Arctic Van Test 2008: Introduction

    

Five of Europe's finest vans braved Arctic conditions to battle it out for supremacy.

The annual running of the Finnish-based Arctic test failed to raise any interest from truck-makers this year, but a selection of Europe's finest vans of around 3,000kg GVW assembled for the run to the Arctic Circle. The Combi passenger-carrying versions favoured by the Continentals were tested, but the results are generally applicable to the panel vans sold in the UK.

We've reported on five, but you may find a sixth set of tyre tracks in the snow. They belong to the Hyundai H200, which is unlikely ever to be sold in the UK. As a result, we have disregarded it.

Ford's eternal Transit was present, wearing its Tourneo passenger-carrying guise and in its small 280 incarnation, and fitted with the 140PS front-drive layout. Two different products from the Sevel stable may look like one too many, but the newly enlarged Citroën Dispatch (Jumpy to the rest of Europe) and its Fiat Scudo/Peugeot Expert clones now almost overlap with the lower end of the full-size Fiat Ducato/Peugeot Boxer/Citroën Relay range. So we see an LWB Dispatch squaring up to a short and low Ducato 11.

The remaining contenders

The remaining two vans in the test were German, but were altogether rather different propositions. The Mercedes-Benz is a Vito, with its familiar four-cylinder engine mated to a five-speed auto box, while Volkswagen provided the Caravelle version of the T5 Transporter, again with an auto box conveying power from its 130hp five-cylinder engine.

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