(first posted 3/15/2019) Some names for cars and vehicles just work. Mustang. Mini. Interceptor. Land Rover. Voyager. Spider. Thunderbird, perhaps my favourite. But of the names still in service, perhaps the best for describing the vehicle, defining its segment, endurance and a clear bright future is Transit. Heck, Mum knows what a Transit van is.
How many conversations have there been at a British van hire office over the last 40 or more years, along the lines of “What is a Bedford CF/Vauxhall Vivaro/Renault Trafic/Leyland Sherpa/Citroen Despatch/Toyota Hiace?” that have been quickly resolved by someone saying “It’s like a Transit but built by….”.
Like Hoover, Biro or Kleenex, the trade mark name has become the identifier for the market sector. In the UK, through the process of geneticisation (a word that has the ring of being developed in business school, and overused by people with whiteboards or a PowerPoint addiction) we have Ford Transit vans and other transit vans.
In the UK, for nearly 50 years the home of the Transit manufacture, the name goes back to 1965 and what is often referred to as the Transit Mk1. But from 1961 to 1966, Ford of Germany produced the Taunus Transit.
At this time Ford of Germany and Ford of Britain were separate, and if not exactly competing, didn’t work to be complementary either.
Hence, Germany got a series of Taunus saloons and the FK 1000 van, and the UK got Zephyrs, Cortinas and Thames Trader vans and chassis cabs (above). Ford of Germany used Taunus as a brand for many of their saloons in the 1950s through to the 1970s, and exported some to North America.
Which gives me an excuse to show this wonderful shot of Schuss Lincoln-Mercury’s Taunus selection, in Oxnard, California, in 1959.
The Taunus Transit traces its roots back to the Ford FK1000 (as in Ford Köln, 1000kg) van of 1953, which had a 1.2 litre engine driving the rear wheels and shared a lot with the contemporary Ford (of Germany) Taunus saloon. This was front mounted, in fact ahead of the front axle, aiming for maximum space efficiency and cab comfort at the expense of a nose heavy weight distribution and the handling consequences.
Initially power was 38bhp: that may not seem a lot for a ton of payload but it was significantly ahead of the 25 bhp VW Type 2, for example, and meant 95 km/h or 60 mph could be attained. With a long run up, one suspects.
In 1955, Ford offered an option of a 55 bhp 1.5 litre and 4 speed gearbox, and moved the engine rearward, between the driver and passenger seats. This also assisted legroom and access across the cab as well as obviously easing the weight distribution.
In Germany, the main competition came from the VW Type 2, and here the Ford has a distinct advantage in having a full length, full height load bay. A full height and width single door at the rear, rather than the more usual twin door usually seen on a British van or the stable door favoured by the French, and matched by the side door gave flexibility for loading standard pallets. Not an exciting topic maybe, but an important part of choosing a van for many operators.
From 1958, a 1.25 ton 1250kg version was available, known as the FK1250. The usual range of options from vans to minibus to chassis-cab and small tipper trucks was available through Ford and partner specialists.
In 1961 the Taunus Transit name was adopted, as the Ford FK series was withdrawn and Ford of Germany abandoned the truck market.
The feature ambulance is a 1962 Ford Taunus Transit 1000, a 1000kg payload version with the 1.5 litre engine. It clearly dates from the period in which ambulances were used purely to get patients to hospital, and were not equipped for anything beyond bandaging and splints, and perhaps supplying oxygen. Inside ambulances has changed a lot since then.
It was used in the Munich area, based in Garching for many years. It is now on display at the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum in Munich.
In 1965, Ford of Europe produced the first Ford Transit, built in Britain and sold across Europe, and replacing all Ford of Britain and Germany vans. It was larger, principally in width, than the vans that had gone before, and had a style and format based on contemporary American practice.
And four, or even eight depending on how you count, generations later, the Transit is still arguably, commercially, the most important vehicle Ford built in Europe and is generally accepted to have made more money for Ford than all the European cars put together.
No wonder Mum knows what a Transit is.
Cute Mustang logo on the grille of that Thames truck. Original or added on by the owner?
Definitely added!
Two later relatives …
and is generally accepted to have made more money for Ford than all the European cars put together.
Which of course explains why they’re putting almost all their money into trucks and commercial vehicles. The Transit has a very high profit margin, the cars are a drag on profits.
When I see the word “Taunus”, my eyes seem to cross as my brain tries to see the word “Taurus”. Anyone else experience this?
Yep, when I saw an 80’s dark red Taunus for the first time in a beach city in Brazil. I’ve read automatically “Taurus” and got surprised, but soon I realized the awkward name.
I don’t confuse Taurus and Taunus as I drove a 1959 Taunus 17M in 1968 just before I was drafted. I needed a car for 4 to 6 weeks ad bought the Taunus for $50 with a bad fuel pump. The tires were shot, but it ran ok. I replaced front seat with one from a Fiat. It had the same red and white color scheme as the wagon in the pictured show room.
My friend who supplied the Fiat front seat needed a car for his Father and bought the Taunus for $50. He put on 4 new tires and dad drove it for more than a year.
This is definitely the best Transit by a mile
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/videos/a7427/this-ford-transit-helped-build-the-jaguar-xj220/
Actually, it might be this!!!
https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/features/curiosities/curios-ford-supervan-1/
Roger, your Mum might know what a Transit is, but not many people would recognise this as one. The redesigned layout of the ’65 Transit owes much to the Bedford CA of 1952.
As a once upon a time ago driver of Mk2 Transits, I totally get why they became a part of British culture. Reliable, comfy, fun to drive (in swb and lwb variants, and whether laden or not), but better than that, they were used by rock bands and bank robbers and started in films and British TV series such as The Professionals and The Sweeney.
