By the LetsLease team
These three turn up on the same shortlist constantly. They are the medium panel vans most British businesses actually buy, they sit within a few hundred pounds a month of each other, and on paper they look like three different answers to the same question.
They are not. Two of these three are the same van. Not similar, not related, not sharing a few parts. The same van, built on the same platform, in the same factory, by the same company, with load dimensions identical to the millimetre. Once you know which two, this comparison becomes a much simpler decision than it looks.
Quick Verdict
Lease the Ford Transit Custom if you want the van with the most choice. It has the widest engine range, the most trims, the biggest load volumes, the highest payload and the highest towing figure, and it holds a current five star safety rating.
Lease the VW Transporter if you want that same van with a five year, 124,000 mile warranty instead of Ford's three years and 100,000 miles. That warranty is the honest reason to choose it. The badge and the front end are the other two, and there is nothing wrong with wanting either.
Lease the Vauxhall Vivaro if it prices up meaningfully cheaper, you do not need a high roof, and you are comfortable with a materially lower safety score. It is the only genuinely different vehicle here and it is a smaller van than the other two in every internal dimension.
The Numbers Side by Side
| Ford Transit Custom | VW Transporter | Vauxhall Vivaro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Load volume, shortest | 5.8m³ | 5.8m³ | 5.3m³ |
| Load volume, longest | 6.8m³ | 6.8m³ | 6.1m³ |
| High roof available | Yes, to 9.0m³ | Yes | No |
| Load length, shortest | 2,602mm | 2,602mm | 2,512mm |
| Width between arches | 1,392mm | 1,392mm | 1,258mm |
| Max payload, panel van | 1,355kg | as Ford | 1,326kg |
| Max towing, braked | 2,800kg | 2,800kg | 2,500kg |
| Euro NCAP 2025, van scheme | 5 stars | 5 stars | 4 stars |
| Score under the 2024 medals | 96% | 96% | 67% |
| Warranty | 3 yr / 100,000 mi | 5 yr / 124,000 mi | Ask us |
The 2,800kg towing figure belongs to one derivative, the 136PS diesel in Trend. Most of the rest of the range is rated at 2,500kg. We have named it rather than letting a headline number do work it cannot do.
Two of These Are the Same Van
The VW Transporter on sale today is built on Ford's platform, assembled by Ford Otosan at Kocaeli in Turkey, on the same line as the Transit Custom, and Ford led its development. The engines line up almost exactly. The gearboxes are the same. The infotainment is the same operating system with VW fonts over it. The load bay is identical: 5.8 cubic metres in the short one, 2,602mm of load length, 1,392mm between the wheel arches, 1,777mm across at its widest. Not close. The same.
If that sounds like the kind of claim a leasing broker makes to sound clever, here is the part that settles it. When Euro NCAP published its 2025 commercial van results, it gave the VW Transporter five stars. The vehicle it actually crash tested was a Ford Transit Custom 2.0 diesel. Euro NCAP's own release describes the Transporter as a twin of that van, sharing its safety technologies, and both results were published on the same day, 8 May 2025.
A standards body choosing not to test the second vehicle, because testing it would tell them nothing new, is stronger evidence than any manufacturer statement. Two badges, one van.
So What Actually Differs Between the Ford and the VW?
Enough to matter, but none of it mechanical.
The warranty is the real one. VW covers the Transporter for five years or 124,000 miles, with eight years on the battery of the electric version and service intervals of two years with no mileage cap. Ford gives you three years or 100,000 miles. On a van doing serious mileage that is a genuine difference in risk, and if you are keeping it beyond a typical lease it is the strongest argument in the VW's favour.
The trim ladders are completely different, which makes like for like quotes harder than it looks. Ford runs Trend, Limited, Trail, Sport and MS-RT. VW runs Commerce, Commerce Plus and Commerce Pro, with the electric version limited to the upper two. VW also tends to include air conditioning and LED headlights lower down the range than Ford does, so a cheap VW and a cheap Ford are not the same specification.
Ford offers one engine VW does not, the 136PS diesel, and it happens to be the derivative with the highest payload and the highest towing figure in either range. If either of those numbers is why you are buying, that is a Ford-only van.
And one small thing that matters more than it should. Ford fits a steering wheel whose centre folds flat into a worktable, which is genuinely useful if you eat lunch or fill in paperwork in the cab. VW fits its own round wheel and loses it. It is the kind of detail nobody mentions on a spec sheet and everybody notices in week three.
