Arctic Van Test 2009: Page 1/7

First published in Commercial Motor, 26/03/09

This van group test sets out to discover which is best for town and urban deliveries.

Compact delivery vans have increased in popularity significantly over the past few years – one of the reasons being that online shopping has increased the need for vehicles delivering from door to door. And as a consequence, operators have a big enough pool of models to choose from. In our Arctic Van Test 2009, five of these vehicles were put to the test in Finnish capital Helsinki and its surroundings, to see which came out on top. These days, a lot is asked of vans – gone are the days when a cheap car with a box body would do the trick. People want custom set-ups to run their business in the most effective way possible.The ideal van is supposed to be compact, fuel efficient, and yet still manage to carry three quarters of a tonne. There are five contenders in this year’s test:

• Citroën Berlingo, the new and elegantly restyled version of the French freighter
• Ford Connect, the Transit’s younger brother with plenty of space in the back
• Opel (Vauxhall) Combo, with its 1.3-litre diesel – one of the smaller guys
• Renault Kangoo, a bestseller for years, slightly revised
• Volkswagen Caddy, as reliable, and humourless, as a German shepherd dog

To start with, the vehicles were compared on paper. For all their different characters, they don’t deviate that much in terms of payload and loading volume.

With 3.7m3, the Ford Connect tops the tables, although it does weigh the most at 1,630kg. For this reason, the Citroën wins the payload contest with 776kg, beating the Ford and the lightweight Opel.

The Renault is quite a way behind the heavy Caddy with only 488kg payload. However, the maximum payload is often not that important in everyday town deliveries. In the test, all the vehicles were laden with 250kg to simulate a standard delivery consignment.

• Arctic Van Test 2009: Page 1
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• Arctic Van Test 2009: Page 7