Ford Tourneo Custom vs Toyota RAV4

What's the difference?

This idea hasn’t always worked out too well. Take a parcel-van (in this case the Ford Transit Custom) strip out the rubber matting and cargo barrier and bolt six or seven seats into what was the load area. Sure, the original vehicle to use this concept, the Volkswagen Kombi way back in the 1950s, got away with it, possibly because there wasn’t anything better around.

Ford has plenty of history with this notion, too. The first Transit of 1965 was also available as a mini-bus, but worked okay because the Transit itself was such a car-like departure from the commercial-vehicle norm.

Things didn’t go so well for Ford in the early 1980s, however, when the Econovan-badged parcel van it shared with Mazda (the E2200) was fitted with eight seats, given some fuzzy velour trim and dubbed the Spectron. And it was dreadful. In fact, so bad, that it made the contemporaneous Mitsubishi Nimbus and the even more forgettable Nissan Prairie seem like vastly superior alternatives to the job of moving people. Only because they were.

Early versions of the Spectron retained the Econovan’s crude suspension, wheezy (and fragile) little engines and even the tiny dual rear wheels that entirely deprived the vehicle of any traction. In fact, dreadful doesn’t even cover it.

So you can see why Ford might be a bit antsy about me referring to the new Tourneo (a badge that has been around in Europe for decades) as a Transit Custom with extra seats and windows. Yet that kind of sums it up (up to a point, anyway). Luckily, the Transit Custom itself is a pretty sorted thing these days, so maybe Ford has nothing to worry about. Maybe…

The Toyota RAV4 is arguably Australia’s darling and has been for years. It’s long set the benchmark in the mid-size SUV segment - a position rivals like the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage and Mazda CX-5 would love to occupy.

It’s also been close to a decade since we’ve seen anything new from the RAV4, so expectations for this sixth-generation update are understandably high. For this family review, we’re testing the flagship Cruiser Hybrid 2WD, which brings the most features and the biggest price tag in the line-up.

On paper, it promises meaningful upgrades, particularly in technology and refinement, while holding onto the practicality and efficiency that made it so popular in the first place.

But with stronger competition and rising expectations in this segment, the question is no longer whether the RAV4 is good, it’s whether it’s done enough to stay at the top.