Oldest Ford Transit On Earth Still Alive And Kicking: Video

As Ford Authority reported back in April, the Ford Transit is turning 60 years old in 2025, a milestone that just officially took place earlier this month. The Blue Oval had a special celebration to mark that occasion, which included gathering a number of models together at the company’s UK-based Design Center. During this special event, Ford’s chief archivist, Ted Ryan, also paid a visit to the Ford of England Heritage Fleet, where he was able to drive the oldest Ford Transit on earth.

Ryan took what’s believed to be the oldest Ford Transit left in existence for a bit of a drive, navigating a roundabout and traffic in spite of its right-hand drive configuration. The yellow machine looks to be in great shape to this day, and was among five generations of that particular model that were on display as part of its anniversary celebration. Today, the vintage Ford Transit is part of the 120-vehicle UK Heritage Collection.

Over the past six decades, the Ford Transit lineup has expanded and evolved in a major way – now consisting of the full-size Transit, as well as the Courier, Connect, and Custom, each of which is offered with electrified powertrain options and the full suite of Ford Pro software. In the UK, the Ford Transit has remained that country’s best-selling commercial vehicle for 59 of its 60 years in existence, with overall nameplate sales reaching 96,000 units last year – more than 25 percent of light-commercial vehicle sales, overall.

Globally speaking, Ford has built over 13 million Transit vans over its 60 years of existence – meaning that one rolls off the assembly line every two-and-a-half minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Line them all up, and those vans would circle both the earth and the moon, amazingly enough. Interestingly, the vast majority of those units have been assembled in Europe – 10.1 million – and the Transit Custom has ranked as the UK’s best-selling van for 11 consecutive years, to boot.