The two trendiest fads in today’s car world are Sport badges and black paint. Don’t believe me? Let me tell you about this erstwhile builder’s van which is entering its Emo period…
Before any youngsters come for me, I need to rapidly point out that my older brother was a fully grown Goth in our later teenage years, so I’m fairly experienced and hence, supremely qualified to talk about Emos. I like Goths, and I like their music, plus they’re more harmless than they look. So please don’t cancel me.
The next thing that this van shares with fans of Depeche Mode and The Cure is that respectable members of society immediately gather into a whispering huddle. As its primary caretaker, I would witness time and again how a group of ordinary citizens would point fingers and eventually ask me what this was all about?
The short answer, which should resonate with Goth parents, is that it’s probably just a phase and that there’s a charming core underneath all that black mascara. The sinister paint and those fugly wheels were the visually worst bits (to most observers) because the rest of the Sport-specific additions are most welcome.
Over and above the standard Transit box van, you also get some body-coloured bumpers and mirror caps, loads of racing stripes, LED light clusters, snazzy seat material, 13″ touchscreen infotainment system, digital gauge cluster, five drive modes, oh, and they turned the turbocharger up a bit.
In the base model, Ford’s 2L single turbo-diesel four-pot churns out 100kW or 360Nm, while this unit offers 125kW or 390Nm. You also get eight self-shifting gears, as opposed to the base Transit’s six DIY ratios. Our best 0-100 sprint time was 10.81 seconds while the top speed is… umm, irrelevant.
Ford alleges 180km/h.
Claimed average diesel use from the 55L tank is 8L/100km, 0.2 less than the regular version, plus there’s a small reduction in average CO2 output as well. The price is currently… R938,000 (or 177k more than the base version) which includes a 4-year / 120,000km warranty and an optional 6-year / 90,000km service plan.
By the way, a basic Transit van only comes in white, while Sport buyers have other hues to choose from. Silver, black, this Magnetic Grey, blue and red all appear to have a metallic finish, while white and light grey seem flatter in their finish. It’s also worth noting that the various decals / stickers are always dark grey and matte.
Umm, I guess I should finally deal with a collective head scratcher we all experienced: who exactly is this vehicle meant for? Has Ford honed in on a vast group of Gothic van drivers none of us knew about, or are they targeting companies who want to lift the levels of their logistics fleet’s street cred?
I’m not alleging that this product is pointless or terrible – far from it – it just seems so incredibly niche. The brochure talks of “dynamic flair” and “racy, eye-catching changes”, none of which I can argue with. Nor do I want to, because it might seem bizarre to plaster a painter’s van with sporty trinkets, but it certainly attracted a lot of attention.
During my half-week stint with this vehicle, I chaired many hands-on inspections of this Transit Custom Sport as there was a steady flow of interested parties, including my infatuated 7-year-old kid and some of her grade one homies. Given the choice between a ride in this van or a convertible Mercedes CLE, they unanimously voted for the van!
More grown-up observers with access to easy financing were equally enamored. Many business owners and trades-people prodded and poked around the basic rear van part, checking floor integrity and inspecting sliding door hinges, with one observer coming to an amusing conclusion: it’s like a reverse mullet.
Party at the front and business at the back.
I begged every single audience member for their best guess at who would buy this van and most of them ended down a similar vein. Small business or single operator who wants to make a statement (or portray an upmarket image) but still requires the no-nonsense simplicity of a three-door van body.
Of course we guess (and hope) that Ford might sell a few of these to large fleet operators and their lucky drivers, although it’s highly unlikely as they tend to shop on price… and a surcharge of almost R180,000 is a back-breaker in corporate circles. Unless it comes with convenient financing, and/or one of the Sport-specific inclusions are deemed non-negotiable.
Driving a half-tarted up van is fairly similar to piloting a regular box on wheels, although this one obviously has a fancy screen and nicer seats. Handling and braking are most acceptable in the commercial vehicle context, our test car seemed well built and fairly quiet, while the engine and gearbox were smooth and pretty punchy.
The turning radius is excellent, as it should be for something which tends to live in tight back roads and cramped service entrances. Rear visibility is obviously dodgy but Ford includes park peepers and a backup camera in the standard Driver Assistance Packs #2 and #5. They even threw in active lane, crash and cruise assistants.
Right, in an effort to start summing up, we all enjoyed our time with this 2025 Ford Transit Custom Sport way more than we thought possible. Not because of the way it drives (which is quite pleasant) but for the crowds of confused onlookers it would pull. And if you have a definitive answer as to who this A-Team van is best suited to, please let me know!
