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Bedford hoses to re.ain lost market share b offerin• many different options on its Midi ran•e. The 4WD version is an avera•e performer, but its competitive price will appeal to those who do not need a .articularl 'arse load s.ace
• Like the midi skirt before it, the Bedford Midi van was introduced in 1985 to fit "strategically between" a larger and a smaller product. Instead of the mini and the maxi skirts, Bedford was looking at the Astra and CF2 vans to act as boundaries of the Midi's market.
The Luton-built Midi has moved on since then, and the Isuzu-designed van is, since the demise of the CF2, the largest panel van in the Bedford range. Below the Midi, Bedford now has the Astra van, the Astramax, and the microvan Rascal, so perhaps the name Midi is no longer appropriate.
The Midi range comes with a choice of two roof heights, two wheelbases, three engine options and, more recently, fourwheel-drive, which says a great deal about growing manufacturer awareness of the off-road sector. The 4 x4 standard panel van is only available with the naturallyaspirated diesel and petrol engines, the short wheelbase, and low roof options.
The vehicle tested here is the 2.2-litre diesel version of the 4x4 Midi. Optional extras include a limited-slip differential in
the rear axle, cargo restraint hooks, and frame, and a second side-loading door on the driver's side. Some of the jolly paint options listed for the Midi include memorable colours as Cargo Blue, Sandstone or Greystone. Unfortunately our Midi came in Slate Green, which is more redolent of a school corridor than a snappy Japanesedesigned compact van.
While not the lowest in the world, the 4x4 Midi's load bed is respectably low, and loading the van from the rear is no great task. There is a single top-hinged tailgate which, like all similar units, hits you under the chin if you stand directly in front of it when undoing the door. The sliding side load doors give reasonable access to the load bed at the front and, while the cargo frame will not stop small items from entering the cab front under hard braking, it does provide something to tie them to.
Bedford has thoughtfully provided a release to the rear tailgate on each side of the vehicle, but has neglected to provide a lock on each side. This forces a hapless loader to scrape past the door to the near side with the key to unlock the tailgate, then come back across the rear to undo the door with the offside release provided.
The interior of the load bay is unadorned painted metal with supporting struts running vertically down the sides. The lower part of the interior has a fibreboard panel to protect against scuffing, but this would be easy to remove if racking was being installed. We have seen some well-racked examples of the Midi for engineers, mobile workshops and the like, but the van is just a bit too small to allow access to the load space for the driver with all the racking and tools in place. Perhaps this is why the Midi comes with a one-piece tailgate; so an engineer could work underneath it in the dry and still have access to all the tools. Either way, it is a little shortsighted of Bedford not to at least offer a roller shutter rear door option. Without it, the van cannot be loaded at a wharf without stopping first to raise the tailgate.
• DRIVELINE
The 2.2-litre lsuzu diesel replaces the General Motors two-litre unit in the previously tested Midi van. The unit is an all cast-iron, naturally-aspirated, 2,198cc four-pot IDI diesel. The long-stroke engine gives 45kW (60hp), and 126Nm (931bft), which is an improvement on the previous engine, especially in torque.
It drives a two-speed transfer box through a five-speed all-synchromesh gearbox with a floor-mounted gearchange that prevents the option of a third front passenger seat. When Bedford says "floor-mounted" in its brochures, what it actually means is halfway-down-theengine-cover-mounted. As this is nearer the floor than the steering column, we won't quibble about the terminology.
The transfer box is an Isuzu chaindriven type, and takes the drive to the front wheels through a hypoid differential and automatic free-wheel hubs. Drive to the rear wheels goes via a standard propellor shaft to a live rear axle. Normal drive is to the rear wheels; the transfer box gives the option of four-wheel drive in high or low ranges, or high-geared twowheel drive.
• PERFORMANCE
Boasting that he could repeat a complete chapter of The Natural History of Iceland from the Danish of Horrebow, Dr Samuel Johnson proceeded with; "Concerning snakes; there are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.' A similar boast about the Bedford gear-lever manual would proceed thus: "Concerning springs; there are no springs to be met with throughout the whole gear lever mechanism."
The engine's performance is spoiled by this lack of springing in the gear lever, to the extent that acceleration is slowed for an all out search for third gear after passing through first and second. More seriously, it is very easy to pull the lever out of the dog-leg fifth gear position straight into reverse, with expensive consequences. Push the lever anywhere along the neutral plane and it stays there, while most other gear levers we have come across spring back to sit across the third/fourth plane. It makes things especially difficult when driving the van off the road where gears have to be selected quickly and accurately.
After mastering the difficult gear change, it is clear that the engine is a bit breathless when the van is fully loaded. Although forward-control vans give the illusion of speed, it was a fight to maintain just 64km/h (40mph) on some parts of our Kent light van route. The engine's torque will ultimately pull the van up gradual hills in high gears, but slowly. It all makes for long, tedious journeys, unless one is pre
pared to row the van along on the gear lever — a solution which is not for the faint-hearted.
The test van did not have Bedford's optional bulkhead, so a lot of noise reaches the driver after being amplified by the body acting as a sound box. Although the noise is in part transmission roar, a great deal of it is exhaust resonace, and engine noise.
