A Ford for all the people

The problem with people carriers is if you fill them with people there’s barely any room for luggage.

So what do you do if you need to transport eight or nine people and they all want to bring a bag with them?

You take a look at the Ford Tourneo Custom. As you might guess from its shape it’s based on the Transit van.

As standard it comes with eight seats but you can specify it with nine. With all the seats in place there’s a huge 1,180 litre luggage space behind the rear seats. If you need even more room than that you can go for a long wheelbase version which offers a gargantuan 1,930 litres.

The rear seats can be lowered or removed entirely, essentially turning the Tourneo back into a Transit van.

Ford lets you customise the interior layout quite a bit. My version came with eight seats – two in the front and two rows of three in the back.

Cleverly, the middle row faces backwards, leaving a large amount of floor space between the rows of seats.

This means if you only have two or three rear passengers they can stretch out and enjoy limousine-like levels of legroom.

You can also specify four rows of two seats or three rows of two seats.

Sliding doors make access to the rear easy and come into their own in tight parking spaces. As well as the big boot there are also numerous stowage bins and cubbyholes. You won’t run out of places to put stuff.

Power comes from a 2.0 litre diesel engine, which will return more than 40mpg with careful driving.

It’s well equipped, with air conditioning, a touchscreen infotainment system and a leather steering wheel.

Prices for the Tourneo Custom start at around £32,000 and my top spec Titanium model cost just over £40,000.

Although it feels a touch van-like (as it should, being a van) it’s easy to drive, with a fairly comfortable ride and little interior noise. You sit very high up, giving a great view of the road.

If you need the ultimate in peoplecarrying capability the Tourneo Custom is hard to turn down.

The Ford Tourneo Custom.