If it looks like a van, it goes like a van and its doors slide like a van, it must drive like… actually, it drives surprisingly well. Since Ford’s dynamic reinvention during the mid-1990s, we’ve become accustomed to its cars steering, riding and handling a certain way. A pleasing way.
And what’s particularly gratifying about getting into a Grand Tourneo Connect is that, within the first 50 yards, you can tell that it has been developed with the same ethos in mind.
It steers nearly as well as a Fiesta or a Focus, with linearity, accuracy and just the kind of torque build-up off of straight-ahead – the steering’s weight change, to you and me – that makes it seem like you can actually feel the turning forces building up in the front wheels.
This is the kind of tuning that is key to making a Ford feel the way that it does, and despite a roof that sits 1852mm from the ground, the Grand Tourneo Connect has been granted the same kind of attention. So it rides rather like a Ford, allowing control of its body movements to take some priority over the low-speed ride – although this is largely fine, too, because it’s on 55-profile tyres.
