Ford Tourneo Connect
By Ian Strachan.
When you drive a car that started life as a van, you probably wouldn’t expect much in the way of creature comforts. But in the case of the Ford Connect Tourneo, you’d be wrong.
Tracing its origins back to the VW Caddy, the Connect Tourneo comes with a range of features you’d expect to find on an upmarket saloon. You get an good VW-derived 10-inch touchscreen infotainment system with six-speaker DAB radio, voice and gesture control and multi-function display with satnav, front and rear parking sensors, a multi-function steering wheel, lane-keeping aid and smart silver 17 inch alloys. Not the sort of things you’d expect in a vehicle that began life as a commercial vehicle.
But that’s the Connect Tourneo’s strength. It combines the specification advantages of a big estate with the interior versatility of a people carrier and the practicality of a van.
And that’s before we start talking about the seven seats in the Grand Tourneo which I tested, with its extra length, the heated seats, the adaptive front fog lights, the forward collision warnings and the driver impairment monitor.
Despite being based on a van. this tall, roomy and supremely practical car still looks good. It has a solid appearance, with a purposeful stance on the road. You can see its antecedents in the boxy shape and rear sliding doors, but inside you get premium features and a good degree of comfort as well as impressive load-lugging capacity.
Inside, because of its height, the Connect Tourneo feels big, and it is. Even with the rear seats up you still have an impressive amount of space. This car will eat up the weekly trip to the tip, with bags of space to spare. There’s also storage drawers under the front seats.
You get a nice airy cabin – a bit like driving a small greenhouse -and great all round visibility. The large tailgate opens to reveal a low loading height to save your back muscles.
Driving position is good – quite high if you raise the driver’s seat – and instruments are large, simple and clear, with much of the car’s function controlled from the touchscreen.
Despite its height this car still handles well. Cornering is crisp and positive and the ride is soft without being too wallowy.
I drove the petrol powered Tourneo Connect with a 1.5 litre Ecoboost engine pumping out 114 horsepower. It’s not the most refined engine in the world, but neither is it the most sluggish. Inside the car it feels smooth, with good flexibility and power whenever you need it, linked to a six-speed manual gearbox. Fuel consumption is fairly frugal – 42.8 miles to the gallon in mixed driving.
Standard equipment on the Connect Grand Tourneo Active which I tested includes air conditioning, DAB radio with Apple CarPlay, USB port and app connection, remote central locking, automatic stop/start, electrically adjustable door mirrors, cruise control with speed limiter, sliding rear doors (good in tight car parks), electric windows and traction control.
The Tourneo Connect gives you a lot of vehicle for your cash – which is £31,195 on the road for this specification. My test car came with some extras including metallic paint at £684, detachable trailer coupling at £480 and a pack combining LED headlights with automatic high beam, rear view camera and dual zone temperature control at £912.
