RAM 2500 vs Ford Tourneo Custom

What's the difference?

The RAM 2500 from RAM Trucks Australia, which is rated to tow nearly 7.0 tonnes, is designed primarily as a heavy duty towing platform with a huge Cummins turbo-diesel engine, long wheelbase, high kerb weight, exhaust brake and lots of room inside a luxurious cabin.

These 'Australianised' RAM trucks are shipped in a unique export specification direct from Fiat Chrysler Automobile's heavy duty RAM Trucks Saltillo assembly plant in Mexico, re-manufactured in RHD on a bespoke production line in Melbourne and distributed throughout Australia and New Zealand by American Special Vehicles.

ASV is a joint venture between Ateco Automotive and the Walkinshaw Automotive Group (WAG) which also owns Holden Special Vehicles. It is the only RAM Trucks importer in Australia officially sanctioned by FCA, resulting in a unique factory-approved vehicle that meets the company's strict OEM standards and is backed by a full factory warranty and national dealer network.

Put simply, it's as close as you can get to driving a brand new RHD version of this legendary American pick-up off FCA's Mexico assembly line, and offers a compelling solution for those with something really big to tow.

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…