Spent May galavanting around Europe, or more precisely, Great Britain, Germany, The Czech Republic and Croatia. Noticeably absent from the roads traveled were pickup trucks. America’s standard bearer for laborers and weekend warriors is as rare as a baseball diamond in a village park. While the Euros never warmed to pickups, they adopted Sprinter-style vans in a big way. There were offerings from Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagon, Peugeot, Fiat, Nissan and Russia’s Gazelle. But the one that jumped out at me was the made-in-China Ford Transit Custom.
Ford offers their big Transits in America but the Transit Custom is a Euro-only model and that’s a bummer. These little vans are the ideal size for anybody who wants to load up a motorcycle or bunch of bicycles and still have the space to use the van as your weekend basecamp.
The strong sales of the larger Mercedes Sprinter, Dodge Promaster Cargo Van and Ford Transit might tempt Ford to test the U.S. waters by offering the smaller Transit Custom, but I’m not holding my breath. Ford pickup sales produce their largest profits and it is unlikely that Ford would mess with that success. Looks like if you want a Transit Custom, you’ll need to move to Europe or smuggle one in through Mexico.
