{"id":6936,"date":"2014-12-17T09:45:48","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T09:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=6936"},"modified":"2014-12-16T20:57:54","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T20:57:54","slug":"what-van-awards-roundup-ford-4-renault-3-but-merc-still-safest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6936","title":{"rendered":"What Van? Awards roundup: Ford 4, Renault 3, but Merc still safest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4503\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4503\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4503\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ford-transit-courier-1-sm-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"All-new Ford Transit Courier\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ford-transit-courier-1-sm-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ford-transit-courier-1-sm.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The all-new Ford Transit Courier &#8212;\u00a0What Van? Van of the Year 2015<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We&#8217;ve grown used to seeing Ford&#8217;s all-new commercial vehicle range\u00a0sweep the board at awards ceremonies, but the folks from Dagenham were given a run for their money by the\u00a0good people from Renault at\u00a0the What Van? Awards 2015, which was held in London on 16 December.<\/p>\n<p>Ford nudged ahead in extra time to take the overall winner&#8217;s trophy with four awards, but Renault managed a very respectable three awards, thanks to the strong impact made\u00a0on the judges by the new Renault Trafic. Here are some of the highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Van of the Year:<\/strong> Ford Transit Courier.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s two in a row for Ford &#8212; last year, the firm won the Van of the Year award with the new Transit Custom<\/li>\n<li><strong>Small Van:\u00a0<\/strong>Ford Transit Courier<br \/>\nTwo in a row again &#8212; last year, it was the Ford Fiesta Van!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Light Van:\u00a0<\/strong>Ford Transit Connect<\/li>\n<li><strong>Medium Van:\u00a0<\/strong>Renault Trafic\/Vauxhall Vivaro<br \/>\nRenault&#8217;s\u00a0big triumph this year, displacing\u00a0last year&#8217;s winner, the Ford Transit Custom<\/li>\n<li><strong>Large Van:\u00a0<\/strong>Iveco Daily<br \/>\nThe Italian stallion of heavy vans was runner-up\u00a0last year, but pushed\u00a0last year&#8217;s winner, the Teutonic Sprinter,\u00a0into second place this year.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pick-up:\u00a0<\/strong>Ford Ranger<br \/>\nNumber four for Ford,\u00a0and two years in a row for the very successful (and large)\u00a0Ranger pick-up<\/li>\n<li><strong>4&#215;4 Van:\u00a0<\/strong>Mitsubishi Outlander 4Work<br \/>\nThe Outlander 4Work is a 4&#215;4 car\u00a0that&#8217;s been turned into a van (it still has rear passenger doors),\u00a0making its triumph over the Highly Commended Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4&#215;4 seem slightly irrelevant &#8212; they aren&#8217;t really comparable. However, it&#8217;s a cool niche, and the\u00a0Outlander\u00a0is a\u00a0good piece of kit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Green Van:\u00a0<\/strong>Nissan e-NV200<br \/>\nI shouldn&#8217;t think there was much contest in this category &#8212; I&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6308\">raved<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6217\">about<\/a> the e-NV200 this year and\u00a0it has been\u00a0a standout success\u00a0among its peers, gaining widespread\u00a0plaudits from trial customers and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6131\">a substantial order from British Gas<\/a> before it even went on sale.\u00a0A class act that shows how electric vans will work for urban users &#8212;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6908\">who desperately need a break from poisonous diesels<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Innovation:\u00a0<\/strong>Renault Trafic blind spot visor<br \/>\nNumber two for Renault, thanks to its innovative Wide View\u00a0Mirror that&#8217;s built into the passenger sun visor and helps van drivers see into their blind spot.<\/li>\n<li>\n<div id=\"attachment_6937\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/renault-twizy-1-sm.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6937\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6937\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/renault-twizy-1-sm-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"Renault Twizy on streets of Bruges\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/renault-twizy-1-sm-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/renault-twizy-1-sm-50x35.jpg 50w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/renault-twizy-1-sm.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6937\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Renault Twizy I snapped recently in Bruges. The load compartment is at the back &#8212; neat urban delivery vehicle.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s Choice:\u00a0<\/strong>Renault Twizy Cargo<br \/>\nThe third and final award for Renault, the awesomely cool one-seater van that is the Twizy. It reminds me of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/BMW_C1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the BMW C1<\/a>, a roofed-over motorcycle with a car-style\u00a0seat, but the Twizy is much more practical, as it has four wheels and a more substantial luggage compartment &#8212; plus it&#8217;s electric. I\u00a0recently saw one of these on the road for the first time, in Bruges, and was very impressed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Safety:\u00a0<\/strong>Mercedes-Benz Sprinter<br \/>\n<em>Five years in a row for the Sprinter<\/em>, which has won the What Van? Safety award every year since it was introduced in 2010. ESP (1995), driver airbag as standard (2000), crosswind assist (2013) and most recently Rescue Assist QR code stickers.\u00a0What can you say? The Sprinter&#8217;s safety spec has frequently been streets ahead of most other vans, which have tended to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/5583\">lag cars in this department<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So there you have it &#8212;\u00a0van buyers are spoilt for choice at the moment,\u00a0as almost all of the major models have either been replaced or updated in the last eighteen months.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s an embarrassment of riches &#8212; who needs cars?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve grown used to seeing Ford&#8217;s all-new commercial vehicle range\u00a0sweep the board at awards ceremonies, but the folks from Dagenham were given a run for their money by the\u00a0good people from Renault at\u00a0the What Van? Awards 2015, which was held in London on 16 December. Ford nudged ahead in extra time to take the overall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6936"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6940,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936\/revisions\/6940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}