Ford Tourneo Connect Titanium 1.6 TDCi

One of the consequences of having so much space, is that you tend to carry more and more junk in the boot, and because it’s pretty vast, you don’t have to be quite so disciplined when deciding what to haul about. A ‘take-it-all’ attitude tends to occur and then when you need to carry a bulky item and eke out every last centimetre, you have to spend time unloading all of the accumulated paraphernalia and wonder why it has built up so much. And that’s before you’ve taken into account the extra cost of carrying the additional weight when it’s time to fill up at the fuel pumps.

Even with a few extra kilos in the boot, we’re still a little way off the 57.6mpg that the official figures say we should achieve, with our calculations revealing an overall figure of 48.2mpg to date. That’s around 83 per cent of the figure that has been achieved by Ford engineers in optimum conditions in the laboratory, but our monthly motoring miles are far from completed in the most economical way. With an overwhelming number of short journeys, the engine doesn’t warm up fully, before it is switched off and left on the driveway to cool down.It’s these that hit the mpg figure hardest, and so an overall figure of 48.2mpg doesn’t actually seem too bad to us.

Our Tourneo Connect occupies an area of the market that is far from glamorous. Often referred to as the ‘van-with-windows’ end of the market, in the past you would be stuck with bargain basement trim and a distinct lack of goodies. But you can’t level that complaint at our Titanium specification car, as it comes with all of the gadgets and gizmos that you could ever want.

Even before we went wild with the options list, our car comes with power folding mirrors, cruise control, rear parking sensors, a panoramic roof, automatic wipers and headlights and privacy glass, as well as DAB digital radio, dual-zone climate control and Bluetooth mobile phone connectivity. And that’s without the kind of things that perk up the way it looks, like attractive alloy wheels, front fog lights and body coloured bumpers and side mouldings. All of this is the kind of kit that you would usually find included in a top-of-the-range executive car, as opposed to a more utilitarian multi-purpose vehicle with roots firmly in the commercial vehicle arena.

It’s what makes the Tourneo particularly attractive, as you don’t actually have to sacrifice any goodies that you’ve come to enjoy, in the pursuit of a little bit of extra space. In fact, I think our Titanium specification car is a bit of a bargain, costing just £18,195, and working out almost £2,500 cheaper than a comparable five-seat C-MAX, with the same engine, and in a similar Titanium trim.