Hi Folks.
As of five weeks ago the long serving Mk7 red Jumbo has been placed into semi retirement,(she has over 760,000 miles on the clock now,in 9.5 years) i still have her and use it pretty much everyday around town but a Mk8 is my new regular drive.
It's one that was ordered back in late 2015 but two weeks before we were due to put it on the road the work that we had for it finished! So after a chat to the Ford dealer the order was placed on hold and they decided to put it on their demonstration fleet,six months on replacement work is going very,very well so a trip down to the Ford Transit dealer was called for to see what they had for sale or to place an order for another new van only to be told that the same Transit was due to come off the demo fleet so we snapped it up.When we got it five weeks ago it had just over 5,900 miles on the clock,it's now at 15,700!
The only slight problem with it so far was a couple of weeks ago when for some unknown reason out of the blue the adaptive cruise control and collision warning system stopped working,i tried turning it off and on several times but no luck,then i stopped near home for a bite to eat in a pub,went back out to it and bingo all warning light off and working again.
This Transit is quite a bit higher geared than the Mk7,which is great on the motorways but on the A and B roads it's not so great,i find i'm hanging onto the gears longer and changing down a lot more and sooner than i ever did in the Mk7 and the seat is no where near as comfortable as the one in the old Mk7,even after the use the old seat has had. Personally i think Ford have got a load of seats cheap from the German darkside and they've decided to stick them in the Transit,which is a shame because this is the first Transit i have ever got out of feeling tired and aching.
On the plus side,with the body being bigger it's easier for the work that we are mainly doing at the moment which is automotive car parts and panels,some of the crates and boxes that the panels come in would only just fit in the old Mk7 but it's a breeze with the Mk8,
It is somewhat ironic that i deliver parts for one of the German van manufacturers using a Ford Transit,a few times some of the staff have asked about it,what it's like etc and one asked why i did'nt go for one of their vans? So i told him that their vans had a very dated body and that the engines in the Transit were built in the UK.
Over the weeks and months i'll give you updates on mileages and reliability etc,warts and all so those who may be looking to move onto a Mk8 Transit will have some idea about how reliable they are.
Best wishes-Regards Dom.