Ford Tourneo Courier (2024-) Review

Introduction

People carriers were once a common sight in the UK, but it seems the practical family buses have been usurped by more desirable SUVs. As a result, many car makers have exited the market, and even Ford, previously purveyors of the Galaxy and S-Max models, have been reduced to turning Transit vans into Tourneo MPVs. The latest of these products is the Tourneo Courier, the smallest Tourneo model and a rival for the likes of the Citroen Berlingo and Vauxhall Combo, and it’s aiming to change the game slightly.

Like the larger Tourneo Connect, the Tourneo Courier is offered in Titanium and Active forms, with the latter offering a design-orientated option for those drawn in by SUV imagery. So while the Tourneo Courier is not a 4x4, it looks a bit like one, and it offers all the space you’d expect from a van with windows. So is this the ultimate family car that deserves to attract customers left, right and centre, or is it a niche within a niche that’s destined to underwhelm Ford’s accountants?

At a Glance

Ford has made a bit more of an effort with some of its vans of late, so the Transit and Tourneo models no longer look staid and unimaginative. Instead, the Tourneo Courier looks contemporary and cool, especially in Active form, which gives it some rugged body cladding. If you see a bit of baby Defender in there, you aren’t alone, especially if you specify your car with the optional contrast roof.

Inside, space is the name of the game, and the Tourneo Courier has loads of it. Passenger space is nothing short of cavernous, and the boot is huge too. Some customers might complain that you can’t have a seven-seat Tourneo Courier, and that feels like a bit of an oversight, but it means there’s a massive boot no matter what, and there’s more space in the rear for adults.

The space is, perhaps, to be expected given the Tourneo Courier’s roots. But while many vans come with quite a Spartan, low-rent interior, the Tourneo Courier feels more like a car. Sure, some of the plastics are a bit cheap here and there, but there’s a decent touchscreen infotainment system and a digital instrument display, both of which work well and are easy to use.

But the biggest surprise is the way the Tourneo Courier drives. There’s some road car DNA in there, and it shows in the precision of the steering and the body control, which is better than it has any right to be. It doesn’t ride badly, either, considering its background.

Then there’s the engine range. Ford is offering an electric version that wears the E-Tourneo Courier badge, but we’re focussing on the petrol-powered example here. Using the acclaimed 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine to send 125hp to the front wheels, it’s just about powerful enough, and it’ll manage more than 40mpg no matter whether you choose a manual or automatic version. Yes, a diesel or all-wheel-drive option might not go amiss, but they’re luxuries, really. The standard car has everything you need.

Key Features

Space is, of course, the primary reason for choosing a Tourneo Courier, and the Ford has huge amounts of it. The boot is enormous by almost any standards, and though the lack of a third row of seats might be a loss to some customers, it just means there’s ample room in the second row, too. You really can take four adults and all their holiday luggage with ease, and nobody is likely to complain on a two-hour stint through France, even if they’re tall. Headroom is ridiculous, the amount of storage and cubby holes is insane and the sheer practicality of the Tourneo has to be seen to be believed. It’s an incredibly useful family car.

But surprisingly, the way the car drives also helps to put it ahead of the curve. Ford’s vans have always been better than many others when it comes to driver involvement, but the Tourneo Courier’s steering is inherited from a car, so it’s brilliantly smooth and precise, while the body control is surprisingly good for such a tall car. It isn’t sporty in any way, but if you like driving and you need the aforementioned space, the Tourneo Courier won’t cause you to lose the will to live.

Performance & Drive

The Tourneo Courier will be offered in E-Tourneo Courier form, which means there’s an electric option, but it’s just the conventionally powered version dealing with here. The engine range is pretty simple – there’s a 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine or nothing – and all you have to choose between is the manual and automatic transmissions.

Despite the appearance of the more rugged-looking Active version, it gets the same front-wheel-drive layout as the standard car, so every Tourneo Courier sends its power to the front wheels alone. There’s no off-road-orientated all-wheel-drive option.

