The Mercedes-Benz Citan at Mercedes’ Brentford dealership.
A Mercedes-Benz Citan and two drivers have completed a mission to visit every Mercedes-Benz dealer in the UK. The 3,807 miles journey took nine days and included locations from Aberdeen to Truro.
Given that Mercedes’ commercial vehicle dealer network includes 98 locations in the UK, it was quite a trip. Amongst the locations visited were Brentford, Norwich, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and York, as well as the two most far flung dealerships in Aberdeen and Truro.
Many of Mercedes’ commercial dealers are open 24 hours a day, to allow out of hours servicing and repairs, and to demonstrate that good service never sleeps, a staff member at each dealer signed the bonnet of the Citan as it made its way around the UK.
Although the Citan managed to complete the trip using a modest six tanks of diesel, its occupants had larger appetites and consumed eight packets of biscuits,14 takeaways, 16 sandwiches, 18 cups of coffee and 21 bottles of water along the way…
The Ford Transit Custom added another trophy to its collection last night by winning the inaugural Auto Express Van of the Year award.
The multi-award winning and generally awesome Ford Transit Custom has added another award to its bulging collection, laying claim to the inaugural Auto Express Van of the Year Award.
Auto Express has recently decided to add van coverage to its weekly magazine, and marked the decision by adding a van category to its annual awards. Ford took four honours in total at the 2013 Auto Express awards, but here’s what Steve Fowler, Auto Express editor-in-chief, had to say about the Transit Custom:
“Ford has listened to the needs of van drivers and produced a vehicle that delivers in every sense of the word. It has the load-carrying ability you’d expect, with features you wouldn’t and it’ll keep running costs low, too. Up front, drivers have never had it so good, with great handling, comfort and the very latest tech.”
I’m starting to see more and more Transit Customs on the road and cannot wait to get behind the wheel of one myself. Even more interesting will be the launch of Ford’s new two-tonne Transit model in 2014, which will go head-to-head with the class-leading large van, the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.
For any car lovers amongst you, Ford’s other three awards were Best Supermini for the Ford Fiesta, Best Hot Hatch for the Fiesta ST, and Best Five-Seat MPV for the Ford B-Max — the same trophy Ford won last year for the C-Max.
Vans such as the Citroen Relay are now available with the 4 years/60,000 miles servicing and 4 years breakdown cover for just £249 +VAT
Fixed-cost servicing plans are increasingly popular with commercial vehicle operators, but few are more competitive than Citroën’s current ‘Upgrade to Business Class’ package.
For £249 +VAT when purchasing a new Citroën van, customers can opt to add the ‘Upgrade to Business Class’ package to their vehicle, which will cover the cost of servicing for 4 years/60,000 miles (whichever comes first) and provide 4 years’ Citroën Assistance, which is provided by the AA.
All new Citroën LCVs registered from 1 July 2013 can be specified with the package, which is also available to Citroën Finance Lease customers.
As Scott Michael, Citroën’s Head of Commercial Vehicles, comments, the deal is aimed squarely at relatively low-mileage SME customers, who are an important segment for the French manufacturer:
“This new ‘Upgrade to Business Class’ package complements our fantastic LCV range and is designed to meet the requirements of our small and medium enterprise (SME) customers, offering them a comprehensive, added-value package.
Electric vans are fast becoming a meaningful alternative to petrol and diesel-powered models, especially in urban environments and on large sites where mileage and duty cycles are predictable, and recharging points are readily available.
Renault has been a firm believe in the potential of electric vans and has just added a second electric van model to its range.
While the company’s existing model, the Kangoo Van Z.E., is simply an electrical model of the conventional Renault Kangoo van, the Renault Twizy Cargo is rather different and is a single-seater, small capacity niche van aimed at users with very precise requirements.
Introducing the Twizy Cargo
Parking the Twizy Cargo is much easier than with a conventional small van.
The Twizy Cargo is based on the standard Twizy — which is pretty wacky in the first place. The rear passenger seat is swapped for a 180-litre boot with an opening and lockable door.
The load area can take loads of up to 75kg and the rear door opens to 90 degrees, making it easy to load small packages quickly. The Twizy’s small size also means it can be parked at right-angles to the pavement, rather than parallel to it, as the picture alongside this article shows — this makes for speedy parking and getaways, even on busy streets.
As a car-derived van, with fully recoverable VAT, the Twizy Cargo is £650 cheaper than the standard model, at £6,241. According to Renault, VAT can also be reclaimed on its battery hire, from £36 per month (excluding VAT), making it even more financially attractive.
Although it could be used as a grounds vehicle on a large private site, the Twizy Cargo is clearly aimed at urban users and may tempt London businesses as it is exempt from the London Congestion Charge and offers eye-catching styling that should make it a great marketing tool.
