Last Updated: 09/07/08
Full of possibilities
There were a couple of interesting trends at the CV Show this year. One was the number of electric vehicles, the other was the growth in double cab vans. We’re not talking double cab chassis here, but a panel van with a second row of seats and windows.As long as you still have the capacity to carry 1 tonne in the van you can continue to reclaim the VAT, but the vans offer both a people carrying capability and an enclosed load area.
Coming out of our long term Ranger Wildtrak, which had a second row of seats but a load area that was either open to the elements or hidden beneath a roll top, we decided that a double cab van might make an interesting comparison.
This similarity has obviously not passed the manufacturers by either, as you can now specify both single and double cab vans with an increasingly high level of interior trim. If the double cab pick-ups can go after the ‘work all week, play at the weekend’ lifestyle market, then why not vans too?
We opted for a Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport, in Dualiner double cab layout. There is a more powerful, and more expensive Sport X, but we thought that more people would be tempted by a four cylinder manual van than by a V6 with an auto box.
That said, the standard Vito Sport is not short changed in the power department itself. The 2.2 litre four pot puts out a healthy 150hp at 3,800rpm and a solid 330Nm of torque from 1,800-2,400rpm. It drives through a six-speed manual, though you can specify the five-speed auto if you prefer, and like all modern Vito’s drives the rear wheels.
I say modern Vitos, because of course the original Vito was front wheel drive, changing to rear wheel drive at the second generation to allow the fitting of larger engines and automatic gearboxes for the US market. At the time some thought that this was a bit of a cop out, with Mercedes simply adding numerous electronic aids to prevent tail happy vans from sliding off the roads.
However a month with the Vito Sport has revised that opinion. In everyday use you would be very hard pressed to tell which end of the van is driven, and there has never been a time when I thought that the rear might lose traction, unlike the Ranger which could easily be provoked into a slide on a wet roundabout.
In fact the only noticeable result of the rear drive set-up is totally uncorrupted steering that offers a surprising amount of lock, as there are no drive shafts to get in the way. And whereas I have driven powerful Mercedes cars that have constantly flashing traction control lights on the dash, I have yet to see any warning lights on the Vito, even in the wettest conditions, it simply feels totally secure and rock solid.
So what else do you get with the Sport specification? Externally there are 17” six-spoke alloys with 225/55R17 tyres. Though low profile, these tyres remain comfortable and the van is not crashy over bumps or potholes.
As mentioned there are a lot of acronyms involved in the driveline. These include an adaptive electronic stability programme (ESP), ABS brakes, anti-slip regulation traction control (ASR), brake assist (BAS) with electronic brake force distribution (EBV).
What’s important though is the fact that you just don’t know that any of this is there. The van drives well, steers, handles and stops. Indeed it stops really well, with heroic brakes that just grab the van and bring it to a halt, even from motorway speeds.
Of course you also get some additional styling for your money, with chrome steel side bars, a chrome grille, front and rear fog lights and Sport badges. The Vito Sport also only comes in metallic black or silver.
Inside the van there is standard Tempmatic climate control that has to be the fastest reacting air conditioning that I have ever experienced in a van. You want it cold, it’s cold. Need some heat early in the morning, it’s there before you’ve done half a mile.
You get cruise control, electrically heated and adjustable mirrors, electric windows, a leather covered steering wheel and gear lever gaiter and a driver’s seat with arm rest. The Comand satellite navigation system is not standard. However if you do specify Comand you get the multifunction steering wheel as part of the deal, along with a small directional repeater in the centre of the dash. It’s up to you whether you think £1,825 for sat-nav and a hands-free phone connection is money well spent.
The driver’s seat is typically firm, but very comfortable. However, I have had a couple of complaints from front seat passengers, who say that the fixed back double seat is not as comfortable over longer distances. Oddly the three individual rear seats have a choice of backrest position, yet the front dual seat is fixed.
You certainly get seating choice though. With individually folding and removable rear seats, each of which carries its own built-in three-point seat belt, you can have three, four, five or six seats in the van.
Take out all three rear seats and you have a full Vito load space. Take out just one and you can still carry full length loads, but with a team of people. You can also fold the rear seats forward, tight up behind the front seats, which provides plenty of load space without having to remove the seating.
And here’s where the double cab van might just take the fight to the double cab pick-up. With the seats folded forward, but still in place, I can get two trials bikes tied down in the back on a Sunday, in the Ranger they would have been hanging out of the back over the tailgate.
What’s more, riding gear, spare fuel and dry clothing can also be carried inside the van. And as the Vito Sport has a lift-up tailgate as standard, you even get somewhere dry to change!
Seriously though this doesn’t just apply to the Vito. The double cab van has a lot of possibilities that manufacturers are only just scratching the surface of.
It’s not just for lifestyle use either. For a company that needs to carry people and tools or materials to a job site, the double cab van offers secure storage and comfortable transportation, without having to go all the way to a full minibus layout.
What’s more, as the Dualiner has rear seats, the entire back end of the Vito is fully trimmed, on the floor, roof and walls, with a heating and cooling system for rear seat passengers. More than that though, the full trim greatly reduces road noise, making the van quiet to drive with no need for a bulkhead.
However despite the comfort trim, the rear of the van remains easy to wipe clean and the floor has plenty of lashing rings to tie down the load.
So there must be a cost for all of this equipment and style right? Well yes, the Vito Sport does cost a bit more than the standard van. The Vito Sport 115 Compact has an on the road price of £17,860 plus the VAT. Add to that £1,590 for the Dualiner comfort conversion and the £1,825 for the Comand nav system and our Vito comes in at £21,275 as tested.
It is proving a lot cheaper to run than the similarly priced 4x4 pick-up though, with fuel consumption regularly topping 33mpg and on one particularly light-footed trip a record of 36.5mpg. The Vito also comes with M-B’s Assyst flexible servicing system, which means that if you do mostly longer trips, you will get more miles between services.
We’ll be running the Vito for three months to see what it is like to live with day to day. We’ll report back at the end of the test on the cost of ownership and the working experience.
