drive. The drivetrain options have over the years proved to be popular with customers
3.Scarily, the new Transit is available in 452 different varieties with choices of wheel base, length, height, engines and drive trains. Gross weights will vary from 3 tonnes to 4.8 tonnes
4.Average load capacity has increased by 11% and the new Medium van can carry a class leading four Euro pallets. As a lease van workhorse, the new Transit is really going to suit the parcel boys
5.All models will have choice of three front seats, the new Kombi vans will have choice of between five and nine seats, with a single and double cab available. Ford will have a class leader with the new 18 passenger seat plus driver minibus in addition to the small one at 12 passengers
6. Latest engines are even more efficient, with three choices, 100,125 and 155 bhp, the Duratorq unit is now a refined engine, with class leading economy figures
7.Ford have set the service intervals at two years or 30,000 miles and have worked hard with the dealers to come up with a maintenance schedule that reduces costs and time off the road
8.Last year, every Transit that didn’t have Bluetooth fitted as standard had it fitted by the customer. Taking this on board, Ford have fitted it as standard to every single new model Transit from new. Lane alert, ESP, ABS all come as standard and rear view cameras with park distance control will be available on most units from new. Traction control and new to van torque vectoring will be appearing next year
9.It is claimed to be the most tested van ever, with over 6.9 million miles covered in exhaustive testing. Bearing in mind that the outgoing Transit had much of the technology installed on the new model, reliability should be good
10.Finally, service and sales has been taken seriously. Supply to lease companies like Vanlease UK, will take place from a limited number of dealers, with specially trained sales teams and service technicians. These 110 dealers will offer 24 hour, 7 day a week maintenance, including overnight servicing that has proved popular with Mercedes-Benz
