Test Drive, 2013+ Ford Transit 250

Sometimes owning small cars you need to rent larger cars. This is especially true when you are moving a significant amount of your possessions into storage.

And the van holds a lot of stuff quite well.

It holds significantly more than my BRZ, which was at its maximum for a camping weekend.
The rear doors had a useful open lock feature which kept them locked in an open position.
Being a moving van it also has side doors. This allows convenient access once the rear is loaded.

Front visibility is good and the short sloping nose helps greatly with front visibility.

Visible from here are at least three cup holders most of which are good for holding water bottles to keep you hydrated while moving. I know there are jokes about how much we like our cup holders in the US, but I actually find them convenient in this application.

Seating is very much in an upright position. Overall the seating position was bad though. The steering wheel is not telescoping and you sit very upright so it is difficult to be both comfortably back for the pedals and comfortably spaced from the steering wheel. Pedals are uncomfortable, at least for me, in the angle I came down on them.
The interior is a lot of hard plastics mean to take a beating.
Turn indicator and headlights are where you expect them on a modern Ford.

The dash is very simple.
If you look closely at the gear selector you will notice a rocker switch on the left side. This allows for manual gear selection of the automatic transmission, it is sequential.
Also another three cup holders in the center, the total we counter was nine. Okay, maybe a bit of overkill on the cup holders.

There are steering wheel controls for the no frills audio system as well as controls for the small instrument cluster screen.
The AC worked very well.

Rear cargo space is quite respectable. Also, as U-Haul outfitted this one there are wooden slats if you need to tie things to the sides.

The mirrors are usefully lard and the side mirrors provide pretty well your only rear visibility. The side mirrors work well enough.
Headlights leave a big dark spot right in front of the vehicle and brights did not really help at all.

The transmission upshifts at about 2250 RPMs. It has six speeds overall and a manual mode as mentioned previously. It accelerates like a large van, so not particularly quickly. There is some engine braking using the manual override.

In terms of handling and feedback these are not highlights of the vehicle experience.
The steering wheel does not seem to have a dead zone but is sluggish.
There is no pedal feel or steering feel.
If rolling and taking a 90 degree turn it requires about 320 degrees of steering input. From a dead stop a 90 degree turn takes 360 degrees of steering input. I would say the power steering is over boosted.

But I did not rent this because it would be fun, I rented it to haul stuff and it did the task well.
Also it was well appointed compared to the moving truck we got for a significantly longer drive.