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If you investigate the possibility of buying a Ford Transit today you will be met with a blurb that includes the line: “A striking new design… this is our toughest, most-trusted Ford Transit yet.”
I don’t think so. I’d check with the gangs of men who worked for McAlpine’s Fusiliers or Murphy’s Volunteers before I’d bandy about the word “toughest” like that.
Men who travelled with pounding heads or frozen feet in the interior of a cigarette smoke-filled Ford Transit in 1960s England were more likely to know what tough really is.
They’d know all about the tough and trusted Transit vans which were their taxis to work, their canteen while at work, their tool shed in the evening and their lift to the pub at night.
The first Transit – or the Transit Mark I – was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1965
Imagine what those hard men would think of the plush Transits of today. Too posh for comfort!
The first Transit – or the Transit Mark I – was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1965. The engines used were the petrol-fuelled versions in 1.7L and 2.0L capacities. The Ford Transit was one of the most successful van models in Europe and has been the best-selling van for more than 40 years. The iconic van cost just £560 when first unveiled to the nation’s builders, plumbers and electricians and has sold more than eight million vehicles worldwide.
The model’s remarkable success was immediate, and when the first Transit hit Ireland it was a revelation
The Ford Transit, described as “the backbone of Britain”, seemed to have a universal appeal to every form of business and service imaginable. The van found a ready-made home with business owners and self-employed tradesmen. The model’s remarkable success was immediate, and when the first Transit hit Ireland it was a revelation.
Space was one of its main advantages; boasting much more cargo room than its competitors. The style was very American (with its wide body and square shell) and seemed to make a great impact at a time in Ireland when an increasing number of American detective shows were on television. Many a lad was tempted to take the Transit for a bonus trip on a beach somewhere in Donegal on a Saturday night and pretend he was escaping capture in Hawaii 5-0.
It is true to say that the Toyota Hiace eventually made an impact on sales, but there remained many jobs that only a tough Ford Transit could do
The Transit was so versatile it could serve the diverse needs of An Garda Síochána, the Ambulance Corps, the local builder, the ice-cream man, the campervan enthusiast, the minibus owner, the cattle dealer and members of the travelling community. It is true to say that the Toyota Hiace eventually made an impact on sales, but there remained many jobs that only a tough Ford Transit could do.
The transits were bought new in their tens of thousands and then traded and re-traded to the point where back doors were tied together with pieces of wire and the exhaust pipe bellowed blue smoke smelling of heated metal.
“Does she burn oil?” The buyer would ask.
“She would if she got it,” was the seller’s reply.
The Transit Van even became the subject of a popular song when Sean Mone from Keady in Co Armagh penned a classic extoling its virtues. The song was in fact much more than a homage to the great van – it was a potted social and political history of Ireland in the 1980s.
Saw Margaret Thatcher talking on TV
She was so sincere when she says to me
There’d be no unemployment if
You’d all use a bit of initiative
I was on the dole I was broke and bored
Says I I’ll take her at her word
Got a loan from the credit union man
And I bought myself a Transit Van.
The next step up the ladder now
I bought myself an old fat sow
I crossed over the border quite legally
And collected the Common Market subsidy
Signed all the forms gave back the pen
Then smuggled me pig back home again
Ten times a day I’d work this plan
Myself and the sow and the Transit van.
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