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The Blue Oval's sportiest van returns to spice up a segment not accustomed to loutish conduct.
Sport has returned as the new generation Transit Custom's flagship variant. Images: Charl Bosch
Long known as the United Kingdom’s best-selling new vehicle, with sales still into four figures right up until production ended two years ago, the Ford Puma officially replaced the Fiesta as the island’s nation top-seller with sales last year of 48 340 units.
As with South Africa, the figures by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Limited (SMMT) – the equivalent of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) – separates passenger vehicle sales from commercial vehicles.
Taking the latter into consideration sees the Puma drop a notch to second behind the Ford Transit range, whose offset throughout 2024 amounted to 78 289 units.
Of these, 46 967 were examples of the Transit Custom and the remaining 31 322 of the full-size, one-ton Transit.
ALSO READ: Ford Transit Custom Sport a pimped out panel van with attitude
Outranking the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and Vauxhall (Opel) Vivaro by respective totals of 50 075 and 59 708, the Turkish-made Transit’s reputation in the UK needs little explaining given the country’s well-known liking for vans above bakkies.
Unsurprisingly, the opposite applies to South Africa where 25 533 Rangers departed dealership floors last year compared to 257 Transit Customs and 288 full-size Transits.
While both have since undergone changes in the form of a line-up shuffle for the latter and a new generation for the former, the arrival of the Transit Custom Sport last year arguably reignited interest not seen since the arrival of the Ranger Raptor.
The closest Dearborn will most likely come to offering an ST-type model locally, the Sport completes the cargo hauling Transit Custom range following the premiere of the unbadged long wheelbase variant five months before.
Modelled on the short wheelbase Custom, the second generation Sport is, however, a radical departure from its workhorse sibling as apart from its loutish exterior, Ford has reworked its specification sheet and extracted more grunt from the single turbo 2.0-litre Panther diesel engine.
Likely to be seen as more of a leisure than work van, the weeklong stay with the Sport proved not only a surprise, but as with the regular Transit Custom, another reason why vans can be viewed as alternatives to bakkie equivalents.
On first glance, it doesn’t take long to fathom why the Sport shuns its sibling’s work gear for a ST-inspired look that had observers calling it a “Transit ST”.
Decked-out in a model specific blue metallic hue – one of seven colours available – the Sport’s racier looks come via matte black multi-spoke 17-inch alloy wheels, sportier bumpers and door sills, a roof spoiler, colour coded bumpers and door handles, and standard LED headlights – the latter trio not offered on the long wheelbase.
Still with the dual barn-style doors capable of opening up to 180-degrees, the Sport also gets dual black racing stripes with a blue outer surround regardless of the body colour, a matte black grille with a honeycomb pattern that extends to the lower air intake, and black-and-blue decals at the base of the front doors and on the outer edges of the front bumper.
For its final encore, the Sport comes standard with a pair of electrically sliding side doors operated from the key fob or by pulling the inner or outer door handles.
Aesthetic additions that can be seen as over-the-top and defeating the purpose of what a van should be, the Sport’s appeal remains and given the popularity of “appearance packages”, could prove the deal breaker over less sporty looking rivals from Opel, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz.
The same applies to the interior where Ford has added blue striping to the cloth seats, and finished the centre console in an un-van-like shade of less than adequate piano-key black.
A finish that extends down from the 13-inch infotainment system, the choice is not ideal for a van and, as with the finicky touch-sensitive buttons for the climate control integrated into the base of the display, unnecessarily complicated for a vehicle still designed to work.
In this regard, the short wheelbase bodystyle comes with a 400 mm reduction in overall length from the long wheelbase’s 5 050 mm to 4 650 mm, and a payload drop of 246 kg to 1 023 kg.
Accordingly, the loading area still has an overall volume of 5.8 m3, no less than six tie-down hooks integrated into the floor, a series of overhead LED lights and the ability to accommodate three Euro palettes behind the steel bulkhead.
As with the long wheelbase, the Transit Custom Sport has a rated towing capacity of 2 500 kg for a braked trailer.
Climbing aboard, which can prove tricky given the positioning of the grab handle, the interior appears unsurprisingly spacious, with fit-and-finish being upmarket despite the aforementioned black inserts.
That being said, the electrically adjustable seatback for the driver’s chair will still be too upright when reclined against the steel partition.
Fortunately, the steering column adjusts for rake and reach, thus offsetting a driving position, unsurprisingly, somewhat reminiscent of a forward control truck.
A still impressive place to be, the cabin lacks for little storage-wise with the inclusion of a pair of gloveboxes – the dash unit with a deep recess capable of housing a laptop – a three-tier door card compartment arrangement, a pair of clipboard-style dash slots and a covered pair of cupholders on the centre console.
If still not enough, two further cupholders feature on the outer edges of the dash, with the final storage solution being a deep slot at the base of the centre console that doubles up as the wireless smartphone charging pad.
As explained with the Tourneo tested last year, the move from base to Sport has seen the Transit Custom take leave of the slick and precise six-speed manual gearbox for a model specific eight-speed automatic selected by the lever on the steering column.
While understandable given the focus on space utilisation, the lack of paddle shifters will result in an awkward shifting process requiring the M button to be pushed and the stalk twisted instead of moving the lever itself.
Admittedly, this won’t hamper most buyers unlike the biggest irritation attributed to the infotainment system.
Similar in appearance to the setup used in the Ranger and Everest, the SYNC 4A-enabled design with voice activation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto requires some familiarisation, as will the switch for the electronic handbrake that sits between the air vents.
Although tedious, it didn’t irritate as much as the projection off the window integrated into the partition, especially at night.
What’s more, the start/stop system requires going into the infotainment system and being switched off manually each time the ignition is turned on.
Less of a pain are the buttons on the steering wheel, the configurable 12-inch digital instrument cluster that actually measures eight-inches, and the retention of physical dials for the decently sounding sound system.
As for specification, the Sport’s features, aside from those mentioned, include heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, front and rear parking sensors, a 180-degree reverse camera, Adaptive Cruise Control, a tyre pressure monitor, Blind Spot Monitoring, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Lane Keep Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition, Driver Attention Alert and Pre-Collision Assist.
Equipped with a drive mode selector housing five modes: Slippery, Eco, Normal, Tow/Haul and Sport, the Transit Custom Sport’s focal piece is the extraction of an additional 25kW/30Nm from the mentioned turbodiesel engine.
Outputting 125kW/390Nm, progress initially falls flat as a result of the low down lag, but becomes smooth and with substantially more go than in the, admittedly, less powerful long wheelbase variant.
Hooked to the automatic ‘box, the Sport feels effortless and although largely slick, the ‘box lacks engagement as experienced on the lesser panel van grade, and tended to become flustered when shifting down – reason again for the inclusion of paddle shifters.
On the move, and despite its lower profile rubber than that of its sibling, the Sport keeps intact its car-like ride, though noticeably firmer on less well maintained surfaces and a tad bouncier with no load present.
While a decent cargo haul will rectify the bouncy ride, the offset will be increased fuel consumption. During the weeklong stay and eventual 341 km, the Transit Custom Sport registered a more than commendable 8.8 L/100 km versus the 9.5 L/100 km recorded by the less powerful Tourneo.
As much as “sporty” and “van” are seldom if ever used in the same write-up, Ford’s execution with the Transit Sport has largely been a success and worth serious consideration should a comparative Ranger prove inadequate.
At R938 000, the Sport is on the pricey side and for many buyers, unlikely to be worth the R177 000 premium over the less powerful and less well stocked, but slightly more practical long wheelbase.
Given, however, its segment uniqueness and popularity of the previous generation Sport, the added expenditure comes with a lot of substance worth every penny.
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