PANEL VANS
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Winner:
MERCEDES-BENZ SPRINTER 312D
Other contenders:
Ford Transit 100 85PS automatic Iveco TurboDaily 35.12 Nissan Vanette Cargo
Another mixed bag. Apart from a pair of high-powered 3.5-tonners, the group contains a fairly lightweight "compact" panel van and a real oddity—a diesel-engined automatic van.
Perhaps that's unfair--it was Ford's excellent Transit 100 in short-wheelbase form, with the catalysed turbo-diesel and Ford's four-speed automatic gearbox. The Transit still leads the pack in terms of driver comfort and safety features, and the number of options available. It's the only automatic panel van on the market, and for a few urban delivery tasks it could be ideal.
Another van suited to urban conditions is the Nissan Vanette Cargo, the first of a new generation of Japanese (actually Spanish-built) panel vans which should be more acceptable to European tastes—and European crash legislation. We found it well-made and practical, though a little noisy and short on performance. But its price and looks should help it steal retail sales from high-cube CDVs.
At the opposite pole of the panel van world is Iveco's TurboDaily 3512 HiCube: this 3.5tonner is, as we said last year, a van that thinks it's a truck. With massive components and a massive chassis, the lightest version of the TurboDaily looks like it will last well into the next millenium, The load volume is an impressive 14.4m3, and the ashtray is nearly as large again, but the price you pay for all that size is a mediocre payload—exactly a tonne with our standard 75kg driver.
Mercedes-Benz launched perhaps the most important commercial vehicle this year, the Sprinter van which replaces the 19-year-old Ti design. We tested a 312D long-wheelbase version, and were impressed. This 3.5-tonner has a load volume just 1m3 shy of the Iveco's, but 35% more payload. Road manners and driver comfort are excellent. Better still, the new five-cylinder direct-injection turbo-diesel has exceptionally long service intervals and extraordinary performance—it's both the fastest and most economical 3.5-tonne van CM has driven.
Good as the other contenders are, this year they're out of luck: the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is our Testers' Choice.