June 2019

After a six-month road test in  one van, I am usually itching to get into a new vehicle. But in the case of our oh-so-stylish Vito, I was genuinely sorry to see it go.

Six months and around 6,500 miles simply flew by, with never a hint of a problem. I haven’t even had to put any extra air in the tyres, or oil in the engine, although I did have to spend £9 on AdBlue when the rather diminutive tank ran low.

One of the reasons I love this van so much is that slick auto gearbox – an item that is still fairly rare in the van world. It makes for such a relaxing driving style that I really don’t want to have to go back to pressing clutch pedals and changing gear by hand. What a faff! Meanwhile, those sporty figure-hugging seats have proved a godsend on my never-ending 300-mile trips between my home in Essex and my holiday abode in Devon, with not a single back twinge to report throughout either from myself or my wife.

The Vito has also proved a star in the fuel economy stakes during its stay. The official fuel economy figure is 47.1 miles per gallon and during our test period our final figure added up to a very pleasing 46.9 mpg. 

As we all know, you are highly unlikely to hit the official figure as it doesn’t take into account any loads on board or wind resistance, so Mercedes-Benz can be congratulated for producing an engine that does just about what it says on the tin.

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May 2019

I was quite surprised recently when a warning flashed up on the Vito's dash telling me I needed to fill up the AdBlue tank. There were only 3,900 miles on the clock and most of our test vans will do well in excess of 7,000 miles before needing a top-up.

I duly stopped at a garage and bought a big bottle, which cost £18, and poured about half of it in before it was filled to the brim.

Rather puzzled, I turned to Google for advice and the truth was soon revealed – the Vito's AdBlue tank is about half the size of the one in the rival Vauxhall Vivaro. It’s the same with the fuel tank, which is a lot smaller than those of most of the other vans in the medium sector.

It’s no big deal in the bigger picture of van operation but it has certainly caused me some problems when number crunching this van’s running cost figures and comparing it with others.

This problem apart, our Vito is still giving sterling service, although I must rather shame-facedly admit that it is in a pretty filthy state at present, what with buzzing 400 miles between my home in Essex and my holiday abode in Devon. Together with carrying out my duties for Fleet News and helping out my ever-increasing family on numerous occasions (nine grandchildren at the last count!), I just haven't found the time to clean it.

I have often written about the importance of keeping commercial vehicles clean to give a good impression to customers and it really does show with my van at present – until I get it polished I would be embarrassed to turn up at a prospective client's house in its present state!

April 2019

It's now month four of our six-month sojourn with the Vito Sport and, as with most of our long-termers, there are a couple of gripes we have found along the way, although they are small compared with our general admiration of this classy performer. 

First, I am not keen on the Becker sat-nav units that Mercedes-Benz puts in its vans. The unit in the Vito isn't the touchscreen variety, so to adjust it you have to twiddle around with a button and scroll across a keyboard to find the letters and numbers you want, which can be a right pain. 

In the end I plugged in my own TomTom unit, which has all my details already programmed in. This leads me to the second moan, which is that – unlike some of the rivals in the sector – there is no USB port on top of the dash, so my sat-nav wires are left trailing across the dash, along with the connector for my mobile phone, which is clipped on to the windscreen with a metal holder.

I also noticed that while our van has a high-res reversing camera (an added option at £465 and a must-have safety item in our book), it does not have reversing sensors as well. Personally, I would rather have the bleepers than the camera as I am perfectly capable of manoeuvring with the use of mirrors, although others may well disagree with me.

My final gripe – and I promise there won't be any more – is that all the lashing eyes in the cargo area are all in the floor, unlike some of the rivals which have a few positioned halfway up the side walls. I always carry a large plastic box containing such detritus as jump leads, spare oil, a towing rope and a spare blanket or two – and there simply isn't any way of tying it in properly. As it stands, the damned thing can be heard sliding back and forth in a most annoying manner while under way.

A reader seeing these complaints without perusing my previous test articles may well get the impression that our Vito is lacking in some areas, but I hasten to point out that in no way do these gripes lessen my admiration of the super stylish vehicle.

Talking of style, our poor van bears little resemblance now to the shiny picture accompanying this article.

The Vito has been cruising back and forth between my home in Essex and my holiday abode in Devon – and anyone who is familiar with that curious bright red Devon soil will well imagine what the vehicle looks like now, bearing as it does a combination of west country grit, M4/M5 sludge and the usual seagull guano that accumulates at my home near the beach in Southend-on-Sea. 