The Vivaro Is the Genuinely Different One
The Vivaro comes from Stellantis, and it has its own set of twins: the Peugeot Expert, the Citroen Dispatch, the Fiat Scudo and the Toyota Proace. Euro NCAP did exactly the same thing here that it did with the Ford and the VW: it tested only the Vivaro and applied that one result to all five badges. So the choice between those is also a choice of badge, warranty and price rather than vehicle.
What makes the Vivaro different from the Ford and VW is that it is a smaller van, consistently, in every dimension that affects what you can carry. 5.3 cubic metres against 5.8. 2,512mm of load length against 2,602. And the one that catches people out: 1,258mm between the wheel arches against 1,392mm. A standard 1,220mm sheet of plasterboard lies flat in all three, but the Vivaro gives you a lot less margin and a lot less width either side.
There is also no high roof Vivaro and no third length. The Ford and VW will both go to 9.0 cubic metres with a high roof on the long wheelbase. The Vivaro tops out at 6.1. If volume rather than payload is your constraint, that ends the conversation.
Safety: the Gap Is Much Bigger Than the Stars Suggest
All three were assessed in Euro NCAP's 2025 commercial van round. The Ford and the VW scored five stars. The Vivaro scored four. One star apart sounds like a close contest, and it is not.
Euro NCAP scored these vans on a percentage under its previous medal scheme before switching to stars, and those percentages are published. The Ford and the VW both scored 96 per cent. The Vivaro scored 67 per cent. Euro NCAP's own release on the Vivaro confirms that its 2024 result translated into the 2025 four star rating, so the four stars is a restatement of 67 per cent rather than a fresh test. That is a 29 point gap, not a one star gap.
On the detail, the Vivaro's emergency braking was rated good against stationary and slower vehicles but only marginal for a vehicle turning across its path and marginal for pedestrians, and adequate for cyclists. It has no brake jerk warning. Its lane support and speed assistance both scored well. Euro NCAP does not publish per category percentages for the van scheme, only an overall figure and these ratings words, so we are not going to invent any.
Credit where it is due, though: the pre-facelift Vivaro scored 30 per cent in the 2023 ranking. The facelift more than doubled it. The current van is a vastly safer vehicle than the one it replaced, and anyone judging it on an older review is judging the wrong van. It is simply not as safe as the two vans it is competing against.
Towing and Payload
The Ford and VW top out at 2,800kg braked, on the 136PS diesel in Ford's Trend trim, with most of the rest of both ranges at 2,500kg. The Vivaro's best is 2,500kg, on the 2.0 litre 150PS diesel, dropping to 2,000kg on the 1.5 litre.
On payload the three are closer than you would expect: the Ford's panel van range runs from 804kg to 1,355kg and the Vivaro's from 1,121kg to 1,326kg. Note where the Ford's floor sits. 804kg is the all wheel drive electric MS-RT, because batteries and a second motor cost you load. The highest payload and the lowest payload in this comparison are both Fords, which is a good illustration of why a model name tells you nothing and a derivative tells you everything.
Always check both figures against the vehicle's own plated weights before you commit to anything, and against your licence category if you are towing.
The Electric Versions
This is where the gap opens again. The E-Transit Custom and e-Transporter carry a 71kWh usable battery for up to 232 miles, charge at up to 125kW on DC, and will go from 10 to 80 per cent in around 29 minutes. The Vivaro Electric has a slightly larger 75kWh pack of which 69kWh is usable, returns 219 miles on Vauxhall's combined figure, and charges at up to 100kW, taking around 45 minutes from 5 to 80 per cent.
The drawback on the electric Vivaro is towing. It is rated at 1,000kg braked against 2,300kg for the electric Ford and VW. If you tow at all, that more or less rules it out.
One quote-reading note. Ford increased the E-Transit Custom's usable battery from 64kWh to 71kWh for 2026, but the industry database still names many of these derivatives "65kWh". That is legacy naming rather than the battery in the van, so match the range figure rather than the derivative name, and ask us if a listing looks inconsistent. Vauxhall quotes 219 miles in its specification block while its own range table gives 194 to 230 miles depending on specification, so treat 219 as the headline and expect the exact figure to move with the van.
