Ford Transit 3.5 tonner review – it just gets better

Ford Transit Econetic LWB HR 125

What is it?

It’s been a long time since one of our test vehicles has caused such a buzz in my street. No sooner had the man from Ford dropped off our Transit long wheelbase hi-roof model than a couple of neighbours shuffled past and started peering in the windows. “Is this the new Transit?” one of them asked when I went out to say hello and I replied that indeed it was. “What’s it like?” he asked me and while I can’t repeat in public what the first of the two words of my reply were, the second was “marvellous!”. Once you’ve been testing vans for a few years, many of them seem to blur into a huge lump of forgotten metal and plastic. Not with this particular van though.

We went overboard about the new Transit at the recent launch in Frankfurt and now I have a right-hand drive version on my driveway for the first time, I’m about to go all gooey again. I managed to crank up about 2000 miles in this vehicle during my test fortnight and I loved every minute of it. I did ask if we could keep it a little longer but so many rival magazines and websites want a go in it that sadly the van had to go back to Ford HQ in Dunton. Bah! In case you didn’t know, Ford decided a couple of years back to replace its entire van range in 24 months and the big Transit is the second from last new model to go on sale. The smaller Transit Courier is the last piece of the jigsaw and we’ve just been back to Frankfurt to drive that van in left-hand drive format (read the review here). It will be going on sale in the UK from June. The Transit is offered in gross vehicle weights from 2.9 tonnes to 4.7 tonnes and comes in a staggering variety of guises. Our test model is the 3.5-tonne long wheelbase hi roof Econetic offering, which weighs in at £26,725. Engines are all 2.2-litre turbodiesels with 100bhp, 125bhp and 155bhp. Our test van featured the middle power output – and even with a full load on board and up some fairly steep hills we reckon that’s plenty for any sane user. The Eco model features stop-start as standard and some other fuel-saving gizmos which boost fuel economy from 35.3mpg on the standard version to 39.2 mpg. In the back the Transit carries 1462kg of cargo in a volume area of 12.4 cubic metres.