The Urban Spacevan
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Chrysler's changes to the Spacevan are mainly cosmetic with a new matt black grille, side/indicator lamps and deeper bumper to the front, while at the rear the chief change is to the bumpers. Stronger mirrors and door handles are used and these complete the external changes. All the existing panels are retained, with the exception of the front panel which has been altered to accept the grille and lights.
Inside the Spacevan the cab has been reworked to provide greater driver comfort and a quieter ride. Insulation material is used beneath the floor covering and on the engine cover. A larger instrument binnacle is also used and the seats are deeper and more comfortable.
One of the best features of the diesel van, though, was its fuel consumption round our light vans circuit. Fully laden, it produced 9.7 lit/100km (29.2mpg) at an average speed of 77km /h (23mph) and this improved to 8.8 lit/100km (32.1mpg), in the half-laden state.
Handling T1HE small Perkins 4.108 power unit, which has a capacity of 1,750cc (107cuin) performed reasonably happily in the urban environment, although it tended to shudder when the revs came down to tick-over and indeed on several occasions stalled. Otherwise the Spacevan was nice to drive around town with light but direct steering and a good positive floor-mounted gear change.
Chrysler has in fact modified the remote control unit in an effort to tighten it up, and it
certainly seems much Although the wheel arch very small the Spacevan good lock, 11.3m (37.0. and 11.7m (38.5ft) right to kerb. A curious feature van is the park which operates on the wheels from a lever mo next to the driver's seat c offside.
Performance
BVIOUSLY the Space not intended for motorway Journeys, as oi to the MIRA proving groL Nuneaton along M1 was a experience. The Perkins working hard and sound despite the interior sc proofing. Part of the prc could have been the poor ting engine cover, one hir which had vibrated loose.
In spite of the noise, th pulled well and held its owl the other traffic. A wildly curate speedo (10 per cen had us doing 77 mph wh fact we were at the legal mum. At MIRA the bi proved to be extremely eff( despite the wet track on we tested them. Readift 100 per cent were obtain( the Tapley meter and the ping distances were s Acceleration times for the vehicle were particularly for such a small diesel unit.
were unable to try the ibility of the Spacevan as )pes were snow-covered. ier, the figures we quote ipplied by Chrysler and -easonable.
ility
M a driver's point of view. Spacevan is easy to get out of and offers good rd vision. The new er mirrors give excellent to the rear and do not even at tickover. My one >rn of the Dodge's equipconcerns the wipers, park at the top of the ) and swing down to the ide. Unfortunately this allows a certain amount ter to lie on the blades, inevitably drifts across reen in front of the driver. case this was in my direct f vision and after a while -ne very annoying. The themselves cleared a nable area but missed out a bit of the screen at the I-i.
trols
E two-spoke steering wheel tted to the Spacevan s a clear view of all the ments. A twist control on
binnacle operates the .s, and tumbler switches nrovided for the lights, rd warning and heater ar. 'Curiously, the heater )nly one other control, a to-hot slide. There is no
provision for altering the direction of the hot air from screen to interior — it simply blows on both, all the time.
The only other driving control is a multi-function stalk mounted on the right of the steering column. This controls the indicators, horn, headlamp dip and flash. A feature I found strange on the Dodge was the use of a key start and a separate stop control. Other manufacturers, for example Ford, fit a wiper type of motor which turns off the fuel as the key is turned to the off position.
This means that the key can be removed and the engine allowed to carry on running. It's a minor safety point which I would have thought could be added at little extra cost. Also it could help prevent damage to the alternator by switching off the key and then pulling the stop.
Access OUR Dodge was fitted with hinged cab doors, but not the optional hinged side-loading door. Sliding front doors are available but a side loading door cannot then be specified. To the rear, twin hinged doors are used which have a simple retaining mechanism to stop them swinging back on the driver in high winds. Unfortunately they don't open to 180 , only to 906:
Like the Toyota Hi-Ace which we recently tested, access to the power unit leaves something to be desired. On our test vehicle the retaining strap was not attached to the cover, which allowed the cover to go right over, and the third seat hit the mirror. Even when we reattached the strap the loose hinge made it difficult to keep the cover up. However, even if it was attached properly, access is still difficult. The air filter is tucked away very close to the floor panel on the offside and, although there are removable panels, it is not a quickly replaceable unit. Fuel filters are fairly easily reached, as are the radiator cap and dip stick.
Summary CHRYSLER sells a tremendous number of Spacevans to the Post Office and other such authorities. It is a well established vehicle which ought to have had any troubles sorted out in its 18 years of production. I suspect that if the financial circumstances at Chrysler were healthier, a replacement vehicle would have been designed and built by now.
Considering that this was not possible, the facelift has done much to modernise the vehicle. Unfortunately the old problems of forward control vans — those of poor accessibility and engine noise — have not been entirely eliminated. In spite of this, the Spacevan is a good urban delivery van, offering 5. 7cum (200cuft) of payload space for £3,207 as tested. The basic price is £3,063 plus £114 for the Hi-line spec and £30 for the inertia reel belts.