Ford Tourneo Custom review

One thing the Ford Tourneo Custom is not lacking is space. No matter where you're sitting, you'll have lots of it.

The car has an eight-seat layout as standard in the following formation: two up front, three in the middle row facing the back and three in the third row facing forwards. You can, for a reasonable cost, get an extra seat up front (making it three in the first row) to have nine seats in total, although top-spec Sport trim doesn’t have this nine-seat option.

Other seating layouts are possible, too. You can have four rows of two seats (available as an option in Zetec and Titanium) or three rows of two seats (available only with Zetec). All rear seats are foldable and detachable as standard.

The driver and front passenger have acres of head, shoulder and leg room so they can stretch out and get comfortable. In eight-seat configuration, the Tourneo Custom feels as airy and spacious as you’d wish a van-based car to be. There’s also a useful selection of cavernous cubbyholes that will easily swallow keys, mobile phones, big bottles of water and other travelling accessories.

As for the rear passengers, even tall adults will be comfortable in every seat, and even three in a row won’t feel cramped. Leg room is especially impressive in the back and, thanks to a high roof, you get masses of head room.

Another handy feature is that it's fitted with sliding rear doors. They make access to the back seats easy, even in cramped parking spaces, and the huge opening left by the opened doors helps load-lugging if you want to strip out the seats to turn the Tourneo Custom into a full van.

Even with all the seats in place, the boot is enormous, and the particularly high roof means it offers 1200 litres (or 1900 litres in the long-wheelbase version). For reference, the most compact Mercedes V-Class can swallow 610 litres of luggage, with the long-wheelbase version taking up to 1030 litres. You can lower or remove the rear seats to make the car truly cavernous inside.