Like many other professionals, house painters prefer a mid-size panel van as their commercial vehicle. Compactness and excellent fuel efficiency, combined with enough cargo capacity to transport everything needed for the job. With the exception of the Mercedes-Benz Vito (Metris), all of them are front wheel drive.
The 2007 Opel Vivaro 2.0 CDTi, on the left, is a clone of the Renault Trafic. This generation was also offered as a Nissan Primastar. The Opel’s registered payload capacity is 1,120 kg (2,469 lbs).
Now to the 2013 Citroën Jumpy (Dispatch in English speaking markets) 1.6 HDi with a payload capacity of 981 kg (2,163 lbs). The Peugeot version is called the Expert, PSA’s Sevel Nord partner Fiat called theirs the Scudo.
Later on, Toyota wanted a slice of the cake too -their HiAce van was withdrawn from the European market- and named the very same van the ProAce.
In 2017, PSA bought Opel/Vauxhall from GM. The current compact and mid-size Opel vans -the Combo and Vivaro, respectively- are now rebadged PSA products. Previously, the Combo was fully based on the Fiat Doblò, aka Ram ProMaster City. The latest Combo van is a Peugeot Partner/Citroën Berlingo, naturally with a Blitz on the grille.
Recently introduced, the new Opel Vivaro…
…clearly the same van as the latest Citroën Jumpy (or Peugeot Expert, or Toyota ProAce).
Meanwhile, Fiat has left the Sevel Nord building, so what happened to Fiat’s mid-size van? Well, meet the Fiat Scudo Talento, a rebadged….Renault Trafic! Which leaves the Volkswagen Transporter, Ford Transit Custom and Mercedes-Benz Vito as the last one-of-a-kind European mid-size vans. For the time being, that is.
The Opel badging doesn’t look too bad.
Jumpy ? Why not the Citroen Lumpy ? Who comes up with these names , Sargent Shultz ? Reminds me of the Gonkulator. Actually, that might make a good name for a full size pick up.
We have the full series of Hogan’s Heroes on DVD, and were watching one last night. Schultz? Maybe. While I also think Jumpy is a weird name, I have to wonder why it was chosen. Surely enough management-level Europeans speak English as a second language that they would have realised it sounded distinctly odd to say the least, and cast an unfavourable image on their product. At least they were smart enough not to call it that in English-speaking markets.
As for the Gonkulator – maybe as a special edition from GMC to take on Ford’s Raptor?
There was also a Peugeot Bipper van
If they use the Jumpy in NON-English speaking countries, I wonder what that sounds like spoken with a French or Spanish accent?
For vehicles that start life as commercial vehicles, my further interest in them hinges on the powertrain. The Nissan/formerly Chevrolet minivans don’t interest me “thanks” to their CVT, while the Transit Connect is very interesting due to the connection between it and the Focus.
These French vans are interesting unless there is a mechanical “feature” I don’t know about. The styling, if no other feature, is appealing.
Just yesterday, I was being told 700 kg in a gigantic parlour truck was a large load capacity.
Yet a small van can do 1000.
I love my Metris’s 2098lb payload (it’s a pax van) and I love more how it beats my neighbors Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins crew cab in payload even more.
There’s a good reason for that: vans can distribute their payloads over a drastically greater percentage of their overall length, so that the max weight is distributed almost equally on the front and rear axles. On a typical crew-cab pickup, the load weight is centered all right over the rear axle.
Pickups are not designed to be heavy load haulers in their beds, since the overwhelming majority of them are used to haul trailers when a heavy load is involved. Do you ever see a newish pickup with a really heavy load in its bed? All the contractors use them to haul big enclosed or dump trailers, or such. They’ve become comfortable tractors.
I would strongly suggest not carrying 2098 lbs in your Metris all in the back end of its body. 🙂
And what is your Metris rated to tow? 10,000 lbs like your neighbor’s Ram?
Apples and oranges.
And once again, these kind of comparisons quickly become tedious and boring.
I don’t think commercial vans are a microcosm of the automotive industry in general. However, all of this van sharing does point to the redundancy of having so many manufacturers, in the case of vans, all selling the exact same thing.
I do like these mid-size vans, and I wish one came here. I find the small vans sold in the US to be too small, and the big ones to be too big.
The Ram Promaster comes in four lengths, and the shortest one with an 118″ wb is quite short overall. Probably shorter or similar to these vans in the post. In fact, its wheelbase is 4″ shorter than that of the Opel/Renault Trafic.
But you hardly ever see the 118″ Promaster, as Americans do like a bigger van, generally.
You’d probably like the Ford Transit Custom, it’s sized right between the Transit Connect and the regular Transit (which like the ProMaster comes in different lengths and heights but I don’t think has the uber-Shorty option as Paul mentioned). Anyway, the size seems “just right” for tight spots/cities while still having decent space, based on the ones I saw the last time I was over there. I could see Ford possibly bringing it over here, who knows…
Yes, the Transit Custom is a mid-size van, like the ones in the article. Below it’s between its German rivals.
Ford still offers their own vans, as in not shared with any other automaker, in four segments: small, compact, mid-size, fullsize.
With development cost so high (even for a van) I understand why each brand is looking to share an existing platform.
When the first generation was released, one feature bothered me a lot: the slight arch above the front doors. It looks like as if it was in frontal collision before, jutting the roof upward above the doors.