All-wheel drive vans have always been fairly specialist and rare finds – offering a combination of load-carrying and off-road driving functionality that simply isn’t required by many people.<\/p>\n
One of the longest-running all-wheel drive vans is the Volkswagen Transporter 4Motion (previous called the Transporter Synchro). Other contenders have included the AWD Mercedes Sprinter (a rare but impressive beast) and, I think, a 4-wheel drive version of the original Fiat Ducato. More recently, Citroen have created a 4WD Berlingo – the Berlingo XTR. There is also a 4×4 version of the Iveco Daily.<\/p>\n
Ford has not joined the party until now (as far as I know) but it appears to be making up for lost time with the newly-released the All-Wheel Drive version of the current Mk7 Transit. In this review<\/a> on the Fleet News website, Fleet Van Editor Trevor Gelken found that the new Transit AWD is surprisingly capable off-road but will automatically switch back to RWD when on-road to save fuel.<\/p>\n The new Ford Transit AWD is also available in minibus and chassis cab formats and the AWD technology only adds 50kg to the weight of the vehicle – meaning that payloads are not significantly affected.<\/p>\n