Diffuse start of million selling name Ford Transit. (update: even pre-war in North-America!)

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Photographer Karel Vermeer spotted this Ford Transit VW-Bus look-a-like in Lopik (NL) which made us wonder about when the Transit legend in fact began. Ask an average old car guy and they will say 1965 as it was then when the friendly faced,  short nosed Transit Mark I was introduced in the UK. In fact this was an 'evolution' of the Thames 400E. Both cars however have nothing to do with the german built Ford Transit depicted here. Following wikipedia the german Transit started life as FK 1000, a code which stands for Ford Köln with a a carrying capacity of 1000 kilos. It was only in 1961 that the  the car got the name Ford Taunus Transit. Interstingly enough production stopped in 1965 when the Transit was introduced.

UPDATE by editor: there seems to be some confusion regarding the phrase or model name 'Transit' . Transit is a generic word that could be and was used by more parties. Still when looking at the old advertising of Ford USA we see the term Transit pop up with a cpaital in cnjunction with Ford, making us think it was a fixed model name. Check here; there are many more examples. 

update: Ford afficionado Thilo Moerke points out about the pre-war Transit, like this one (click).

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