Transit - FWD vs RWD
Discussion
I'm picking some stuff up for work soon, which involves hiring a van. Nothing too heavy - just too bulky for a car.
Never driven a van before and am quite excited (sad, I know!).
Originally I chose a "medium van" which is listed as a Ford Transit 280 SWB FWD Low Roof. I've just realised for an extra £10 I could of gotten a "large van" instead, a Ford Transit 350 LWB RWD High Roof. Both are listed with the 2.2 TDCi 100ps engine.
The high-roof model has slightly worse MPG (32 vs 40) but the companies paying for the fuel anyway.
Is a RWD transit going to be the pinnacle of driving excellence vs FWD, or am I just never going to notice?
Never driven a van before and am quite excited (sad, I know!).
Originally I chose a "medium van" which is listed as a Ford Transit 280 SWB FWD Low Roof. I've just realised for an extra £10 I could of gotten a "large van" instead, a Ford Transit 350 LWB RWD High Roof. Both are listed with the 2.2 TDCi 100ps engine.
The high-roof model has slightly worse MPG (32 vs 40) but the companies paying for the fuel anyway.
Is a RWD transit going to be the pinnacle of driving excellence vs FWD, or am I just never going to notice?
Ended up with an 85 HP FWD Transit.
Suprisingly fun to hustle along (it feels wrong to make something that big travel briskly down a country road), excellent turning circle too which I wasn't expecting. The engine was a bit of a let down on the motorway (75 was about as much as it wanted to do before giving up all pretences of comfort!) but for a few fleeting moments in 3rd felt surprisingly punchy.
To update this thread, for the second round I stuck with "FWD Lo-Roof Transit or similar".
What I got was this...
It was s
t.
Problems included:
MPH speedo, but KMH instantaneous speed readout
A radio "on" button you can't reach from the drivers seat
Very uncomfortable (seat back was vertical at it's furthest back!)
On the plus side, from Heathrow to Suffolk via Central London (I thought it'd be a shortcut at 5:30PM on a Friday... I was wrong!) it averaged 40 MPG - better than my diesel daily driver!
What I got was this...
It was s
t.Problems included:
MPH speedo, but KMH instantaneous speed readout
A radio "on" button you can't reach from the drivers seat
Very uncomfortable (seat back was vertical at it's furthest back!)
On the plus side, from Heathrow to Suffolk via Central London (I thought it'd be a shortcut at 5:30PM on a Friday... I was wrong!) it averaged 40 MPG - better than my diesel daily driver!
abbotsmike said:
You can't powerslide the front wheel drive one around a wet roundabout 
Ended up in this the other day
Having now driven a RWD one, I wasn't terribly impressed.
It was a LWB so it still had a worse turning circle than the SWB FWD model (but was super handy when moving office - I'll never get a small van again if I move!)
High roof made it less stable at speed (ok so not a FWD vs RWD issue).
Was trying to get up a kerb from grass and only managed to dig a hole with the back wheels (unladen so not surprising!).
And it had stability control, but no button to even turn it off - so I could get a bit sideways off a roundabout but then it would just fix itself! No fun
Edited by Jakg on Thursday 7th May 08:10
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