A Note for Anyone in Luton
The Vivaro was built in Luton until the plant closed on 31 March 2025, and the last vehicle to come off that line was a Vivaro, on the Friday. Diesel Vivaros now come from Hordain in France, and the battery electric ones from Ellesmere Port, so an electric Vivaro remains a British built van. The Ford and the VW are both built in Turkey. If where a van is made matters to you, that is the state of it.
Which Should You Lease?
Take the Ford if you want the most van for the money and the widest choice of derivative. It has the volume, the payload ceiling, the towing figure, the engine range and a current five star rating, and it is the vehicle the other one is based on.
Take the VW if the five year, 124,000 mile warranty is worth the premium to you, or if you simply prefer the badge and the front end. You are getting the same van with a longer safety net, and that is a perfectly rational thing to pay for. Just go in knowing that is what you are paying for, rather than believing you are buying different engineering.
Take the Vivaro if the monthly figure is meaningfully lower, you do not need a high roof, you are not towing an electric one, and the safety score does not trouble you. It is a much improved van and for plenty of operators it is the sensible commercial answer. It is also, unambiguously, the third best of these three on the measures Euro NCAP tests.
Compare Transit Custom, Transporter and Vivaro Lease Deals
We are an independent, whole of market broker, so we can price all three against each other on the same terms and tell you which derivative actually fits what you carry.
Transit Custom vs Transporter vs Vivaro FAQs
Essentially yes. The current Transporter is built on Ford's platform by Ford Otosan at Kocaeli in Turkey, on the same line as the Transit Custom, with the same engines, gearboxes and load dimensions. Euro NCAP gave the Transporter five stars on the strength of crash testing a Ford Transit Custom, describing the VW as a twin of that van.
The warranty, the trims, the styling and the cabin. VW gives five years and 124,000 miles against Ford's three years and 100,000 miles, which is the main substantive difference. Ford offers an extra 136PS diesel engine, the highest payload and towing figures, and a steering wheel that folds flat into a worktable, which VW does not have.
The Ford and VW tie, at 5.8 cubic metres in the short wheelbase low roof and up to 9.0 cubic metres as a long wheelbase high roof. The Vivaro offers 5.3 and 6.1 cubic metres and has no high roof or third length at all, so it tops out well below the other two.
The Ford Transit Custom, at up to 1,355kg on the 136PS diesel in Limited trim. The Vivaro's best panel van figure is 1,326kg. The Ford also has the lowest figure here at 804kg, on the all wheel drive electric MS-RT, so the derivative matters far more than the badge.
The Ford and VW reach 2,800kg braked, but only on the 136PS diesel in Ford's Trend trim, with most of both ranges rated at 2,500kg. The Vivaro's maximum is 2,500kg on the 2.0 litre 150PS diesel, dropping to 2,000kg on the 1.5 litre.
The Ford Transit Custom and VW Transporter, both five stars in Euro NCAP's 2025 commercial van assessment. The Vivaro scored four. The gap is wider than it sounds: under the percentage scheme Euro NCAP used immediately before the stars, the Ford and VW both scored 96 per cent and the Vivaro scored 67 per cent.
Yes. The Vivaro, Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Fiat Scudo and Toyota Proace are the same Stellantis van with different badges. Euro NCAP tested only the Vivaro and applied that single four star result to all of them.
The Ford E-Transit Custom and VW e-Transporter, at up to 232 miles from a 71kWh usable battery, charging at up to 125kW. The Vivaro Electric manages 219 miles from a 75kWh pack with 69kWh usable, charging at up to 100kW.
The electric Ford and VW are rated at 2,300kg braked, which is close to their diesel equivalents. The Vivaro Electric is rated at only 1,000kg, so if you tow regularly it is not a realistic option.
Because Ford increased the usable capacity to 71kWh for 2026 but the industry vehicle database still carries the older derivative names. It is a naming convention rather than the battery in the van, so match the quoted range figure rather than the derivative name.
The Ford Transit Custom and VW Transporter are both built by Ford Otosan at Kocaeli in Turkey. The Vivaro was built in Luton until that plant closed on 31 March 2025, and the last vehicle built there was a Vivaro. Diesel Vivaros now come from Hordain in France and electric ones from Ellesmere Port.
Yes. We are an independent, whole of market broker placing business across funders including Lex Autolease, Novuna, Ayvens and Santander, so we can quote all three on the same terms and compare them properly. We are a credit broker rather than the lender, so the funder owns the van and holds the agreement with you.