Ford Transit Courier review – Ford completes the set with new city van

What is it?

When the old Ford Courier city van bit the dust back in 2004 it left a small but significant hole in the manufacturer’s range. Buyers wanting a small van were limited to FiestaVan or the larger Transit Connect and at the time, bosses at Ford said they believed these two vehicles would adequately serve the requirements of its customers. Frankly none of us journos really believed that – and the situation was further exacerbated by the arrival of the Fiat Fiorino, Citroen Nemo and Peugeot Bipper triplets in 2008. Those very capable performers took the sector by storm, leaving Ford looking rather like a teenage girl with too few frocks for the party season.

It has taken quite a long time for Ford to address this problem but it’s finally been solved with the imminent arrival of the Ford Transit Courier. Wishing to milk the Transit name for every drop (and why not?) Ford has split the name into four. The heavy panel van is still called just Transit, while the medium panel van is now Transit Custom, the small van is Transit Connect and this city slicker adds the Courier moniker. So is it worthy of the Transit name? You bet! It looks great, it drives like a dream and it comes with all sorts of technological fangle-danglery that the rivals don’t have. Built at Kocaeli in Turkey, the Ford Transit Courier comes in a single wheelbase and roof height, either in panel van or five-seat kombi guise, and offers a payload of 660kg and a loadspace of between 2.3 and 2.6 cubic metres with the optional folding passenger seat and swivelling mesh bulkhead. Engines on offer are a 1.5-litre turbodiesel with 75bhp, 1.6-litre with 95bhp and a three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol engine with 100bhp. Meanwhile fuel economy figures range from 54.3mpg to 76.3mpg and prices go from £11,821 to £15,726.