The Ford Transit has taken top spot as Britain’s most reliable van in this years FN50 reliability survey (for the second year running), probably confirming what most people who operate Ford vans are already aware of.
One of the industries most respected fleet publications, “Fleet News” completed an analysis of more than 100,000 vans operated by Britain’s fleets and revealed that the Ford Transit is the most reliable van operated by Britain’s fleets, while Ford has also taken top spot in the manufacturer reliability stakes.”
To make the situation even more perfect for Ford, the Transits baby brother, the “Transit Connect” took second place, pushing Astravan into third and Mercedes Vito and Toyota’s Hi-Ace into joint fourth.
The survey included data provided by multi-franchise leasing companies who reported the number of breakdowns per 100 of each model on their fleets. Points were awarded according to the number of times brands or models appeared in the tables, supplied by the leasing firms and for the position in which they were placed.
Trevor Stedman (Operations Director of Ford dealer group Busseys) said he wasn’t surprised by the FN50 survey saying “the Ford commercial range offers the best all round value for companies and whilst it isn’t always the cheapest product, its reliability and its strong disposal values mean that it’s got much lower (real) whole life costs than many of its competitors which might cost less to buy initially”.
Mr. Stedman went on to say “Clearly, making a decision to buy a van, just based upon the ticket price really isn’t the thing to do, its a false economy, for when you come to dispose of the van, for the main part, your used Transit will return you more money and sell more quickly, and of course as a bonus, as the FN50 survey highlights, its likely to be more reliable during the time you are operating it”
Top five models
1. Ford Transit
2. Ford Transit Connect
3. Vauxhall Astravan
4=. Mercedes-Benz Vito
4=. Toyota Hiace
FN50 Sample: 151,695 vehicles
Top five manufacturers
1. Ford
2. Mercedes-Benz
3. Vauxhall
4. Volkswagen
5. Toyota
Sample: 169,476 vans
