fun, but unreliable (Ford Transit)

Name: rbrian

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Product:	Ford Transit
Date:	07/06/02 (2622 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Spacious, Quiet

Disadvantages: Unreliable, Lacks grip

I drive a new, front wheel drive, short wheel base transit. The front wheel drive format increases space in the rear significantly, by lowering the floor approximately 100mm over rear wheel drive variants. The space in the back is, of course, enormous - it's a van, after all.
What surprised me most when I first drove it was how quiet it is, though this is improved by the bulkhead seperating the cab from the loadspace. On variants without the bulkhead, the noise reverberates around, but it's still not bad; you can talk comfortably at 70mph.

Another thing which is not usually associated with vans is driving pleasure, but the transit provides it, turning in quickly and accurately, via light, but informative, power assisted steering, and remaining easily adjustable throughout the corner, with plenty of chassis feedback. Progressive understeer is the norm, but the van can be provoked into lift-off oversteer.
Fun as this is, it translates to instability at speed, emergency lane-change manouvers are particularly hairy, and the van squirms under heavy braking. The brakes are, however, very good, pulling the vehicle up quickly, and with plenty of feel from the pedal - you're given plenty of advance warning of a skid.

The 2.5 litre turbodiesel engine is just about powerful enough, though more would of course be nice, but the front-drive chassis struggles to cope, especially with a heavy load. Front wheel drive frees up space in the back, but means there is little weight on the powered wheels when fully loaded, and combined with a feel-free clutch, causes frequent wheelspin in the wet.

Inside, the seats are comfortable, the dash is made from good quality plastic, the standard rds stereo cassette (with optional cd player) is pretty good, only sounding slightly tinny when the bass is turned up. There is useful storage in the dash and door pockets, though the glove box is surprisingly small.

The driving position is a bit
odd - when the seat is in the right place to reach the pedals, the unadjustable steering wheel is too far away - maybe I'm just an odd shape, but I got used to it.

The remote control central locking is excellent, much better than the two-handed deadlocks on the old transit.

However, the van is unreliable. Having covered just 8500 miles, I have called the RAC out 3 times. The first was just after I'd picked the van up. With just 12 miles on the clock, I noticed steam coming from the bonnet. I stopped immediately and found a coolant hose missing a jubilee clip, and leaking all over the engine block. The second time the engine lost power and then stopped. The RAC could not find a fault, but the next time it happened (100 miles later) this was eventually traced to the fuel filter drawing in air - apparently a common fault. I'm told clutches are not expected to last more than 10000 miles. And out of a fleet of 12 new transits at work, 4 have broken down, and all have been recalled once or twice, for the afore-mentioned fuel filter, and for the front suspension ball joints. Also, the battery for the remote "plipper" has run flat, after only 7 months.

In conclusion, when it's on the road, it's fun and practical, though not at it's best in the rain, but it spends too much time off the road.

Summary: