New Cars: Elegant Ford Transit

The Ford Transit is a range of panel vans, minibuses, and pickup trucks, produced by the Ford Motor Company in Europe. The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for 40 years, and in some countries the term "Transit" has passed into common usage as a generic term applying to any light commercial van in the Transit's size bracket. Although the Transit name has been in use by Ford since 1953, the first definitive Transit platform was launched in 1965. Since then, six million Transits have been produced across three basic platforms (first debuting in 1965, 1986 and 2001, respectively), with several "facelift" versions of each. The six millionth van was built in March 2010. The next Transit, introduced in July 2000, was the third all-new design, and borrowed styling cues from Ford's "New Edge" designs like the Focus, and Ka. Developed by Ford in the United States, the main innovation is that it is available in either front or rear-wheel drive. Ford nomenclature makes this the V184 (rear wheel drive) or V185 (front wheel drive) model.

This model features the "Puma"-type Duratorq turbo diesel engine also used in the 2000 Mondeo and Jaguar X-Type, with the petrol versions moving up to the 2.3 L 16-Valve edition of the straight-4 engine. With this engine, the Transit can reach 60 mph (97 km/h) in 21 seconds and reach a top speed of 93 miles per hour (150 km/h), returning it to car-like performance as claimed for the earliest models. A demonstration of this model's speed was shown on Top Gear in 2005, where German race driver Sabine Schmitz attempted to drive it around the Nürburgring in under ten minutes, matching Jeremy Clarkson's time in a turbodiesel Jaguar S-type; she was unsuccessful, but only by a few seconds. This version won the International Van of the Year 2001. The Durashift EST automatic transmission (optional on all rear-wheel drive models) features controls mounted on the dashboard, a specially adapted manual mode, tow-haul mode, economy mode and winter mode.

Elegant Ford Transit

Two years later, Ford introduced the Transit Connect, a smaller panel van based on the C170 (Focus) platform and aimed at replacing the older Escort and Fiesta based models. It shares very little with the full-size Transit in terms of engineering, although is produced alongside the larger van in a new purpose built facility in Turkey. 2002 saw the introduction of the first High Pressure Common Rail diesel engine in the Transit, with the launch of the 125 PS (92 kW) HPCR 2.0 litre in the FWD. 2003 saw a new instrument cluster with a digital odometer. 2004 saw the launch of the first RWD HPCR, the 135 PS (99 kW) 2.4 litre variant that also introduced the 6-speed MT-82 RWD gearbox. The five millionth Transit rolled off the Southampton line on Monday, 18 July 2005 and was donated to an English charity.

The Ford Transit VJX6541DK-M is the Chinese version and it based on its predecessors of the fourth and fifth generation. This generation is only built in Nanchang by Jiangling Motors and is reserved for the Chinese domestic market. Remarkable are the much larger headlights and the larger grille. The model was launched to the market in 2006. Overall, the generation have 70 improvements to its predecessor. The interior has been changed and made more ergonomic. Power windows are standard, but ABS is optional. The Chinese Transit is available with two diesel engines and one petrol. One of them has a power of 67.6 kW (Type JX493ZQ3), the other 68 kW (JX493ZQ4). Both diesels have a capacity of 2771 cc. The Petrol version uses a Ford Barra engine 190 kW inline-6 motor. The European 2006 Ford Transit went into production in 2008. On the Chinese market it is known as the New Transit. It is offered parallel to the 2006 China generation. The two facilities are currently manufacturing 300,000 units annually. Ford and Jiangling want to open a third plant in late 2012 to increase the annual production to further 3,000 units. In January 2010, the Toyota recalls affected the products of the Ford Group because Ford used the same supplier (CTS Corporation). It was suspected that the accelerator pedals were defective and posed a danger. About 1600 Ford Transits of the 2006 China generation were affected by the recall. The European models of the VE6 and VE8 generation can be given an aftermarket facelift to the Chinese version. This needs the Chinese components and manual skills.

In August 2006, the Transit received a facelift to the body, including new front and rear lights, a new front end and a new interior featuring the gearstick on the dashboard and Ford's new corporate radio design. Besides the styling changes, the powertrains were revised. The old petrol engine was replaced with one from the Ford Ranger, the front wheel drive diesel went from 2.0 to 2.2 litres capacity, and all diesel engines gained high-pressure common rail (TDCi) systems. The powertrains were changed to meet new emissions legislation. The new version (Ford nomenclature V347 for front wheel drive and V348 for rear wheel drive) won International Van of the Year for 2007 despite tough competition from several all-new rivals. Mid 2006 saw the launch of the "Sport Van", a limited production Van featuring the 130 PS (96 kW) engine with additional styling parts, "Le Mans" stripes and 18 inch alloy wheels. Late 2007 saw the launch of the 140 PS (103 kW) engine for front wheel drives (replacing the 130 PS) complete with the VMT6 6-speed transaxle to cope with the extra power. The 6-speed transaxle was introduced on the mid-power FWD in late 2008 when the 110 PS (81 kW) engine was upped to 115 PS (85 kW). In late 2008, the "coated Diesel Particulate Filter" (cDPF)—designed to meet higher emission standards than the current Euro IV requirement—was introduced as an option on all diesel engines.

A handful of companies offered four-wheel-drive conversions, the most popular of which was provided by County Tractors of Knighton in Powys, who converted vans on behalf of Ford as a Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) factory option. The first Transit County models were based on the Mk2 Transit model, both long and short wheelbase. The conversion used a Dana 44F front axle and a NP208 transfer box, both lifted from the Ford Bronco, coupled to the regular Transit engine, gearbox and rear axle using three custom propshafts. The Transit rear axle was retained, mounted to a rear subframe or 'lift cradle' to give the extra ride height. Other modifications were 16 inch wheel rims, locking front hubs, a heavy-duty steering box and 305mm diameter front brake discs. With the introduction of the Mk3 Transit in 1986 came the next generation of the County 4x4. This would prove to be a very popular and successful version of the County Transit 4x4, and the last to use the Dana beam axle layout. Later County 4x4 models switched to using an independent front suspension setup which was inherently more complex in design than the earlier beam axle models. Later panel vans also lost the twin-wheel rear axle that had been fitted on earlier LWB versions. Mainly used by utility companies like National Grid, the Ministry Of Defence, and by mountain rescue teams, the Transit County 4x4 proved to be a capable vehicle both on and off road, with the ability to carry both crew and equipment just about anywhere. Design and supply of drivetrain components for County 4x4 models passed to Countytrac, a division of M.J. Allen Ltd, who are still involved in the development of the latest Mk7 AWD Transit and Connect models.