I learned about the Taunus while I was an enthusiast of the Taurus and it just never made sense because Taunus isn’t a real word to me! That said the neon signage on the dealer photo above looks mighty close to the ‘TAURUS’ script on the first and second generation cars
And after years of inwardly admonishing countless craigslist posts where the seller incorrectly states their four cylinder vehicle has a “V4” engine I learned that some of these cars actually had this (nonexistent to me) configuration!
Actually, TAUNUS was the brand German Fords were marketed under from WWII through 1967. They were not Fords, and accordingly, you neither found the name nor a blue oval on any of them. Instead, these cars featured the coat of arms of their native city, Cologne on their hoods – as evidenced in the nice specimen presented in the article. So, what we see here is indeed a Taunus Transit, and not a Ford Transit. 🙂
This naming policy changed when Ford started to consolidate their European operations under one brand with shared models, with the release of the MY1968 Ford Escort.
Dear C107
Thanks ever so much for your comment…Please check a side view of the Ford Taunus Transit….There is a clear badge on the lower right hand side panel which shows the word… Ford !!! Definitely Ford !!!
Best
Pat
My 1964 Taunus 12m was most definitely a Ford. It was V4 front wheel drive with electric cooling fan, bench front seat, 4 speed column gear change. Lovely car. 1200cc and 100 mph.
For the record, this was only half true. They didn’t carry the blue oval emblem, which Ford didn’t permit its overseas subsidiaries to use in this period, but they were most definitely Fords, and both advertised and registered as such.
I learned something new. I never realized Taunus was sold stateside.
I’d never heard of a Transit van until the “New Wave” music brought Joe Jackson to America.
From the 1989 song “Down to London”:
So if they ask you where I am
I’m in the back of a Transit van
In a squat on the earls court road
Gone down to London turning coal into gold
Even earlier, “Rock ‘n Roll Stew” by Traffic., 1971
Sittin’ in a Transit all night long
Playing clubs and rocking right on
The road’s much too long, seems like I’m wasting my time
Wish I was home again sipping my wine.
For Americans who don’t think “Taunus” is a real word (it’s a mountain range north of Frankfurt), this page from the tourism department of Hesse may be instructive:
https://en.hessen-tourismus.de/where-to-go/regions/taunus
Etymology: The Latin “Taunus” derives from Tacitus, who wrote in his Annales of a “castellum in monte tauno,” which presumably referred to the present-day town of Friedberg.
There is disagreement about the origin and meaning of the name; some assume it comes from the Celtic Dün or Tun (height, fence), while others believe the meaning can be found in *tēu-/*təu. The meaning of the Indo-European root can be translated as “to swell” or “to accumulate.”
The Taunus was first mentioned in a written source in 43/44 AD by Pomponius Mela.
Source: Wikipedia.de (with further references)
Taunus (& Hunsrück on the other bank of the Rhein) are really lovely areas.
Germany’s Econoline was massively outsold by the VW Transporter, the latter being considered more refined and car-like despite the totally impractical loadspace.
Seems weird that Ford is now a Turkish commercial-vehicles manufacturer, having previously given up entirely.
The Transit name has not become well known here in the US, even after 10 years of the Mk8 being sold here, for most of that period being the only full-size Ford van except for the chassis cab versions of the domestic E Series. The US Transit sells very well, manufactured in Missouri. However the Sprinter was the first of the Euro vans sold here and many people have started using that term generically to refer to a tall narrow (relatively) van.
I like that green chassis cab; we’ve finally found a vehicle less befitting to wear a Mustang badge than a Mach-E…
The US van market from the mid-’60s onward has been split about evenly between the Detroit big 3 (maybe a 4-way split since Mercedes-Benz entered the US van market), not allowing any one of them to become dominant. Probably the best known van here until the name was inexplicably dropped was the Econoline, also a Ford, but it never became what Americans called any van, and the same remains true of the Transit even though it’s been sold here for the last decade or so.
“Kleenex” is a classic “genericized trademark” in the US too, used to refer to any brand of tissues, but I had to look up what a Biro is; I doubt most Americans would have a clue. A quick trip to Wikipedia explained why: the modern style ball-point pen was invented and patented in the UK by László Bíró, but another manufacturer beat Bíró’s company to the American market and modified the design enough so it didn’t infringe on his patent, so that name/brand never became known here. “Hoover” is a curiosity – I only occasionally hear it used to describe any brand of vacuum cleaner in the US, or as a verb (“hoovering the carpet”). But the figurative use of ‘hoover’ (as in “I thought it was a cute app until I learned it was hoovering my personal data and selling it”) has become common in the US over the last decade. Worldwide internet sites and social media have resulted in numerous words, uses, and phrases that were once considered Britishisms, like “full stop” or “gobsmacked”, crossing the pond in the 21st century; I’m guessing that’s happened in both directions.
Taunus Transit, no dont know those ones the UK version came here in their thousands, Massive improvement over the previous Thames 800 wider bigger inside drove better, then the CF arrived and was better than the last effort by GM, only thing wrong with Transits was the vibrator they fitted to power it, the Bedford had a OHC four and went a lot better.
That pic of the “Oxnard CA”, dealer(circa “59”) is way cool.The “patient compartment” on the ambulance looks surprisingly spacious.
The fact that there is only a stretcher there is likely why.
Various versions of the Transit were available, including a crew cab and various pickup trucks.
(Image: Excerpt from the 1962 brochure)
That green pick up is just a ‘Thames’, the ‘Thames Trader’ was a larger ‘proper’ lorry (truck)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Trader
Hmm… How about tower, power, cow, now?