It may be a small vehicle but people of most shapes and sizes can find a comfortable driving position thanks to its spacious cabin with ample headroom, comfortable and supportive bucket seating with adjustable lumbar support and a big left footrest. Rake adjustment for the seat’s base cushion would make it even better.
Although it looks like a back-to-basics workhorse it doesn’t drive like one, particularly when unladen.
It feels more like a car than a van and is quite engaging (dare we say sporty) with its combination of firm but supple suspension, nicely weighted and communicative steering through the delightful leather-wrapped wheel and reassuringly strong retardation from a quartet of disc brakes.
It has less power and torque than its TDI320 turbo-diesel sibling and both peak values are accessed further up the rev range, so it must maintain higher rpm than the diesel for optimum performance which is typical of small turbo-petrol engines.
The sweet-shifting seven-speed dual-clutch automatic makes this easy to achieve, though, particularly when you have the option of manual paddle-shifting.
The gearing also ensures low engine stress at highway speeds, requiring only 2000rpm to maintain 110km/h.
Although its agility is great for zipping through busy traffic or down narrow city lanes for delivery work, unfortunately it can’t erase the huge blind-spot over the driver’s left shoulder caused by the cabin bulkhead and, beyond that, the solid cargo bay walls.
The passenger-side door mirror is not large enough for adequate visual coverage of this hazardous zone. Although blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are available as pricey options, we reckon they should be standard issue for not only our test vehicle but all solid-walled vans.
To test its load-carrying, we inflated the tyres to the 42psi cold pressures recommended on the placard and forklifted 415kg into the cargo bay.
With our crew of two, that equalled a 575kg payload that was about 140kg under its peak rating (we would have loaded more but weights were in short supply on the day).
Even so, the rear coil springs only compressed about 45mm, which was no different to when we loaded a similar model with more than 700kg. The rear suspension felt slightly firmer but still supple under this weight, maintaining safe and predictable handling.
It also performed well on our 13 per cent gradient, 2.0km-long set climb at 60km/h, self-shifting down to a suitable gear and easily hauling this load to the top.
Engine-braking on the way down, in a manually-selected second gear, was minimal at best requiring several brake applications to keep it under the posted 60km/h speed limit.
However, this is typical of small displacement motors with heavy loads on their backs.
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