Ford Tourneo Connect Review (2022-present)

The Ford Tourneo Connect (or Ford Grand Tourneo Connect in the case of the seven-seater models) is Ford’s boxy and sensible van-based MPV, but it’s almost unfair to call it that, because Ford’s latest van-with-windows people carrier is actually part of a collaboration with Volkswagen and is heavily based on the VW Caddy. And although both the Caddy and new Ford Grand Tourneo Connect people carriers have commercial vehicle twins, the actual running gear beneath them shares much in common with the Volkswagen Golf family hatchback. As a result, the new car promises more sophisticated road manners and a more car-like driving position than you’d expect from a vehicle that, technically, is still based on a van.

There’s a choice of a 1.5-litre Ecoboost petrol engine with 113bhp, a 101bhp 2.0-litre Ecoblue turbodiesel or a 121bhp 2.0-litre turbodiesel, and you can pick between a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch Powershift automatic. There’s also a choice of body lengths – the shorter five-seat regular car and the longer-wheelbase seven-seat Grand Tourneo Connect.

It’s not the most glamorous form of motoring, but it’s certainly a lot more spacious – and significantly cheaper – than equivalent seven-seat family SUVs.

Practicality is the true trump card for this sort of car. Van-based MPVs are rarely the most stylish of cars, but the boxy shape lends itself to maximising interior space while minimising exterior dimensions.

And that very much holds true in the case of the Tourneo Connect. The boot space is simply cavernous, especially in the seven-seat version. Even with all seven seats in place, there’s more boot space than you’ll get in a regular family hatch such as a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus, while if you fold down seats six and seven, there’s 1720 litres of space. A large SUV like a Skoda Kodiaq only offers 720 litres. Fold all second- and third-row seats down, and you have (quite literally) a van-like amount of space: 3105 litres, in the case of the Grand Tourneo Connect.

Thanks to the acres of headroom, the third-row seats can actually accommodate adults, although the fact that the seats are set low to the floor means that you’ll find there’s a lack of under-thigh support. But, for children or occasional use, they’re great.

Second-row passengers fare better, with decent legroom to go along with the headroom, while access is aided by rear sliding doors on both sides of the car. There are three equal-sized seats, so the middle passenger won’t get a raw deal, although the consequence of this is that the outermost seats aren’t aligned with the two front seats, so if you want to sit with your feet underneath the seat in front, you’ll have to skew your legs a bit.

Up front, the two seats are comfortable, supportive, and offer lumbar adjustment as standard, which is not the case in the Volkswagen Caddy version.

It’s broadly good news when it comes to practicality, then, but a key part of the appeal of this sort of car is generally ingenious storage solutions and cubbies and, to be honest, the Tourneo falls a bit flat here. There are picnic tray tables on the rear seats, a useful overhead storage space above the front seats, and the door bins and glove box are generous, but the cupholders are a bit average, and the centre armrest storage is positively small. That said, the armrest slides back and forth and can be adjusted up and down. It’s very welcome on longer journeys.

A virtue of many Fords is that they are genuinely enjoyable to drive, even with models that you might not expect to be fun, such as the Ford S-Max MPV or Kuga SUV. Sadly, since the Tourneo Connect’s DNA is actually from Volkswagen rather than Ford, it doesn’t sparkle on a twisty road in the way the best Fords do. It delivers reasonable amounts of grip, and the brakes are reassuringly solid, but there’s a lot of bodyroll, and the weight transfer feels very pronounced as you change direction.

When it comes to the ride, it’s pretty supple most of the time, though potholes do send a bit of a shudder through the cabin, especially from the rear suspension. On smoother roads it’s very comfortable indeed, so it’s a bit of a shame that the large windscreen and big door mirrors generate rather a lot of wind noise. They do make the Tourneo impressively easy to park, however.

You’ll find the 122bhp 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine that we’ve tried to be reasonably gutsy, although do bear in mind that the larger seven-seat version weighs over 1,700kg, so that blunts performance a little. You’ll get from 0-62mph in a leisurely 11.8 seconds, but if you go for the less powerful 101bhp version of the same engine, you’ll take a whopping 14 seconds to get to the same speed. There is a 1.5-litre petrol model as well, with 113bhp, although with less mid-range punch than the diesels, it’ll have to be worked much harder.

Pulling away from junctions, the automatic gearbox can feel a little hesitant, which can be avoided if you put it into ‘sport’ mode. However, it then hangs onto gears in a way that isn’t really suitable in a chilled-out family car, especially one with a slightly raucous diesel engine. The other way to fix that issue is to go for the six-speed manual version.

There is a bit of a spartan commercial vehicle vibe to the interior, and cheap-feeling scratchy plastics are in plentiful supply. But this is a car that’s about utility rather than luxury, so maybe that’s a bit forgivable.

And, actually, once you look past the utilitarian atmosphere, there’s actually a pretty generous amount of standard equipment. You can get three trim levels of Tourneo Connect – the Titanium, the SUV-esque Active and the range-topping Sport variants.

To be honest, it’s hard to see why you’d want anything more than you get in the Titanium: there are heated seats, air conditioning, powered door mirrors and front- and rear parking sensors. Basically, everything you need, and a couple of luxuries. The Active model adds grey plastic body cladding for an SUV-style look, plus smarter alloys, while the Sport model gets LED headlights, high-beam assist, sports seats and a digital driver’s display.

All models also get a 10.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system. Unfortunately, this is a VW unit, even though it features fonts and colours that’d be familiar to drivers of other Ford models. This means that the user experience and menu layout is confusing and – most annoying of all – the heating and volume controls are unlit touchpads, making adjusting the radio or the cabin temperature a faff, especially at night. On the plus side, this 10.0-inch item is a higher spec than the 8.0-inch touchscreen that’s standard in the Caddy.

When you take a look at fuel economy figures, you can see that the petrol models have to work much harder. In the Grand Tourneo Connect, the petrol model can officially manage just under 40 mpg, while the more powerful version of the diesel engine is capable of just over 51 mpg. The lower-powered diesel is a smidge more fuel-efficient, delivering around 53 mpg. The shorter five-seat version is marginally lighter, so you’ll get ever so slightly better fuel economy from that, but there’s very little in it.

Mind you, in the real world, that promise of 50 mpg-plus doesn’t quite come true; we’ve seen much closer to 40mpg in our time with the 121bhp diesel model in Active trim. That’s still not too bad, though, when you consider this is quite a tall and heavy car.

If you’re running it as a company car, however, both the Tourneo and its cousin the Volkswagen Caddy will prove to be rather expensive, as there’s currently no electric or plug-in hybrid version available, although a plug-in hybrid is expected in 2024.

Crucially, key rivals such as the Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Rifter and Vauxhall Combo Life are now only available as electric models (e-Berlingo, e-Rifter and Combo-e Life) and so attract a much lower company car tax rate.

As for the Caddy, well, it’s priced noticeably higher than the Tourneo, and offers a little less in the way of standard equipment, so the Tourneo offers better value for money there.

For peace of mind, you get a standard 100,000-mile warranty with the Tourneo Connect, although it only lasts for three years.

As for general expectations around the car’s reliability, we wouldn’t set our expectations too high. Although the model itself is too young to have featured in used car reliability surveys specifically, Ford as a brand came in 27th out of 32 brands featured in the 2022 What Car? Reliability Survey.

That said, since this car is actually built at a Volkswagen plant, perhaps you can expect that brand's marginally better reputation for reliability to be more reflective of the performance you can expect from the Tourneo. Even then, there have been reports of glitches with the infotainment system similar to the one used in the Tourneo, although not, it has to be said, in the Tourneo itself.