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45 years young and still a knock-out: Transit socks it to them
publication date: Aug 20, 2010
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author/source: Robin Roberts
On its 45th birthday, the Ford Transit is shrugging off any mid-life crisis and recreating itself with two new Leader models.
Named
to reflect the Transit dominance of the light and medium sized van
market in Britain since its launch in 1965, the new Leader models
undercut the previous entry level versions of Transit and smaller
Transit Connect by about £2,000. |  |
Transit Leader 260 swb with 85ps engine is now available
from £11,995 while the Transit Connect Leader 200 swb 75ps model is
£9,995. It means the cheapest Connect now comes in below the very
popular Fiesta van costing £11,150.
The price cut on this Leader duo
has been made possible by Ford’s 220-strong CV dealer network agreeing
to adopt the “Blue tag pricing” realignment successfully introduced
across the car range this year which has helped keep Ford sales
motoring.
Under this scheme, both the manufacturer and dealer agree to reduce their margins on selected models.
At
the same time as the Leader duo has been announced, a new 14-seat 3.5
tonne Transit Minibus is launched from £25,400 with a choice of three
2.4 litre powertrains from 100ps and it is weighted so it can be driven
on a category B car licence and joins the 9 and 12-seat Minibuses while
the 17-seat Transit Minibus has been approved with an additional 150kg
payload to maximum 4.25 tonnes.
| | | | From September, all Transit rear
wheel drive versions up to 200ps will get standard 6sp gearboxes and the
AWD layout is being extended to the one tonne platform on the 300S at
£24,900.The highly popular front wheel drive,140ps TDCi Duratorq 6sp
Transit SportVan gets Colorado Red paint with white stripes, 18-inch
graphite alloys, twin pipes and spoilers and the will have standard DAB
radio when it goes on sale in October for £22,630, but only 100 will be
built. From their launch in 2006, the five previous SportVan colour
editions have been sold out and the latest is expected to be highly
prized as well. |  | Ford CV director Steve Clarey said that the Transit’s
success over 45 years had made it an icon of the industry and even in
the first six months of this year it had sold 23,000 units and accounted
for a third of all sales in the 1 and 2 tonne segments of the market.
Turning
recent sales, Mr Clarey said dealers had reported a noticeable rise in
sales through the Flexilease programmes due to economic uncertainty, the
emergency Budget and forthcoming spending review but his personal
belief was that there would not be a double-dip recession and that sales
would lift next year.
“We are well placed to respond to whatever the
market can throw at us,” he said. “Transit has a 30pc market share and
outsells our next four competitors.”
Looking ahead, he would not be
drawn on when a completely new Transit would be launched but said that a
plug-in hybrid would be seen in 2011.
He added that the demand
driven sales in the commercial sector favoured diesel engines and unless
there were disincentives to diesels through fuel costs or legislation
he expected these to dominate the market for many years. | The final model coming to Transit’s 45th birthday
celebration is a new Tipper with additional payload, lower load bed,
body lock-down and intuitive control, and it has been re-engineered to
cut maintenance costs. It is available now from £26,726 (above).
It is the
first major reworking of the Transit Tipper since it was launched 12
years ago and it has undergone 35 changes, many in response to customer
comments and it is the only model of its type approved by the
independent TUV Rheinland Group of safety engineers. Increasing the
payload has been possible by reducing the body weight for the single and
double cab designs.
Transit models use diesel engines produced in
Dagenham and gearboxes from Halewood, and are built at Southampton which
has produced over 2.1 million. It assembles 125 Transits a day with
over half exported and future plans will see chassis manufacturing
continuing at Southampton along with R&D work in the UK. | | | | The Ford Transit attracted a lot of attention over the decades but one of the most iconic images is from the 1960s when an up and coming London boxer used it for his family's fruit and veg business.
Henry Cooper, the only boxer to knock down Cassius Clay, posed infront of his Transit pick-up close to his family's greengrocery business in Wembley.
Now Sir Henry Cooper, the gentle giant, was on hand to mark the Transit's 45th birthday this month and happily posed to recreate that iconic image.
A knockout performance by Sir Henry. |  |  | | | |  | | | | FIRST IMPRESSIONS
It’s 45 years young and undergone a make-over.
The
newest Transit Leader models are now more competitively priced, which
is good news for buyers but bad for competitors, and they combine
car-like comfort with carrying capacity to please any commercial
operator.
The baby of the family, the Transit Connect Leader swb, is a
75ps 1.8 diesel with five-speed box and twin rear doors which open to
reveal a 2.8 m2 interior and 634kg loadbed. Its equipment includes ESP,
hill launch assist, shift indicator light and powered windows for
£9,995.
It picks up well, drives smoothly and we achieved about 44mpg over a short test route with a modest payload inside. |  | | With 12 bags of sand in the back we also drove the
Transit Leader swb with a 85ps 2.2 diesel, a five-speed box, 901kg
payload and holds up to 6.55m2 accessed through twin back doors or
nearside-slider. |  | For ease of acceleration the first gear is low to
pull away but once on the move it purred along and was in its element on
twisting and switchback roads with a good clutch and gearchange as well
as a flexible engine. There was no opportunity to evaluate fuel
consumption but Ford state it is close to 35mpg.
Ride quality was
good in both models and visibility reasonable but I would have welcomed
an adjustable column in the Transit, contrasting with the rake facility
in the smaller Connect. ©Robin Roberts |
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