Why the boxy, practical Ford Tourneo Courier is one of 2024's best cars

The Skoda Yeti may be dead (RIP old friend), but its spirit lives on in the endearing, practical and unapologetically boxy Ford Tourneo Courier. In fact, it might just be one of the most loveable new cars that I reviewed in 2024.

It was all the way back in January when Ford gave us the chance to drive its new Puma-based people carrier alongside the van-spec Transit Courier, and the combination of slick six-speed manual gearbox, keen 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost engine and squidgy tyre sidewall made for an enormously cheery experience.

Yes, it’s almost unimaginably slow with just 123bhp, 125lb ft of torque and a 13-second 0-62mph time, but how often do we bang on about low limits making cars even more fun to drive? There’s a properly plucky spirit to the five-seat Tourneo, meaning it’s not just the square looks that it shares with the old Skoda.

As a boxy, van-like MPV with a starting price of just under £26k in a world of swoopy, expensive crossovers the Tourneo Courier is a bit of an underdog, and we love an underdog. We also love boot space, and it’s got absolutely tonnes of that.

Overall, it loses a few marks for the sluggish auto gearbox (just buy the manual) and for not having a separate climate control panel on the inside (gah, a proper own goal), but I had more fun in the Tourneo than I did in plenty of the more powerful and supposedly more sporting cars I drove this year. Plus, you can have it in two-tone paint with a contrast white roof if you spec the rufty-tufty Active trim and decide on ‘Cactus Gray’ or ‘Bursting Green’ as your base colour.

There’s lots of talk of a new, all-electric Ford Fiesta in the pipeline, but if I was in the market for a small family car right now, I’d take a serious look at the Tourneo. Most of the bits underneath are reheated from the old Fiesta anyway, and we all know just how good that was. Plus, the Yeti was actually crowned our Family Car of the Year back in 2009, and I think the Tourneo Courier deserves a little more love.