Finally I caught a panel van that provided some insight into the owner’s business. Normally, everything is hidden behind closed cargo- and sliding doors.
As demonstrated here, many compact commercial vans are not used as pure delivery vehicles. Bringing meals, bread, medicines, mail, cut flowers or bouquets (buckets?) to one’s home address are the light-duty haulage jobs I can think of.
Big toolkits on wheels, that’s what they mostly are. Carrying the driver’s gear, both on the roof rack -there’s a ladder in the background- and in the van’s belly.
Just for the record, the registered payload capacity of the painter’s second gen Partner is 685 kg (1,510 lbs). More than adequate for this type of service vans. The same applies to the Peugeot’s 90 hp turbodiesel.
Clever, that home-built flooring with drawers. The full divider (with a window), separating the cab from the cargo compartment, is partly visible. So no, DeWalt will not fly through the windshield when hitting the brakes hard.
The cargo doors can swing open up to 180 degrees. In this case, 90 was enough. A so called europallet (80 x 120 cm) will fit between the rear wheelhouses, so a forklift can work its magic.
There’s another drawer behind the sliding door. The divider intrudes into the cargo compartment quite a bit, in favor of more room for the driver and passenger. And please note those buckets of flowers.
Related Peugeot Partner and Citroën Berlingo articles, as they are two of a kind:
CC Global: 2004 Peugeot Partner 170C 2.0 HDi – The Handyman’s Panel Van
CC Global: Three Compact Peugeot Panel Vans – Professional Partners At Work
Rental Car Reminiscence: 2014 Citroën Berlingo XTR Multispace – Can’t Stop Thinking About It by Jim Klein
Curbside Outtake: 2008-2018 Citroën Berlingo 4×4 By Dangel – Cross Country, French Style by Roger Carr
I’m surprised to still see a single sliding side door. All US-market Ram ProMaster Citys and Transit Connects have them on both sides.
As expensive as the mechanism is on a per-unit basis you’d think it would be a value-added feature as well as saving the cost of tooling up a smooth, doorless side panel. Makes me wonder if the same is available for the other side for a single-door model in the UK and Ireland.
I wouldn’t say this thought is true for everyone, but in certain cases the absence of a 2nd sliding door is a benefit. Without it, you get a full-length solid wall on one side – for shelving, or stacking stuff against a solid wall or what have you.
All US-market Ram ProMaster Citys and Transit Connects have them on both sides.
The reason for that is to simplify US-bound production, as these are also sold as “wagons” with rear seats.
In Europe, both of them come standard with a single side door. As Evan pointed out, in many applications a driver’s side door is actually a waste, since there’s often shelving or such along that wall.
That’s the same reason the big vans (Promaster, Transit, Sprinter) also come standard with only a single side door. The second one is optional.
Optional, indeed. Another second gen Partner below.
The really key reason is that both the Transit Connect and Promaster City are imported as passenger vans, to circumvent the 25% Chicken tax. Those vans to be sold for commercial use are then converted in the US, by a contractor: windows covered; seats taken out. But the passenger van market demands dual sliding doors.
I have always thought that painters should be judged by the cleanliness and absence of paint spatters on the inside and outside of their trucks. By that measure, your house painter passes with flying colors, from what is visible here.
Because he hasn’t had his colors flying around? 😉
The Berlingo and Partner wagons/MPV/monospace variants are great too – ideal for an inner city taxi with easy access, the sliding doors and plenty of space for people and stuff.
You suspect the Head of Finance at Stellantis in Paris has a picture of one of these on his office wall……
Ludospace, as the French call that type of compact vehicles (ludique + monospace). The Partner and Berlingo deserve a mural rather than a picture…
Work vans are usually like this from the driving position of my work vehicles I see into the back of many of them often loaded to the roof with tools and equipment, while the front is the office space, PSA vans are increasingly common here often badged Toyota.
I love these things, having driven a (longer) CItroen Berlingo version I get it. I’ve caught myself ogling the various Transits, ProMaster Citys and even the more odd looking Nissan NV200/Chevy Express things we get/got over here whilst on the road. The Scion xB played in this space a little bit too beyond the regular four door difference, back in CA they were definitely in the delivery business (our company got one, it made sense for smaller jobs vs the bigger Isuzu CabOver). It’s more or less what the Mazda5 was as well, just never available in a cargo format, and that one was quite fun to drive as I recall.
I’m seeing more use of small vans like the Transit Connect, Nissan NV200 and Ram Promaster City (Fiat Doblo) for plumbers, painters, locksmiths and other building work. These often have commercial interior fits with shelving and steel or plastic drawer systems where organization is more important then load space height.
Interestingly the Mercedes Metris is relatively rare in commercial use apart from the US Postal Service.
Any idea what will happen in the US with the Transit Connect and ProMaster City in the near future?
Recently, the Fiat Doblò as we knew it was replaced by a rebadged, third gen Partner/Berlingo and the “all-new” Ford Tourneo Connect (the MPV-version of the Transit Connect), see below, is fully based on the current VW Caddy generation.
The Nissan NV200 is not available here. Instead, there’s the Nissan Townstar (correct, a Renault Kangoo clone).
Very good question. I’ve just spent a few minutes Googling for an answer, and there is none to be found.
The current (old) Transit Connect will continue to be sold here for the 2023 model year, and I found some speculation that the next gen (for the US anyway) will be based on the Ford Escape platform. But will that be built for Europe too? It would seem that the Tourneo Connect is too similar. Or is it smaller enough to warrant a separate new TC? Hmm…
As to the Promaster City, I found nothing. I wonder if Stellantis will just drop it after 2023 MY. The TC has an 80% share of the compact van market, so the PM City is not exactly a big hit, and is easily expendable. Or will they federalize the new Doblo? Hmm…
I read Autonews, the primary source of all car news in the US, and neither subject has come up. I’ll let you know if it does.
OK, thanks!