Renault says that the Twizy Cargo has a real-world range of around 50 miles and can be charged from a standard three-pin electrical socket, by way of the in-built charging cable. A full charge takes just three and a half hours and will cost around £1, according to the French manufacturer.
Technical Specification
Top speed
56 mph
Range
62 miles (NEDC). Real world conditions circa 50 miles
Power
17hp
Boot capacity
180 litres
Boot dimensions
550mm (d) x 500mm (l) x 950mm (h)
Max load
75 kg
Vehicle dimensions
2338 x 1237 x 1454mm
Unladen weight
375kg
Kerb weight
474kg
Although the Twizy Cargo’s 56mph top speed isn’t going to tempt drivers out of town — and no doubt would be a slightly scary prospect on a motorway– it is more than adequate for urban use and sits well with the electric Twizy’s claimed real-world range of 50 miles.
With companies like Renault producing electric vehicles of this quality, I think that the future is looking good for electric cars and vans, although it will still be a long time until they become anything like mainstream choices, thanks to the continued problem of limited range and slow charging.
Commercial vehicle hire firm Northgate, which specialises in providing flexible medium- and long-term hire to business customers, is planning to open up to 20 new branches in the UK over the next three years.
Darlington-based Northgate said that based on industry-standard drive times, its existing 65-branch network covers around 60% of the UK. The firm said that it had identified a number of areas where coverage was poor, especially in London and the south of England.
Northgate now plans to open six to eight sites within the London area over the next 12 months. The firm estimates that the sites will take three years to reach maturity, and will eventually operate a fleet of approximately 500 vehicles per site.
UK turnaround?
Northgate has had a difficult time over the last few years, and the firm has been forced to shrink its UK van hire fleet in order to maintain utilisation rates, as demand has declined.
In its full-year results last week, Northgate said that its UK fleet had been cut from 52,900 to 49,900 over the last year, during which time fleet utilisation had dropped from 88%, from 89% in 2012.
The firm, which reported a pre-tax loss of £11.4m last year, due to restructuring charges, said that its immediate target was a return to 2012 utilisation levels, but emphasised that its underlying business remains profitable and is delivering returns above the company’s cost of capital.
The branch is located at 11 Queens Road and is only around two minutes’ walk from the firm’s old location on Mabel Street.
As far as I can tell, this new branch is for Europcar customers who want to visit the branch in person to collect and drop off vehicles.
Europcar’s old Mabel Street branch appears to remain open but is marked as ‘delivery and collection only’ on the firm’s website, suggesting it is only used for customers who are having their rental vans delivered to/collected from their home or workplace.
The new Nottingham location joins a new branch in Derby to extend the Europcar network already in place across the East Midlands. Travellers in the region have access to a range of vehicles and vans and customers can collect and drop off vehicles from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday from 8am to 4pm.
Top Gear fans will undoubtedly remember watching German racer and ‘ring expert Sabine Schmitz set a new lap record around the Nurburgring in a Ford Transit, a few years ago.
Until recently, that record — for the fastest commercial vehicle lap of the ‘ring — has stood. But no more.
Perhaps fittingly, the lap record has been reclaimed by a German van, a modified VW T5 Transporter that smashed the record by breaking through the 10 minute barrier.
Volkswagen tuning experts Revo were sure that the lap time set by Ms Schmitz could be improved upon, with a little preparation.
To that end, it acquired a used T5 with 80,000 miles on the clock, and then breathed on it slightly, adding a bespoke ECU remap, Milltek ‘turbo-back’ exhaust system and a Forge intercooler/oil cooler combination. This was enough to take the engine to an impressive 220bhp and deliver a healthy increase in torque, too.
Revo’s modifications were limited to tyres, suspension and exhaust, in addition to an engine remap that boosted output to 220bhp and an uprated intercooler.
Although the T5 is one of the best-riding vans on the road, handling and roadholding was improved with the addition of BILSTEIN’s well-proven B14 coilover kit, a quartet of lightweight Team Dynamics wheels and a set of sticky, but fully road legal, Direzza boots from Revo’s tyre partner, Dunlop.
With this lot fitted, the ethos was simple:
Drive the T5 the 580 miles from Revo’s base near Northampton to The Ring, complete with all of the crew’s kit and gear in the back;
Drive around the track as fast as possible;
Drive all the way home again.
No trailers, no back-up plans, no contingencies. Just a simple proving exercise of the concept in a real-world situation.
Despite driving hard on track, the intelligent tuning and thoughtful engine mapping ensured that fuel economy during the trip under normal driving conditions remained exceptional.
For its ‘Ring record attempt, the van was driven by another ‘Ring pro, Dale Lomas, who hustled the T5 around for a few laps in the midst of some track day traffic, emulating the Top Gear record attempt, which was also performed with other traffic on the track.
