How does our Ford Transit Custom Sport handle the urban hustle?

TimesLIVE

29-05-2025

In an earlier update, I told you what the Ford Transit Custom Sport was like to live with on a long-distance road trip. In case you missed it, know this burly van put in a stellar effort with a comfy cabin, frugal engine and impressively composed ride for a vehicle with such utilitarian roots. Not too long ago tackling a 1,000km trek in a machine of this ilk would be borderline masochistic — in a 2025 Custom Sport this couldn't be further from the truth.
With the Garden Route now a fading memory in my rear-view mirror, it was time to explore the Ford's capabilities in the confines of the urban jungle. Negotiating Cape Town's gridlocked streets is gruelling enough behind the wheel of a hatchback, so I was somewhat apprehensive about spearing through the CBD in this 5,050mm long, 2,275mm wide behemoth. Adding to these sizeable dimensions is a roof height of 1,990mm.
It's a substantial piece of kit, the Custom Sport, one that makes already large vehicles such as the Ford Everest or Toyota Fortuner seem almost compact in comparison. This was the first time I found myself being concerned about roof clearance in parkades and underground garages — of which there are many to negotiate in the Mother City.
Fortunately the most vertically challenged I have happened upon had a limit of 2,100mm and after much teeth gritting and seat squirming (one never knows how accurate these measurements are), I steered the Ford through it without any expensive roof damage.
Oh, and just as a cautionary side note, always make sure the van's three foldable roof racks aren't flipped up as they add on a few extra centimetres and could end up hooking on things such as fire sprinklers or ventilation pipes. Taking all this into consideration you shouldn't have any issues steering through most automotive labyrinths.
Travelling the roads between them, the Custom Sport is proving to be a relatively easy thing to thread through traffic thanks to its super elevated seating position (you sit higher up than in most SUVs I've driven) and lightweight yet direct electric power steering.
Though the Ford's inherent peripheral blind spots take some getting used — that solid metal bulkhead makes glancing over your shoulders nigh on impossible — there's a fair amount of technology on board to make your life a bit easier. The side mirrors, for example, feature separate concave lenses designed to give a much broader view of the space behind you. Each unit is further equipped with a blind spot monitor that illuminates should any object — moving or otherwise — fail to catch your eye and/or attention.
The real lifesaver here, however, is the standard rear-view camera. A comparative nice to have in most modern vehicles, its presence is essential for any drama-free aft manoeuvring in the Custom Sport. It's full-colour, reasonably crisp and even packs dynamic guidelines to help you better plan your retreat. Its pièce de résistance is the ability, with a quick push of an on-screen button, to display a 180° view of the area behind you, which makes backing out of driveways or perpendicular parking spaces on congested inner-city arterials such as Bree Street an absolute game changer.
If things are about to go pear-shaped, Ford's reverse brake assist will automatically intervene and apply the anchors if it thinks you're about to hit some roadside furniture.
Another string in this van's urban adventuring bow is its excellent turning circle of 11.2m, which just so happens to be 1.6m tighter than that offered by a Ranger double cab. This gives it a surprising amount of low speed manoeuvrability and also makes it a doddle to park once you get accustomed to its lengthy dimensions. Provided you have enough space, I think you will, as I have, have no issue parallel parking this Ford on a city street.
Elsewhere, I'm still loving the Custom Sport's 2.0 l four-cylinder turbodiesel engine that's punchy and responsive enough to help you nip through gaps in traffic all while returning wallet-friendly economy. Paired to a snappy automatic stop/start system, my overall fuel consumption hasn't risen much over 8.4 l /100km during bouts of city driving, which isn't bad for a vehicle in this segment.
The transmission — an eight-speed automatic actuated by a column shifter on the steering column — is also worthy of praise as it swaps cogs with a smooth sophistication in keeping with the rest of the van's polished persona.
Gripes? Well as much as I enjoy the Ford Sync 4 infotainment system, I have of late experienced some annoying gremlins when pairing it wirelessly to Apple CarPlay.
During some of my commutes the signal between my phone and the head unit starts breaking up until it loses connection completely. It then takes a few minutes to reconnect, after which play resumes as normal.
Another odd phenomenon sometimes occurs when returning to the car after parking it for a brief period: a song will be playing on my phone, yet no sound will emit from the van's speakers. This silent playback continues until I turn the engine off and start it up again. It's a frustrating niggle and one Ford can hopefully fix with a software update when the van goes for its 15,000km service.