Ford poshes up the new Transit Custom to create a quasi-luxurious nine-seat Tourneo model. It's more sophisticated than before, but it's going to be expensive to buy. The Tourneo maxes out on space and multi-seat practicality, but really hammers home an advantage by being exceptionally good to drive, too.
In the metal
When did vans get so good looking? The new Ford Tourneo Custom looks, for all the world, like someone converted a late-model Mondeo into a van. From the slim Matrix LED headlights to the large, but not oversized, grille this is a seriously handsome machine, one that's not turned unlovely by its slabby van sides.
It's good inside too, although the rough-and-ready textures of some of the plastics might make those otherwise prepared to pay its likely hefty price tag baulk more than a little. The main touch points - the neat, 'squircle' steering wheel and the gearshift stalk behind that wheel, feel good though. Equally good are the eight-inch digital instrument display (neatly and simply laid out with smart-looking graphics) and the big 13-inch central touchscreen. This uses Ford's really excellent SYNC4 software (it's probably the best in-car OS around at the moment) and looks suitably expensive.
If the rest of the cabin is all made of up of cheap panel-van plastic - and it is - then at least it's pleasantly textured and hugely practical. The passenger side front airbag has been moved to the roof, leaving space for a big 30-litre storage box on top of the dash. That's backed up by more storage space behind the conjoined dashboard screens, massive door bins, a decent glovebox, cupholders at the extremities of the dash and massive under-seat stowage if you lift up the cushions of the twinned front passenger seats.
This, sadly, means those front passenger seats are not adjustable, so they're not the comfiest, but the driver does get a good seat, which is electrically adjustable in the high-spec Titanium model. The only downside is that the seatbelt doesn't adjust for height, and it sat too high and close to my neck.
Outward visibility is fantastic, thanks to the massive, upright windscreen and that's aided by the optional glass roof, which lets in lots of light, especially for those in the back.
Speaking of them, there are six seats in the rear, all of which slide on rails. Two seats in each row are conjoined, while the third is an individual chair. You can have them in a traditional two-row MPV-style layout, or you can swivel the front row through 180 degrees to give you 'conference' style seating if you feel like pretending you're in an episode of The Apprentice. Seat comfort in the rear is good, and legroom is excellent, depending on how you have the layout set up.
With all seats in use, the Tourneo Custom retains an almost unbelievably massive boot - more than 1,300 litres of stowage are on offer behind a fully-seated rear cabin. If you remove all the back seats, that expands to an even more whopping 5,400 litres. Well, it is a van after all. Rear-seat passengers - as with those in the front - are well supplied with USB-A and USB-C sockets, and there are cupholders in the back too.
There are also some very neat touches available, our favourite of which is the new flip-up steering wheel - this, at the push of a button, rotates upward to the horizontal position, and there's a plastic clip-in panel that allows you to turn it into a proper table; perfect for plonking a laptop on if you need to work while on the road, or for a McDonald's drive-through scoff. There's also an optional bin for the door pocket, which is ideal for hiding the evidence of a McDonald's drive-through scoff.
This Tourneo will be offered in diesel form, with six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic gearboxes, in front-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive forms. There will also be a plug-in hybrid, with a potential 56km electric range or, from next summer, a fully-electric version with a 64kWh battery and a range of more than 300km (although the more passengers you add, the lower your range will get...).
Driving it
Ford has given this Tourneo Custom (and the whole Transit Custom range) a completely new platform, one that will be shared with Volkswagen for the next Transporter. Both vans will be built at Ford's Otosan factory in Turkey.
The new platform means that Ford can save a little weight (around 100kg) and add a lot of stiffness (up by 30 per cent) as well as fitting a sophisticated new semi-trailing-arm independent rear suspension.
It's this combo of sophisticated suspension and the stiffness increase that makes the Tourneo Custom feel truly slick in the first few yards after you climb aboard. That climbing aboard has been made slightly easier as Ford has worked on the door aperture, and kept the Tourneo's height under two metres (which is helpful if you're trying to navigate multi-storey car parks).
That squared-off steering wheel ends up feeling entirely natural in your hands, and it feels expensive too, clearly a touch-point on which Ford has spent both time and money. The steering it controls feels equally good and expensive, with more than a little of the frictionless precision that we've come to expect from the best of Ford's passenger car range. In fact, I'd say this Tourneo actually has sweeter steering than the all-electric Mustang Mach-E.
The ride quality - helped by that new rear suspension - seems equally good and again, in a very traditional Ford manner, is firm but with an underlying sense of precision and deportment. To be fair, the roads we drove on our Munich-based test drive would cause an artisan mirror-maker to weep with anguish at his inability to create such a smooth, uniform surface, so it will take some time on higgledy-piggledy Irish roads to get a proper reading on the Tourneo's ride quality, but for now it feels impressive.
The 2.0-litre 170hp diesel is quiet, even at a cold idle, and pulls well thanks to 390Nm of torque that kicks in at 1,500rpm. It does start to feel a touch breathless on the motorway, though. That said, the Tourneo Custom cruises with impressive stability at Autobahn speeds, far in excess of any Irish motorway speed limit.
While the diesel engine is refined, there is a noticeable up-tick in tyre roar once you're on the motorway, which is exacerbated no doubt by our test car's big glass roof reflecting noise back down into the cabin. It's not a deal-breaker or anything, but maybe don't go for that option if you're going to spend your life in the outside lane.
What you get for your money
Ford Ireland has not yet published prices for the new Tourneo Custom (although we do know that the Transit Custom van range will start from €39,900). The Tourneo is going to be pitched as an expensive, premium product though, so expect a price tag that starts with a seven, at least. Standard equipment on our Titanium test car included the digital screens (standard on all models, even the vans), a built-in 5G modem, heated front seats, privacy glass, keyless entry and start, and auto high-beam headlights.
Standard safety equipment includes pre-collision assist, lane-keeping steering, traffic sign recognition, intelligent speed assist, front and rear parking aids, and a rear-view camera. On the options list will be adaptive cruise control, reverse braking assist, rear cross traffic alert, 360-degree camera and door exit warning.
Summary
While we await the cold-water shock of the price tag, the new Ford Tourneo Custom seems like a rather good way to haul around nine people and whatever they need to bring with them. It's deeply impressive to drive, and looks very smart on the outside. The cabin's a bit cheap in places for the likely price, but overall this is impressive stuff. A posh Transit it might be, but why would that be a bad thing?
