THE GOOD The 2015 Ford Transit 150 is available is a wide range of configurations and sizes. In its eight-passenger configuration, the van has an excess of cargo space. The base 3.7-liter engine offers a solid foundation of efficiency and performance, and more powerful and clean power train options are available.
THE BAD Even fully loaded, the Transit's sparse tech is on par with what we'd expect from an entry-level economy car. The 2015 van is hampered by slow MyFord Touch infotainment. Driver knee space is somewhat compromised by a steep steering column.
THE BOTTOM LINE Half of the fun of the Ford Transit van is dreaming up cool things to do with the reconfigurable chassis and options. As presented here, the Transit 150 XLT is fairly well equipped to be a workhorse people and cargo carrier, but techie van fans will want to scope a 2016 model with Sync 3 infotainment.
On the surface, the 2015 Ford Transit 150 is probably the most boring vehicle I've driven this year, but that's what's most interesting about it. It's a largely empty commercial van -- almost literally a big box on wheels -- but, more importantly, it's a blank slate.
Yes, the 2015 Ford Transit 150 XLT that arrived at the CNET offices was filled with row after row of seats and largely configured as a people carrier/airport shuttle/church bus/tourist transport, but it's easy to look at the boxy 150 and imagine it as a cute little food truck, a mobile dog groomer, a bloodmobile, an emergency vehicle... I could list roles for it all day.
High-trim... for a van
Though most Transit 150s that roll off of the assembly line are fated to become anonymous workhorse cargo trucks and service vans or the cavernous, empty, rubber-matted rental vans you'll use when it's time to move to a new studio apartment, our example arrived as a pretty high-trim XLT model. That is to say, high-trim for a commercial van. That means alloy wheels, carpeted interior, Pueblo Gold Metallic paint and touchscreen infotainment. The feature list for a "high-trim" commercial van is on par with what I'd expect from an "entry-level" small hatchback.
In the dashboard of this 2015 model is the optional Sync with MyFord Touch infotainment stack, a 6.5-inch touchscreen-controlled suite of connected navigation with traffic, digital media sources and communications tech. This is the same setup that we've been seeing in Ford vehicles for years, so its appearance offers no real surprises. It's still a system with a good set of features but that's seriously hampered by awkward organization and sluggish response times. In the Transit 150, the driver also must contend with the fact that the touch screen is a fairly far reach across the wide dashboard, making it even trickier to use on the go.