• HANDLING
To cope with the strenous demands of off-road driving, the suspension and the frame have been uprated by Isuzu. The front suspension is sprung with torsion bars to allow access for the front driveshafts — a similar arrangement is found on many Japanese-manufactured 4x4 pickups. The telescopic dampers retain their normal position, and the driveshafts pass through the space normally occupied by the front coil springs.
The rear suspension is a live axle supported by semi-elliptic leaf springs. The ride heights of all the springs have been increased by around 50mm, and the springs have been uprated by about 16.5%. The body also has a number of small changes, including thicker material for the sidemembers, strengthened cross braces and uprated bracketry.
With high ground clearance, off-road tyres, and all the above changes it is difficult to tell just what each is contributing to the handling. The Midi's handling characteristics can be summed up as follows: 0 On the road, in laden or unladen condition, the van has a lot lesi grip on its off-road tyres. It turns into corners readily, but then the steering gets much heavier as the front wheels understeer. If the power is kept on, and/or the steering angle is tightened, then the body will roll alarmingly, the inside rear wheel will lift off the ground, and the van will oversteer. The ultimate result is a spin, which can take place at low cornering speeds if the road conditions and other circumstances are adverse.
0 Off the road the van leaps around from bump to bump, and at some points it is only the grip provided by the rear limited slip differential option that allows it to make any forward progress. There is little suspension articulation, and severe obstacles should be avoided, or tackled with sufficient speed to allow the momentum of the vehicle to carry it over the hazard. A substantial alloy sump cover allows this to be done with some peace of mind.
The Midi is also very susceptible to side winds, and the steering is too heavy to make for simple parking.
When we looked at the Midi's suspension it was immediately noticeable how little suspension travel there was. This characteristic would explain the poor offroad articulation of the wheels, and the inside-rear-wheel lift when cornering, which would in turn explain some of the
sharp oversteer we experienced. The chunky off-road tyres account for the poor overall grip, and the high centre of gravity would explain the roll oversteer and sidewind susceptibility as air gets under the vehicle, and the winds gets a better leverage on the taller van.
• INTERIOR
The Midi's dashboard contains a speedometer, water temperature and fuel gauges, a radio and a clock. All are contained in the binnacle fascia, under nonreflective glass. In addition to the normal oil, brake fluid and other warning lights, there is also a useful warning light for the timing belt on the 2.2-litre diesel engine. The instruments are all easily read and well illuminated. Of particular note must be the heater controls set into a panel in front of the recalcitrant gear lever. Completely unambiguous, and Smooth and progressive in operation, they are reigns to a powerful heater blower that must be the envy of certain French and German light van manufacturers, whose meagre offerings we have often sat in front of, confused and shivering.
To our surprise, the Midi's seats are quite comfortable in spite of appearances. They are supportive when driving offroad, and comfortable for long journeys. Our only criticism is that drivers cannot rest their feet flat on the floor in front of the pedals because of the shallow sloping engine cover that extends across the cab.
The only other gripe with the easily cleaned, straight-forward cab is that the ignition key socket is well hidden behind the steering column cowling, and is difficult to find at night.
• SUMMARY
Taking the Bedford Midi sales brochure at face value (and who doesn't?) the Midi van comes across as a versatile load carrier that is the answer to every commercial application except servicing spy satellites in geo-stationary orbit. A more realistic description of the Midi range was given by our testing panel in this year's Light Vehicle Supplement (CM 19 May
1988), when the Midi came second to last out of the eight vans tested. Typical comments were: It would be OK for small deliveries, or as a cleaner's van, but the load space is very limited", or when compared with the similar Toyota Hi-Ace: "The Toyota's got it, and this one hasn't."
Most Japanese vans have small, restricted load spaces, but part of their success lies in the Japanese production-based ability to rapidly change models, or face-lift old ones, while offering a plethora of clever devices to make the driver's job easier, Bedford has invested heavily in production facilities at Luton, and cannot change its models as quickly as the Japanese, because it requires longer periods for the vans to pay back the cost of production with Luton's smaller volumes. The company has taken a different tack with the Midi van, and is trying to appeal more to the fleet market, and hopefully recapture the market share it lost with the demise of the CF2.
To further this aim it has attempted to widen the appeal of the Midi and build as many different types of the range as possible at the IBC plant.
The 4x4 Midi is just one example of this sort of thinking. Sales of the vehicle will not be very high, but the van need only act as a flag waver for the rest of the range to have done well.
As a four-wheel-drive van the Midi is certainly better than the Renault Trak 4x4 (CM 3 November) and cheaper too. The Midi is, however, inferior to the Volkswagen Transporter Synchro, but then the price difference of £3,000 in favour of the Bedford should sort those who are serious about off-roading from those who like to park on the kerb.
In all it is a sad little van, neither one thing nor the other, living up to its name only to the extent that it lives in the middle of two distinct classes of vehicles; the off-road panel van and the two-wheeldrive panel van. It doesn't seem a very sound basis on which to spearhead a marketing campaign for the rest of the Midi range.
0 by Andrew English