And every Tourneo Courier gets the same 125hp power output, too, leading to a fairly glacial 0-62mph time of around 13 seconds. That sounds pretty slow, but the Ford feels much faster than that, and keeping up with traffic is no great issue. The engine makes quite a pleasant thrum when you push it, too, so wringing its power out is no great hardship, and the slick, six-speed manual gearbox is great, too.

On the road, the Tourneo Courier is more comfortable than you might expect, thanks in no small part to its very supple front suspension. The springs at the rear betray its van origins – they’re clearly designed to cope with more weight than you might normally have in the back of a Tourneo Courier – but despite a bit of stiffness there, the Ford is still as comfortable as most common-or-garden family hatchbacks.

And it handles almost as well, too. It’s a bit of a turn up for the books in something like this, but the Courier is actually quite enjoyable to drive. The steering is taken straight from a Ford car, so it’s excellent, and that makes the Courier nice and easy to place on the road. Body control is better than you might expect, too, so though the car leans in bends, it doesn’t feel as though it’s about to topple over.

Combine that with compact dimensions and good visibility, and you’ve got something that’s easy enough to park and drive around town, while also offering a bit of verve on a good road and reasonable comfort and refinement on the motorway.

Running Costs & Emissions

For those worried about emissions and costs, the E-Tourneo Courier will make a lot of sense, particularly for those who don’t cover excessive mileages or choosing the Ford as a company car, but as we’re just dealing with the conventionally powered Tourneo Courier here, economy is the key concern. Fortunately, though there’s no diesel option, Ford’s miraculous 1.0-litre EcoBoost engines are remarkably economical, returning well over 40mpg on the official economy test.

Interestingly, there’s no penalty for choosing the Active model with its chunky body cladding, although there is some sense in picking the manual over the automatic, given it’s fractionally more economical and therefore marginally less polluting. In the real world, though, you’re unlikely to notice much between the two, so we’d recommend picking the gearbox you prefer, rather than worrying about a mile or so to the gallon.

Interior & Technology

You might expect the Tourneo Courier’s van heritage to stand in its way when it comes to interior design, and though there’s a bit of that on show, things are nowhere near as bad as you might expect.

The design, for example, is pretty smart, and though some of the materials on show are quite plasticky, the build quality is fairly good and the general atmosphere is much more car-like than we might have feared. For starters, it’s very light and airy, with massive windows and a huge windscreen allowing light to flood the cabin. And alongside all the storage spaces that are carried over from the Transit Courier, there are some neat design touches. The Active models, for example, get their own seat designs, and there’s colourful trim on the dash.

Two screens are also fitted as standard, with a small, cramped digital instrument display in front of the driver and an eight-inch touchscreen in the centre of the dash. Though neither is especially cutting edge, both are functional, with the instrument display telling you everything you need to know and the touchscreen providing clear and easy-to-navigate menus that lead you to all the functions you need. None of it is ground-breaking, but it works really well, and that’s a much more important consideration.

The small fly in the Tourneo Courier’s ointment is the climate control functions are hidden in the touchscreen, which is a bit of a faff, but at least you can set it once and forget about it – assuming you’re the only one who’ll drive the car.

Practicality & Boot Space

In many ways, space is the name of the game for the Tourneo Courier, and it delivers it by the bucketload. Ok, there’s no seven-seat option, and that might thrust some customers in the direction of the Dacia Jogger, but for those who prefer boot space to passenger seating, the Tourneo is really tough to beat. Even with all five seats upright, you get 570 litres of luggage capacity, and that’s only if you load to the window line. Fill it to the roof and you get considerably more than that, thanks in part to the square rear end and the high roof lining. And if you fold the rear seats down, you get more than 2,000 litres of cargo space, which is unsurprisingly van-like volume.

But there’s more to practicality than just luggage space. The Tourneo Courier has acres of passenger space in the front and rear, too, with exceptional headroom no matter where you sit. Rear legroom is ample, too, and the cabin feels nice and airy thanks to the big windows and the tall windscreen. There’s loads of storage, too, including a shelf above the windscreen that plenty of drivers might miss at first glance. If you want a car that’s going to carry anything and everything, the Tourneo is difficult to fault.

