The Ford Transit Custom is What Van? Van of the Year 2013

British van brands Ford and Vauxhall came away from the What Van? 2013 Awards looking like the biggest winners, collecting three gongs each to take six out of a possible 11 awards, including Van Of The Year 2013 for the new Transit Custom.

Brentwood-based Ford won three awards, including the overall Van of the Year 2013 award, and was highly commended in three further categories.

Unsurprisingly, the all-new Ford Transit Custom (one of which has just appeared on my local Ford dealer’s forecourt) won the Van of the Year 2013. This all-new model was praised by the judges for its interior and exterior quality, as well as a host of innovations new to the light commercial vehicle sector.

What Van? editor Paul Barker said:

“The new Transit Custom does the name and heritage of the UK’s dominant van proud by improving vastly over its award-winning predecessor, particularly in terms of innovation and interior quality, which is superior to anything van drivers are used to,” said What Van? Editor Paul Barker. “Replacing the vehicle that dominates the UK market was never going to be easy, but Ford has certainly produced the goods and deserves continued success.”

The Transit Custom also won the Medium Van of the Year award, while the new Ford Ranger romped home with the Pick-Up of the Year gong.

Vauxhall also took a hat-trick of prizes – its Ecoflex efficiency technology claimed the Green Award, the Corsavan won the Small Van of the Year prize and the Combo shared the Light Van of the Year Award with the Fiat Doblo Cargo on which it is based.

The best of the rest

The MINI Clubvan won the What Van? Editor's Choice award

The new MINI Clubvan picked up the Editor’s Choice award, while Chinese newcomer to the UK market Great Wall was highly commended in the same category for its Steed pick-up, which should be a useful marketing feather in the cap for this large Chinese manufacturer.

The Iveco Daily retained its Large Van of the Year award, but it will be interesting to see if it manages this trick after the new two-tonne Ford Transit goes on sale next year. Unlike the current Transit, the new van will be a genuine large van that should compete head-to-head with the Iveco Daily and other popular large van models, like the Sprinter and Renault Master.

Driver favourite Volkswagen was notably absent from the award winners, although it did manage two highly commended mentions for its VW Transporter (which was displaced from the winner’s slot by the Ford Transit Custom) and the VW Caddy 4Motion, which was beaten to the 4×4 Van of the Year award by the mighty Mercedes Sprinter 4×4.

What Van? Awards 2013 Full Results

Here’s the complete list of winners and runners up:

For more details on the winners see www.whatvan.co.uk.