And that's not to mention the remains of various packed lunches, old Sainsburys receipts and other detritus that my wife has thoughtfully left behind in the cab for me to clear up!

If it was warmer outside I may have been tempted to give it a quick hose down myself. As it is, I will leave the job to my friend Jimmy at the local garage, who will get our Vito looking spick and span again in no time – and for a very reasonable fee. 

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March 2019

Now entering its third month with Fleet News, it's time to take a peek into the business end of the stylish Mercedes-Benz Vito.

The rear, rather unusually, features a tailgate in place of the typical 'barn door' arrangement. It's a matter of choice really – on the plus side, the occupants have something to stand under in the event of being out in the open in a downpour. On the minus side, the driver needs more space at the back to open the hatch – and care has to be taken as the door weighs a ton and could break your jaw if you don't get out of the way when it's on the way up.

Our cargo area is very sensibly ply-lined throughout, which is a  £270 option but will pay for itself and more if you intend to use the van in a dirty environment. At selling time, you simply strip out the plywood to reveal a pristine interior. That little trick could see your van worth far more than an extra £270 compared to one with a scratched scuffed interior.

The Vito has a non-slip floor too. This may sound rather so-whattish but it saves diminutive loads from slipping about in the back under way. Several times in the past, on test vans with bare floors, I have placed shopping bags carefully away in the back of my van, only to find them scattered the length and breadth of the cargo area when I got home, eggs smashed and milk sloshing about everywhere.

The spare wheel is rather unusually placed on the inside wall rather than stowed away underneath the van. It means in the event of a burst tyre the driver can locate the spare without getting covered in filth, but it rather encroaches on the space available – a point potential buyers may find important if they intend to fill this van to the brim (which, of course, not many do).

Our Vito also features two side loading doors by the way, which are a bit OTT. Most fleet managers, we feel, would rather have a few quid knocked off the front end price of the van. 

Although the Vito and our previous long-termer the Renault Trafic are technically in the same category – medium panel van – the French contender was a long wheel-base variant, while the Vito is compact. And the differences are quite remarkable.

Whereas the Trafic is very much in the old 'sit up and beg' style of a commercial vehicle, the Vito sits far lower on the ground and is much more car-like to drive. That's a good thing for anyone who's new to using commercial vehicles on a day-to-day basis, but, personally, I quite like the old upright position. It's certainly better for the back on long journeys.

And you'd be amazed at how much an extra foot or two on the wheelbase can alter the manoeuvring capabilities of a van. Whereas the Trafic could be a quite a problem winkling into those small supermarket car park spaces, the Vito flies in with never a frown – and generally feels much more 'chuckable' on the roads. That word, of course, may ring alarm bells in the average fleet operator's head but suffice to say the Vito makes an ideal short-haul round-town prospect.

The other difference is that our Vito only has two seats. They are mighty comfortable and feature lots of side support as you'd expect in a vehicle that bears the Sport moniker. However, as I don't actually own a car, it does mean that if we need to transport another passenger, my wife's 19-year-old Volkswagen Lupo is going to have to be called into play.

On the plus side, though, it means there is plenty of storage space between the two seats. You'd be surprised how cramped a van's front area can become when you add things like work rucksacks, handbags, bags of sandwiches etc.

February 2019

The Vito is very much one of the new breed of vans for the smart, stylish business of the third millennium – and, after a month with us, we are enjoying this oh-so-capable vehicle in the extreme. 

It weighs in at £28,995 ex-VAT with all the extra kit we have on board, which, admitted, isn't exactly bargain basement. True, you can pick up a Vito for as little as £17,855, but it won't look the same – and it won't have that head-turning cachet to it that will see passers-by not only admiring this vehicle but also looking at any sign writing you may have added, thus advertising your business.

For starters, the silver metallic paint and snazzy chrome side steps come as standard, along with seven-spoke alloy wheels, colour-coded bumpers, polished steel front grille, tailgate and foglamp trims and sport badging on the rear. You won't find any of that on 'cooking' versions.

Inside, we get as standard air-con, special sporty seats with extra side padding, electrically-adjustable heated mirrors, sport-branded floor mats and enough safety devices for us to say that if your drivers crash this van, they don't deserve to be working for you.

In addition, we get a reversing camera at £465, leather steering wheel at £145 and the icing on the cake, a wonderful seven-speed automatic gearbox at £1,475.

Many fleet operators will baulk at the price of the auto box but it could be a price worth paying. It means much less wear and tear on the gears, less strain on a driver who makes multiple drops during the day and it will also appeal more to second buyers when the van is sold.

More and more commercial vehicles are coming with auto boxes nowadays and we can see why, because they are so stress-free to drive. We predict that sometime in future, the UK will eventually follow the USA and ditch manual boxes altogether.

The Vito is like no other van we have tested before, given there is no conventional handbrake and no gear lever. The handbrake works by pressing a third pedal on the floor and is released by pulling a switch on the dash, as with most other Mercedes-Benz vehicles nowadays. Meanwhile Drive, Neutral Reverse etc are selected by a small stalk on the right of the steering wheel. 

With the ignition key slot on the left of the steering wheel rather than the usual right, it makes driving this van a little problematical at first. Mind you, after a week or two I got used to this new way of operating and revelled in the smooth gear changes and whisper-quiet ambience in the cab, even at motorway speeds.

At first I thought that fuel consumption was rather on the high side after our last long termer, the Renault Trafic Formula 1 edition – I seemed to be visiting our local fuel station on an alarmingly regular basis. It finally dawned on me to check both vehicles' spec sheets and I then discovered the reason – the Vito has a 57-litre fuel tank, whereas the Trafic will hold 90 litres. Silly me.

Armed with that information and the back of a fag packet, it now appears the Vito is returning a healthy figure in the low- to mid-40s. We expect even better as the brand new diesel engine loosens up and will be reporting in more detail next month. 

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January 2019

The arrival of our latest long-term test van, the Mercedes-Benz Vito, was something of a red letter day insofar as it is the first time in the history of Fleet News that a van bearing the famous three-pointed star has been with us for a six-month trial.

We have always felt that the Vito has rather underperformed in the medium panel van sector over the years – and quite why this should be has remained something of a mystery. My suspicion is that its bigger brother the Sprinter has been such a massive tour de forcein the market since its launch in 1995 that fleet buyers have simply plumped for the Sprinter without even considering the Vito.

If that's the case, then they really are missing out on a trick as quite a few Sprinter buyers could just as well do with the smaller Vito, which is cheaper to buy and cheaper to run. In fact Mercedes-Benz now prides itself on the approach its dealers give to prospective fleet buyers – an expert will sit down with the customer and discuss exactly what his or her requirements are before even talking about which model should be purchased. 

Even if the dealer can make more profit by selling an unsuitable model, the buyer will still be pointed towards the best van for the job. This approach could well see Vito sales rising, as many fleet buyers apparently opt for vehicles which are bigger than they need be, thus wasting cash.

Whatever the reasons for the Vito's relative under-performance, build quality certainly isn't one of them. Vito has an awesome reputation here, as with all the cars, trucks and vans Mercedes-Benz builds. And there's another good reason for choosing a Merc van too which seems to be forgotten quite often.

In the event of a breakdown, a rescue truck loaded with spares from the local dealer will attend and in most cases will be able to get the vehicle back on the road again there and then. Many other manufacturers use the AA or RAC for the purpose and the likelihood here is that the van will simply be towed to the local garage for repairs, causing mayhem for the company which owns it.

Then, of course, as Mercedes-Benz also has a truck network within its dealerships, van buyers also get enhanced levels of aftersales service. You won't get stuck behind Mrs Jones with her little run-about when it comes to getting your vans serviced.

All this adds up to a powerful story for fleet buyers – and we are looking forward immensely to running the Vito over the coming months. 

The model we have been given on test weighs in at £28,995 ex-VAT once all the added extras are factored in – but for that price you do get an awful lot of goodies, not least a stonking 2.2-litre turbodiesel power unit pumping out 163PS – more power than any sane driver could desire. If that isn't enough, there is also a 193PS model on offer, although we would not recommend that little firecracker for fleet purposes.

Our Vito has a reasonable 5.5 cubic metres of loadspace in the back, together with a payload of 1,129kg, which we reckon should satisfy the vast majority of fleet buyers. 

Fuel consumption on the combined cycle, meanwhile, is 47.1mpg, which was well up with the rivals until the arrival of the new Citroen Dispatch/Peugeot Partner twins, which boast a phenomenal figure in the mid-50s, dependent on the model chosen.

So, with winter well under way and a whole host of safety devices on board as standard, we are now cruising the highways and byways of Britain with the utmost confidence.

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Spec

Gross vehicle weight (kg): 3,050

Power (PS/rpm): 163/3,800

Torque (Nm/rpm): 380/1,200-2,400

Load volume (cu m): 5.5

Payload (kg): 1,129

Comb fuel economy (mpg): 47.1

Test fuel economy: n/a

CO2 emission (g/km): 158

Price as tested (ex-VAT): £28,995

Mileage: 787