Ford Tourneo Connect 2026 review | Spacious and sensible family transport

What is the Ford Tourneo Connect?

The Ford Tourneo Connect – or Grand Tourneo Connect in seven-seat guise – is Ford’s practical, van-based MPV, although that description doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s the result of a collaboration with Volkswagen and is closely related to the VW Caddy Life, sharing much of its engineering beneath the boxy bodywork, including its ‘MQB’ platform. Despite its commercial roots, these underpinnings share much in common with the Volkswagen Golf, which gives the Tourneo Connect more car-like handling and a more conventional driving position than you might expect from an MPV with sliding doors.

Engine choices include a 1.5-litre EcoBoost petrol with 113bhp, a 2.0-litre EcoBlue turbodiesel producing 121bhp, and a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), which pairs the 1.5-litre petrol engine with an electric motor to deliver a total of 148bhp. The petrol and diesel engines are available with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, while the plug-in hybrid uses a six-speed dual-clutch auto. There’s also a choice of two body styles: the standard five-seat Tourneo Connect, or the longer-wheelbase and more spacious seven-seat Grand Tourneo Connect.

It may not have the appeal of a large family SUV, but the Ford Tourneo Connect is significantly more practical – and usually cheaper – than most seven-seat crossovers, making it an appealing choice for growing, active families who value practicality, space and flexibility over style and badge appeal.

How practical is it?

Practicality is the trump card for this sort of car. Van-based MPVs are rarely the most stylish of vehicles, but a boxy shape lends itself to maximising interior space while minimising exterior dimensions.

That very much holds true in the case of the Tourneo Connect. Its boot space is simply cavernous, especially in the seven-seat version. Even with all seven seats in place, there’s more storage than you get in a regular family hatchback such as a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus. And if you fold down seats six and seven you’re faced with 1,720 litres of luggage capacity – perfect for that trip to Ikea you’ve promised yourself. For comparison, even a large SUV such as a Skoda Kodiaq musters a mere 720 litres of space. Fold the second-row seats as well and capacity swells to a warehouse-rivalling 3,105 litres. Your friends will definitely be calling you when they move house.

Thanks to the acres of headroom, the third-row seats can genuinely accommodate adults, although the fact that they are mounted low to the floor means that you may experience a lack of under-thigh support. For children or occasional use, though, they are great.

Second-row passengers fare better, with decent legroom to go along with the headroom, while access is aided by rear sliding doors on both sides of the vehicle. There are three equal-sized seats, so the middle passenger won’t get a raw deal, although the consequence of this is the outermost seats aren’t aligned with the two front seats. If you want to sit with your feet underneath the seat in front, you’ll have to skew your legs a bit.

Up front, the two seats are comfortable and supportive, with lumbar adjustment as standard (not the case in the equivalent Volkswagen Caddy).

It’s broadly good news when it comes to practicality, then, but a key part of the appeal of this sort of car is generally ingenious storage solutions and cubbies – and the Tourneo falls a bit flat here. There are picnic tray tables on the rear seats, a useful storage space above the front seats, and the door bins and glovebox are generous. But the cupholders are a bit average and the centre armrest storage is positively small. That said, the armrest slides back and forth and can be adjusted up and down. It’s very welcome on longer journeys.

What's it like to drive?

A virtue of many Fords is they are genuinely enjoyable to drive. This even applies to cars that you might not expect to be fun, such as the Ford S-Max MPV or Ford Kuga SUV. Because the Tourneo Connect is based on Volkswagen underpinnings rather than Ford’s own engineering, though, it doesn’t sparkle on a twisty road like the best Fords do. It delivers a reasonable amount of grip and the brakes are reassuringly strong, but there’s a lot of body-roll, and the weight transfer feels very pronounced as you change direction.

When it comes to ride comfort, it’s pretty supple most of the time, although potholes do send a bit of a shudder through the cabin, especially from the rear suspension. Wind noise from the large windscreen and sizable door mirrors is noticeable at motorway speeds, although they do make the Tourneo impressively easy to place when parking. An upright driving position and excellent all-round visibility also make the Ford easy to place on the road, despite its large dimensions.

