Putting America's newest big van through the Costco test

For me, the words “American full-size van” conjure images of 1970s party wagons from Ford, Dodge and GM. We’re talking sidepipes, porthole windows and maybe a unicorn or scorpion airbrushed on the side. Inside: plush velour. That’s one kind of van. The other is the battered white tradesman genre, its interior bearing all the luxury of a Chinese shipping container. Until recently, those '70s vans were still the standard, as any U-Haul customer would know.

Suddenly, though, the dinosaurs are all but extinct, replaced by Euro-style vans like the Mercedes-built Freightliner Sprinter, Ram ProMaster and now, the Ford Transit.

The Transit replaces the E-Series, a platform that wasn’t fundamentally much different last year than it was in 1975: body-on-frame construction and a snub nose stuffed with either a gas-guzzling V-8 or a V-10 that was about as efficient as a burning oil well. There was no diesel.

The nouveau Transit offers a five-cylinder diesel, a 3.7-liter V-6 or, my favorite option, a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. That last one, paired with the smallest body (medium-wheelbase, low-roof) results in one of the most surprisingly fun vehicles of the year—310 hp, 400 lb-ft of torque and rear-wheel-drive. Priced at about $35,000 with eight-passenger seating, the Transit EcoBoost strikes me a smart alternative to big SUVs and minivans. To put it to the test, I brought it to the alpha adversary of interior capacity: Costco.