HAT DUCAT° 10 1.0P
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Price as tested: £10,575 ex-VAT (210,485 plus £90 for dual passenger seat). Engine: 2.0 litres, 110hp (82kW). GVW: 2,800kg. Payload: 1 ,120kg. Fuel consumption (laden): 23.8mpg (11.91it/100km).
Fiat is not a big name for vans in this country, perhaps because its marketing has rarely had a high profile. The company is one of Europe's manufacturing giants but its commercial range has never shown the overall strength to challenge the other big players outside the Italian market: Ford, Volkswagen and Renault have product ranges that are convincing all the way from hatchvans to 3.5-tonners.
But Fiat might now have the product line-up to be a convincing contender across the light commercial field: the little Unman can hold its own with more modern hatchbacks, the latest Fiorino is the biggest high-cube van by a healthy margin and the Ducato is a world-class panel van.
The Ducato is a product of the Sevel partnership between Fiat and PSA (Peugeot/Citron)—Fiat has a 50°O stake in the joint venture and, while the Ducato sells hugely in Italy, it must look elsewhere to sell its full share of the potential production of 900 vans a day at the Val-di-Sangro plant.
The big players in the LCV market ensure that they cover all the bases with a comprehensive range of panel vans and derivatives. Ford is the best example—its Transit options list is longer than anybody's arm. The new Sevel van was launched last year in plenty of variants. and here we look at one that caters for a pretty slim niche in the market. The body is conventional—a short-wheelbase, standard-height van like the Peugeot Boxer 270S that CM has tested --but this uses petrol.
Van drivers are a diverse bunch, but they seem agreed that the fuel economy and reliability of a diesel engine outweighs the perceived performance advantages of spark ignition—so petrol engines power a tiny minority of panel vans. Some manufacturers have dropped the petrol option in this country Citron, for example—while others have shifted the emphasis to performance. Ford's DOHC Transit and Mitsubishi's 16-valve L300 are prime examples of the powerful petrol van. but Fiat won't be left behind: this two-litre Ducato puts out 110hp, enough to take it to a (claimed) 89 mph.
The PSA-built engine is shared with the Peugeot Boxer. It's an overhead-cam unit fitted with a three-way catalytic converter. but engine management and multi-point fuel injection give it plenty of torque throughout the range: Fiat's dynamometer charts indicate that it puts out more than 130Nm all the way from 1,500 to 5,500rpm.
The same engine is also available in the Ducato 14, a medium-wheelbase van or chassis-cab that grosses 3,250kg. Bigger models come with Sofim's naturally aspirated or turbocharged 2.5-litre diesels.
• Productivity
It's arguable that the petrol van buyer is hardly interested in fuel consumption, but in any case the Ducato put in a good showing on our test. In atrocious weather, our laden Kent run returned almost 24mpg at an average speed of 41.0mph (65.9km/h). This was pretty efficient, as the petrol model offers an admirable 1,120kg payload-30kg more than the 1.9-litre, 70hp (52kW) diesel alternative which costs £415 more. The similarly-bodied Peugeot Boxer 270S, with a 68hp (51kW) PSA diesel, returned 27.3mpg. Unladen. the Ducato gave us 27.0mpg, around 1000 worse than the diesel Boxer.
We have extolled *the virtues of the "new" Severs loadspace time and again, but it worth saying once more. Front-wheel-drive has allowed its designers to provide a broad. flat floor and almost every cubic centimetre is useable. The VDA measure of practical loadspace gives a figure of 6.5m3, around 25°0 more than that of the short-wheelbase, standardroof Transit. The rear and side load doors are big and you can specify sliding load doors on both sides.
Our biggest gripe is that the standard van comes with a tubular bulkhead that protects only the driver's seat. A full steel and glass bulkhead will set you back £215 (ex-VAT).
• On the road
Like its predecessor the Ducato exhibits vice-free front-wheeldrive handling, its broad track, fat tyres and independent front suspension giving it good road holding and a comfortable ride even when lightly laden. Even without power assistance the steering was easy in town and remained particularly stable at motorway speeds—the van has no difficulty in handling the engine's output. Power delivery was smooth and flexible, not as peaky as one might expect from a fast-revving petrol unit.
In pouring rain and a howling wind. our laden average speed round the Kent route of 41.0mph (65.9km/h) was not too poor: a truer reflection of its speed was an unladen M20 hill-climb time of 2 minutes 41 seconds, in top gear all the way.
But the foul weather exposed a couple of potentially serious shortcomings. First, the intermittent wiper setting became more than intermittent, then the slowwipe setting gave up the ghost. Only the fast-wipe setting worked in the end. Then the torrential conditions reached the engine, which started to cut out at idle: it needed a fair bit of throttle to keep it going. Evidently, the rubber sparking plug boots were not as effective as they looked. After a dry day the van ran normally again but the wipers still didn't work properly.
The drumming of rain on the body made meaningful noise measurements impossible, but— like every other panel van without a bulkhead this Ducato was too loud. Subjectively the engine note was quite insistent, though not as bad as the average direct injection diesel, so a bulkhead or ear protection would be advisable for long distances.
The interior trim is uninspiring, with Fiat's customary half-baked tartan for the cloth seat covers, and the seats themselves are no match for the Transit's. Tall drivers may find legroom limited, and that their sightline meets the top of the windscreen, but the cabin is broad, storage is adequate and the mouldings look very strong ABS is not available on this model (it costs an extra .a05 on the Ducato 14), neither does the central passenger have a threepoint seat belt. Airbags are not available at all, so the Transit remains at the top of the class for safety—at least until the Mercedes Sprinter appears later this year.
• SUIMIllary
The Ducato might have lost some of its price advantage over competitors—this model actually costs 500 more than the basic petrol Transit 80, albeit with a lot more volume and payload. But this test also showed that Fiat has a range of vans with enough strength and breadth to
challenge allcomers.
It was a shame that the Ducat() blotted its copybook in the wet, as it otherwise showed that a petrol engine can still be a reasonably economical alternative to diesel—particularly for a van that carries light loads over moderate mileage. Having said that, such an engine would not be suitable for really hefty load-lugging, and a little more refinement would be welcome. But when you see that the petrol option is also less expensive and a good deal more powerful, the case is hard to ignore. Petrol power might just catch on, you know.
7 by Toby Clark