Ford Transit 2011 Van Review: Smugness Is Transit Shaped

FWD makes a major difference in winter driving.

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The new long-term Ford Transit has been on the receiving of many an envious glance this winter and for good reason.  John Fife describes why.

The air of peace, calm and goodwill to all men, and even other motorists, emanating from the Editorial office these days has little to do with the time of year and more to do with the fact that all is well in the Transport Dept. The latest long term press appraisal Ford Transit is now in use and has already aroused envy amongst the neighbours!

Winter has arrived in the north. Morning birdsong has been replaced by the more usual sounds of Wintry mornings  – scrape, scrape scrape, puff, puff, puff, as plastic is dragged across frozen windscreens and frozen fingers are warmed by puffing into cupped hands.

Fortunately, I can rise above all this. The new editorial Transit is just over two months old and the neighbours are casting envious eyeballs in its direction. In the lane behind the houses where the vans are parked overnight, the butcher, the builder and the local pop group all park their Transits but none of them have Ford’s ‘Quickclear’ windscreen.

Smugness can be measured in different ways. Getting the last hot sausage roll in Greggs when there is a long and hungry queue of fellow-workers building up behind, or reversing a van safely, and just using mirrors, into a tight parking spot first time watched by motorists who couldn’t park a Panda in a paddock. For my part, smugness is much more easily gauged. Not for me, the finger numbing practice of scraping windscreens. I simply climb aboard the Transit, fire it up and switch on the electric windscreen. As the windscreen slowly clears I can sit there and watch my mates with their scrapers slowly appearing through the frost-less glass.

And there’s more. The Transit has a heated driver’s seat. Even the guy with the BMW is envious.

Because the lane is a dead end, it never sees gritters.  During heavy snowfalls in the past two winters, the vans were parked on nearby side streets instead. This time last year, we were knee deep in snow and I got seriously stuck on three occasions. That was partly due to the fact that last year’s van was rear wheel drive and had motorway/high mileage optimised Hankook tyres fitted. By the time I had thought about fitting cold weather tyres, they had all been sold.

It was the same with the rest of the Transit owners in my street. By the time they thought of it too, there were no LCV winter tyres left anywhere. Despite that, no-one has yet invested in a set of cold weather tyres for this year and given the fact that we haven’t had a serious fall of snow as yet, at least in the central belt, they are all feeling pretty smug. I think they are all waiting till current tyres need to be replaced before making a decision. The trouble is, if they make that decision mid-summer, will they go for price or for grip?

So far, I haven’t been stuck this Winter. The new Transit is front wheel drive and is fitted with Goodyear Cargo G26 tyres and from past experience these are just about the best van tyres on the market for all-round grip and durability. And yet, I am seriously considering fitting a set of more appropriate tyres just to check out the difference. I have a couple of long trips planned next month and in February and given that we have had a mild start to winter, we’ll no doubt pay for it in the New Year.

However, the choice is ‘Winter Tyres’ or ‘Cold Weather Tyres’, and there is a difference. Proper Winter tyres have more of a mud and snow type chunky tread, or if you live in Scandinavia, think studs! But there’s little need for that over here, although according to all the tyre manufacturers, cold weather tyres would provide a bonus for Brits. In fact, in some parts of Europe, it is mandatory to fit cold weather tyres when the temperature falls below a certain level or when the first day of October comes around, which ever happens sooner.

At first glance, there is little outward difference between ‘standard’ tyres and tyres designed to operate better in colder conditions. That’s mainly because it’s the rubber mix from which casing and tread is manufactured that is different, and designed to offer more grip at lower temperatures when roads are icy or the snow is hard packed. In other words, the rubber is a bit softer, doesn’t go hard below freezing and has a more open tread pattern without going the whole hog and fitting forest rally tyres!

Some people may question the cost of having to invest in two sets of tyres in this country, plus the cost of changing them back and forth when the weather changes. But it only takes one missed delivery, or a slide into a ditch to make the whole idea more appealing.

Having said that, during the most recent icy and snowy spell I had no qualms about driving on the G26s, but then again, FWD makes a big difference in such conditions compared to RWD.

This article was supplied courtesy of i-Van. →