The end result was a new lap record of 9 minutes 57 seconds around the full circuit, which is around a mile longer than the ‘Bridge to Gantry’ lap time set by Sabine Schmitz in the Top Gear Transit. Impressive stuff.
Here’s a video of the record run, and below that I’ve included the video of the original Top Gear hot lap for comparison. Van driving doesn’t get much hotter than this:
This is a trend we have seen playing out for some time now, but the overall decline moderated in April, thanks to a surge in domestic demand. May’s 20% overall decline is greater than the 16.1% fall for the year-to-date, but the decline in export demand of 33.2% was broadly in line with the 31.5% decline seen so far this year.
“Commercial vehicle manufacturers continue to battle against weak demand, particularly abroad, with output sliding 20% in May. Demand for UK-built CVs in the home market grew moderately, but this was not enough to lessen the significant drop in export volumes,” said Nigel Base, SMMT Commercial Vehicle Manager. “2013 is going to be a hard year for the UK’s CV manufacturers but there are pockets of positivity with some areas of the industry experiencing growth as operators take advantage of the wide range of CVs built in the UK.”
SMMT CV manufacturing output in May, 2007-2013
However you look at these figures, they are pretty dire news. The graph on the right shows how the UK’s CV manufacturing industry has failed to recover from the recession.
Indeed, given the impending closure of Ford’s Transit plant at Southampton, it seems unlikely that the UK’s CV manufacturing capacity will recover to pre-2009 levels in the foreseeable future, as the loss of this factory removes a significant proportion of capacity from the industry.
Car manufacturing down
The decline in European demand is now hitting UK car production too, which is now down by 0.6% on the year, thanks to a 6% fall in export demand in May, which overwhelmed a 25% increase in domestic demand for the year-to-date.
I’m still astonished that the UK car market is performing so strongly — given the lacklustre state of the economy, it doesn’t seem to make sense, but there you go.
Nissan’s drive to gain market share in the fleet market has taken another step forward with an order from Bevan Group, one of the UK’s leading vehicle bodybuilders, which has purchased 20 Nissan NV400 vans for use by its national network of mobile technicians.
The fleet of 3.5 tonne GVW front-wheel drive 125PS NV400s in SE trim will be used as mobile workshops to maintain and repair all makes and models of truck and van bodies as well as ancillary equipment such as tail lifts, cranes and roller shutter doors.
Halesowen-based Bevan Group chose Nissan after an extensive test drive programme led by the mobile technicians. They liked the NV400’s performance, low load access height and maximum payload.
Nissan was eventually preferred ahead of vehicles from three other leading manufacturers (it’s interesting to note here that Nissan was — by implication — chosen ahead of Vauxhall and Renault, both of which sell the same van, badged as the Movano and Master respectively).
The vans also feature factory-fitted satellite navigation systems and supplying dealer West Way Nissan has fitted ply-lining kits, deadlocks, alarms, immobilisers and roof-mounted beacons. Bevan will run the vehicles for three years and 105,000 miles.
Simon Dryburgh, Bevan’s Aftercare Manager said:
“By the end of July we’ll have 20 new Nissan vans on the road, that’s six more than we ran previously reflecting the growing demand for our aftercare services.
“The vans are critical for us to help keep our clients’ vehicles on the road. Our team of technicians were impressed with all aspects of the NV400. From a company perspective reliability and running costs are very important and we believe the NV400 will deliver across all of these areas,” he added.
Thanks to the Bevan’s in-house graphics division, the vans’ striking liveries will ensure they also act as a high-profile mobile billboard for Bevan as its technicians travel the length and breadth of the country.
Incidentally, one of Bevan’s own van conversions has featured in these pages before. Bevan’s futuristic ICON luton body aims to cut fuel costs, something that Lenham Storage has been putting to the test.
There’s nothing like a bit of rose-tinted nostalgia to get people in a good mood, and while I’m pretty sure that today’s BT engineers wouldn’t swap their Transits for a classic Dodge Spacevan like the model pictured below, I reckon this van — which is currently for sale — could be a brilliant promotional vehicle for someone or a usable classic for weekend camping trips and days out.
What do you think?
This 1981 British Telecoms Dodge Spacevan has been fully restored and has just 63k on the clock.
The van itself is a a fully-restored 1981 Dodge Spacevan in the yellow and blue British Telecom livery used in London at the time.
Fully restored seven years ago, this authentic model has the rear-mounted ladder that gives access to the heavy-duty roof rack, making this last-of-the-line Spacevan a useable, eye-catching classic. With over 63,000 miles on the clock, the vehicle also comes with a comprehensive spares package, which is included in the sale. The estimated sale value on the Dodge Spacevan is between £4,500 and £6,500.
Interested parties should get in touch with Anglia Car Auctions, which is selling the van at its next classic car auction in Kings Lynn, on Saturday 22nd June.
Electric vans are 
Europcar has opened a new car and 
