Tourneo is Ford's name for MPVs that have been created by fitting extra seats and windows to vans. The Connect is second from the bottom in a range of four, larger than the Courier but smaller than the seven-seat Grand Connect and the nearly five-metre long Custom.

It's not refined, and its interior will come as a shock to the owner of any current Ford hatchback or estate, but it's cheap and, despite having a similar footprint to a small family car, it's very roomy, thanks to its considerable height.

There are two petrol engines in the range, of 1.0 and 1.6 litres, and a 1.6-litre diesel available in two power outputs. All are turbocharged.

Performance

Aerodynamic resistance works against the Tourneo Connect at out-of-town speeds. If you want to go at all quickly you'll need the 1.6-litre petrol engine, which produces a maximum of 148bhp and can push the car to a top speed of 108mph. 0-62mph takes 10.9 seconds.

But that engine doesn't sit well with the Tourneo Connect. A more obvious choice, especially if you plan to carry heavy loads, would be one of the diesels. Their power outputs of 94bhp and 114bhp are hardly jaw-dropping, but their superior performance at everyday engine speeds is far more important.

The 99bhp 1.0 three-cylinder petrol engine, good as it is in other contexts, takes some justifying in this one. Driven as hard as it will go, it roughly matches the diesels in a straight line (the 0-62mph time is around 14 seconds in each case). At lower revs it's the weakest engine of the lot by quite some way.

Ride and Handling

The major controls are nicely weighted, as they are in all Fords

Car owners may have a hard time believing this, but vans are often very nice to drive, and there's no reason why the Tourneo Connect shouldn't be too. Regrettably, it isn't. The front suspension is too soft and insufficiently damped, resulting in a tendency to bounce up and down with very little provocation. Sorting this out would make the car much more pleasant to live with. The major controls are nicely weighted, as they are in all Fords, and visibility is generally very good, particularly through the huge rear window. Diesel models are quite noisy.

Interior and Equipment

The Tourneo Connect is based on the same platform used for the Ford Focus, though there's little evidence of this when you're driving it.

The switch from van to car did not include an upgrade of the interior materials, which feel as cheap as those in the disappointing EcoSport SUV. As compensation, there is a tremendous amount of room. With all five seats in place the luggage capacity is no less than 520 litres, and with the rears folded down this rises to 2,410 litres, which should be enough for anyone. It's worth pointing out, though, that these volumes are partly due to the Tourneo Connect's great height. Long items that could not be managed by the similarly sized Focus will fit here only if they are stacked diagonally. When the tailgate is open it's very unlikely that you will bump your head on it, since it's well over six feet above the ground. People of modest height will still be able to shut it again since Ford has thoughtfully provided a strap that anyone can reach. The roof is so high that Ford has been able to fit a large storage compartment above the dashboard. There is no way of closing it, and in theory objects could fall out of it, but this would require a level of acceleration that no Tourneo Connect could achieve unless it was hit up the back by a train. The entry-level Style model has neither air-conditioning nor phone connectivity, but like all the others it does have DAB digital radio with voice control, front and rear 12v power points and the Easy Fuel system which ensures you can't put diesel into a petrol model or vice versa.

Cost

The 94bhp diesel with the optional Fuel Efficiency Pack, in contrast, costs just £30 to tax

With prices starting at a little over £14,000 and never reaching the giddy heights of £19,000, the Tourneo Connect isn't expensive to buy. The 148bhp 1.6-litre petrol version will be costly to run, since its combined fuel economy is only 35.3mpg and its 184g/km CO2 rating means you'll have to pay £225 per year in Vehicle Excise Duty, but this would not be our model of choice in any case. The 94bhp diesel with the optional Fuel Efficiency Pack, in contrast, costs just £30 to tax thanks to its 120g/km CO2 rating, and has combined fuel economy of 61.4mpg. Without the Pack those figures are £110, 130g/km and 56.5mpg respectively. The 114bhp diesel is officially slightly more economical at 58.9mpg, though this might not be reflected in real-world driving. Our own findings suggest that the EU test figures are optimistic by about 10mpg.

Our Verdict

With a little more care and attention, Ford could have made the Tourneo Connect better than it is. A bit more refinement wouldn't go amiss, for a start. That said, you get an amazing amount of room for not much money in a car with a familiar and trusted badge, and that's definitely going to appeal to people who want this sort of vehicle.