You’ll find the 121bhp 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine that we’ve tried to be reasonably gutsy, although bear in mind that the larger seven-seat Grand version weighs over 1,700kg, which inevitably blunts performance. You’ll get from 0-62mph in a leisurely 11.4 seconds, while the 1.5-litre petrol is even slower at 11.9 seconds. Only the plug-in hybrid gets close to the 10-second mark, completing the ‘sprint’ in 10.5 seconds. You can alook forward to 70 miles of electric range from the hybrid’s fully charged battery, according to the official figures.

Pulling away from junctions, the automatic gearbox can feel a little hesitant, which can be avoided if you put it into Sport mode. However, it then hangs onto gears in a way that feels odd in a family car, especially a comfort-focused one.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

There is a slightly spartan, commercial-vehicle vibe to the Tourneo Connect’s interior, with plenty of cheap-feeling scratchy plastics on show. However, this is a car that’s about utility rather than luxury, so maybe that’s a bit forgivable.

Actually, once you look past the utilitarian atmosphere, there’s a pretty generous amount of standard equipment. There are two trim levels available – Titanium and Active – with the old Sport model no longer available.

For most buyers, it’s hard to see why you’d need more than what Titanium provides. The list includes a heated windscreen, air conditioning, powered door mirrors, front and rear parking sensors, and a full suite of driver assistance systems. Basically, everything you need, and a couple of luxuries. The Active model gets a cosmetic overhaul for a more SUV-inspired look, plus LED headlights, LED rear lights, a panoramic sunroof and a wireless charging pad. Either way, we’d recommend the Heated Pack. For £180, this adds heated front seats and a heated steering wheel.

All models also get a 10.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system. Unfortunately, this is a Volkswagen-derived system, even though it features fonts and colours that will be familiar to Ford drivers. This means that the user experience and menu layout is confusing and – most annoying of all – the heating and volume controls are unlit touchpads, which makes adjusting the radio or the cabin temperature a faff, especially at night.

Ford Tourneo Connect running costs

When you take a look at fuel economy figures, you can see that the petrol models have to work much harder. In the Grand Tourneo Connect, the EcoBoost petrol model can officially manage just over 40mpg, while the EcoBlue diesel engine is capable of around 51mpg. Mind you, in the real world, that promise doesn’t quite come true; we saw much closer to 40mpg in our time with the 121bhp diesel model in Active trim. That’s still not bad, however, when you consider this is quite a tall and heavy car.

With an electric-only range of 70 miles and an official 148.4-158.8mpg, the plug-in hybrid should deliver the lowest running costs overall, especially if you have access to charging at home or at work.

Thanks to its low CO2 emissions, the plug-in hybrid attracts a lower first-year VED rate than the petrol or diesel versions. By contrast, the petrol model sits in one of the highest first-year tax bands. Do bear in mind, however, that the higher list price of the plug-in hybrid means it’s likely to be subject to the premium rate of VED from year two onwards.

Crucially, key rivals such as the Peugeot Rifter and Vauxhall Combo Life are now only available as electric models (the e-Rifter and Combo Life Electric) and so attract a much lower company car tax rate.

As for the Volkswagen Caddy, it’s priced noticeably higher than the Tourneo, and offers a little less in the way of standard equipment. So the Ford clearly offers better value for money.

Ford Tourneo Connect reliability

For peace of mind, you get a standard three-year, 100,000-mile warranty with the Tourneo Connect. As for general expectations around the car’s reliability, Ford finished a disappointing 24th out of 30 brands in the 2025 What Car? Reliability Survey.

We can’t even offer any positivity from the fact that the Tourneo Connect is actually built at a Volkswagen plant, as VW also finished in joint 24th place. Only Land Rover, Jaguar, Fiat, Nissan and MG fared worse.

There have also been reports of glitches with the infotainment system similar to the one used in the Tourneo – although not, it has to be said, in the Tourneo itself.