Safety

The European independent crash-testing organisation has not yet put the Tourneo Courier through its paces, but we’ve every reason to believe it will score highly when it’s finally tested. That’s partly because the old Tourneo Courier managed a respectable four-star rating when it was tested in 2014, but mainly because the Transit Courier – the van on which the Tourneo is based – managed a ‘Platinum’ rating when it went through the commercial vehicle crash test process.

Then there’s the question of driver assistance technology. The Tourneo Courier comes with all the usual safety systems, including autonomous emergency braking to stop the car if the driver doesn’t respond to a hazard, and lane departure warning to help prevent the car wandering on the motorway. It’s available with blind-spot monitoring, too, which is perhaps the best of all the safety gadgets.

At the other end of the scale, the Tourneo Courier also comes with speed limit warning technology, which would be alright if it worked properly. But because it’s based on fallible cameras and GPS data, it doesn’t always get the speed limit right, and it can end up beeping at you for travelling at a perfectly legal speed. Turning it off requires a quick delve into the touchscreen every time you drive the car – thanks, lawmakers – but it’s more annoying than difficult.

Options

The Tourneo Courier range is fairly simple, so customers don’t have too many decisions to make. Two trim levels are available, and though there is a small difference in the RRP, there isn’t really a ‘base’ version, with both offering slightly different propositions.

Of the two, the more conventional is the Titanium, which comes with plenty of standard goodies. The heated windscreen will be a Godsend in winter, and the automatic climate control is fitted as standard, along with heated front seats and a heated steering wheel. The eight-inch touchscreen is standard, too, complete with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Automatic windscreen wipers and automatic headlights are also included, but you might want to add the Driver Assistance Pack with Navigation, offering adaptive cruise control, satellite navigation, front parking sensors and a rear-view camera.

Alternatively, you can opt for the Active, which gets more rugged body cladding and Active badging, as well as satellite navigation and a reversing camera as standard. However, it goes without the climate control system, which seems like an odd decision. You can reinstate it, though – it’s a £300 option – and you can also choose a contrast roof with certain colours, adding to the rufty-tufty image.

Speaking of colours, may we recommend the Bursting Green colour for Active versions, complete with the white-painted roof? That combination gives real baby Defender vibes, while those choosing the Titanium might prefer the Desert Island Blue or Cactus Grey.

Rival Cars

Although turning vans into MPVs seems like quite a good idea, the Tourneo Courier’s rivals are not that numerous. Yes, the Peugeot-Citroen-Vauxhall siblings have put windows and seats in their small vans to create the Rifter, Berlingo and Combo, but they’re all almost exactly the same inside and out, with only minor styling tweaks to set them apart. Yes, they’re all very competent, but they are going electric-only, which leaves the petrol-powered Ford in a class of one.

Perhaps the biggest rival, then, is the Dacia Jogger. Like the Ford, it’s keenly priced and like the Ford, it’s available in pseudo SUV form. But though it has one big advantage over the Ford – the fact it’s available with seven seats when the Tourneo Courier only comes with five – the Dacia falls behind in other areas. For starters, the Ford is better to drive and it has a better engine, as well as having a smaller footprint, which makes it a bit easier to manoeuvre. It has a better badge, too, and more equipment, as well as a smarter interior. So as clever and as brilliant as the Jogger is, the Ford feels more polished.

Verdict & Next Steps

The Tourneo Courier might not be a family car that gets the heart pounding, but a rugged style – particularly in Active form – and a huge amount of space will win it plenty of fans. Combine that with a very pleasant driving experience, solid technology and efficient EcoBoost petrol engines and you’ve got a car that’s very difficult to fault. Of course, the best cars aren’t always the most popular, but the Tourneo Courier is a bit of a hidden gem that deserves way more interest than it's likely to generate. Get one and feel smug about it.

Where to next?

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**Score based on Select’s unique meta score analysis, taking into account the UK’s top leading independent car website reviews of the Ford Tourneo Courier.

**Correct as of 08/01/2026. Based on 12 months initial payment, 5,000 miles annually, over a 48 month lease. Initial payment equivalent to 12 monthly payments, or £3,371.16 (Plus admin fee) Ts and Cs apply. Credit is subject to status.