zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Culture
/
I Call Upon My European Colleagues To Rally The New 2021 Ford Transit Trail
I Call Upon My European Colleagues To Rally The New 2021 Ford Transit Trail-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:39

2021 Ford Transit Trail

Hey, everybody. Things are pretty wild outside right now, and if it starts to get any worse, I’m going to have to initiate my apocalypse plan of fleeing to the wilderness in a van sooner than later. Luckily, the van has been SUV-ified, but there’s just one major problem.

According to the release, the new Transit Trail uses the van platform’s current limited-slip differential and either rear-wheel drive, or optional all-wheel drive. What’s new is that it pairs them with a new Ford Raptor-inspired face design, additional black cladding around the wheel wells, and new, trim-specific “trail” 16-inch wheels. A heated windshield, leather, and air conditioning come standard with the trim.

2021 Ford Transit Trail

Here is where I would have suggested going with the smaller Transit Custom model, which is available in the new “Trail” trim, almost purely for aesthetics. But it isn’t available with all-wheel drive, kind of killing any semblance of seriously rationalizing the “Trail” designation for this model, so maybe skip the Custom.

And none of that matters, because the van trim won’t be sold stateside.

The new Ford Transit Trail is only available in Europe, alongside another new van variant, the Transit Active. Ford confirmed to there are no plans yet to sell the new trims in the U.S. Regardless, the one I still want to know more about is the hauler pictured above that looks like a bunny from the animated Rabbids.

Rabbids

2021 Ford Transit Trail

The other new SUV-ified European van is the Transit Active, which gets similar treatment to the previously-released Fiesta and Focus Active models. It gets its own unique grille design, additional body cladding, roof railing, and 17-inch wheels, however this trim is exclusive to the smaller Transit Custom, not the full-sizer.

Ford Transit Active

2021 Ford Transit Active

Across the proverbial pond that is in fact a terrifying chasm of cold spineless creatures we’ve yet to even begin to comprehend, the new Transits are available with the model’s lineup of engine tunes featuring a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged diesel rated to either 130, 170, or 185 horsepower.

Jumping back into my previously-mentioned apocalyptic van life scenario, the dream would have been to salvage a Focus RS and transplant its running gear to a Transit body, mostly for shits and giggles. I will have none of this 130 HP diesel bullshit in the apocalypse, though it’s probably the wiser fuel choice.

2021 Ford Transit Trail

While the actual Transit Trail is still pretty far off the mark from what I’d really want, I’m still happily surprised to see a factory Ford van checking anything off of my personal apocalypse dream van checklist. As Autoblog noted, the only way for us to get this cool looking Transit is if you buy yourself an American one (ideally with all-wheel drive), and then have someone ship you the body panels from Europe. Look at it as a favor of global solidarity.

If I had access to this van, I would immediate test to see just how “Active” it can get on a “Trail.” Since I am a dumb American, though, I leave this as a public call to my friends overseas: Rally the factory off-road van. Don’t do it for me, do it for the content.

2021 Ford Transit Trail

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Culture
If You Didn't Get A McLaren Senna, The 2021 Ford Bronco Will Sate Your Lust For A Vehicle With A Hole In The Door
If You Didn't Get A McLaren Senna, The 2021 Ford Bronco Will Sate Your Lust For A Vehicle With A Hole In The Door
It was in mid-December of 2017 when I got the bad news. The 500th and final of McLaren’s hyper exclusive Senna hypercars had been allocated and I would not, in fact, get to drive home with a super awesome hole that I could see through in my door.I considered...
Jul 20, 2025
We Need To Talk About Elon Musk's Pay
We Need To Talk About Elon Musk's Pay
Tesla CEO Elon Musk to have stock options worth around $2.4 billion available to him, the second of 12 tranches of options . It’s a big, possibly scandalous amount of money for a CEO! It will also be very difficult for Musk to ever see a dime of it....
Jul 20, 2025
Mercedes-Benz AMG Black Series Spotter's Guide
Mercedes-Benz AMG Black Series Spotter's Guide
Mercedes-Benz just posted some highlights from its old AMG Black Series catalog. Since those cars are awesome, here’s a post running down the AMG production cars that have been deemed worthy of Black Series badges. The German automaker resurfaced these specs as a to provide context for a new...
Jul 20, 2025
The Next Honda Civic Type R Will Get Acura NSX Hybrid Tech With Almost 400 HP: Report
The Next Honda Civic Type R Will Get Acura NSX Hybrid Tech With Almost 400 HP: Report
While the current is a bit of a benchwarmer in the hierarchy of high-performance sports cars, Honda may apply the NSX’s hybrid technology to push the fan-favorite next-generation to the edge of 400 horsepower. Japanese website , via , claims the next-generation Honda Civic Type R will debut in...
Jul 20, 2025
We're Rolling Real Heavy In Today's Virtual Off-Road Livestream
We're Rolling Real Heavy In Today's Virtual Off-Road Livestream
Welcome back to Talkin’ Trucks and Gettin’ Stuck, Jalopnik’s unofficial Twitch show, where I beam an hour or so of narrated virtual off-roading out into the internet for you to enjoy. Hop into the chat and let’s discuss trucks! For those of you who are checking this out for...
Jul 20, 2025
BMW’s ‘Most Serious’ New Electric Car Is Kind Of Lame
BMW’s ‘Most Serious’ New Electric Car Is Kind Of Lame
BMW just jammed some batteries into an X3 and called it a day like we didn’t already do this dance with the Mini E, the BMW ActiveE, and the other EV Mini I can’t remember the name of. Tesla has it easy. All that and more in for Tuesday,...
Jul 20, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved