A baby brother for the Transit
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• Ford plans to launch a "mini-Transit" in the first half of 2002. Project V227 is a compact van in the sub-one-tonne payload range, representing a new market sector for Ford. The new vehicle—likely to be launched in May next year— may be called the Transit City, and will compete against models ranging from the Citroen Berlingo and Fiat Mk) to the Mercedes-Benz Vito.
Ford sources were keen to stress that V227 would not be a car-derived model, but would be a high-quality, durable purpose-built van with low running costs and minimal maintenance requirements, "in the spirit of the new Transit". The V227 is being engineered in the UK by some of the Transit team, but like the Debbi it will be produced in Turkey.
• Ford's Super Cab 2+2 version of the Ranger (pictured above) is now available with four-wheel drive. The Super Cab pickup also gets the more powerful 2.5-litre turbo-diesel engine, which develops 107hp at 3,500rpm and 266Nm of torque at 2,000rpm.