Bay Harbour: January 13, 2021
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PAGE 14 BAY HARBOUR<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Wednesday <strong>January</strong> <strong>13</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
Van ready for work in courier business<br />
I USED TO have regular packages<br />
delivered to my home by courier.<br />
The driver was also a regular, and<br />
was local to my neighbourhood.<br />
I still see him from time to time<br />
driving the yellow Mitsubishi L300<br />
van, although it is no longer used<br />
for commercial purposes.<br />
That van is looking a bit tired<br />
nowadays, and I’m only guessing,<br />
but I figure it’s probably done about<br />
a million miles. That’s the way<br />
those vans were built, they were<br />
tough and engineered for reliability<br />
and longevity.<br />
Of course, the L300 has long<br />
gone, and Mitsubishi Motors New<br />
Zealand has been without a van for<br />
many years, that is until now.<br />
Sharing an alliance with Renault,<br />
Mitsubishi globally has introduced<br />
the Express van; basically it’s a<br />
Renault Master/Traffic rebadged.<br />
That makes little difference,<br />
that vehicle also has a fearsome<br />
reputation in the light commercial<br />
market, and with Mitsubishi’s<br />
marketing prowess it will do well<br />
with the newcomer; there’s an everincreasing<br />
demand for light vans<br />
and in this age of internet shopping<br />
and delivery, courier companies are<br />
feeling the heat, with that, additional<br />
drivers and vans, are in demand.<br />
The Express van arrives here<br />
in two variants, both with fourcylinder<br />
engines. Put simply, there’s<br />
a choice of manual or automatic<br />
transmissions, both six-speed units.<br />
The manual is hooked to a twinturbo<br />
1.6-litre diesel, the automatic<br />
with a single-turbo 2-litre diesel.<br />
The evaluation was the latter, it<br />
sits in the market at $52,990, the<br />
manual will save you $5k.<br />
I’ve driven many vans over the<br />
years – Mercedes-Benz Viano,<br />
Fiat Ducato, Hyundai I-Load,<br />
Ford Transit, Toyota Hilux and the<br />
L300 – it’s fair to say the Express is<br />
one of the most refined, it is quiet,<br />
comfortable and almost car-like.<br />
A lot of that has to do with<br />
the bulk-head construction<br />
of the vehicle, the van area is<br />
completely separated from the<br />
cabin compartment, there’s little<br />
rumble from the cargo section,<br />
and the driving position, although<br />
upright, won’t tax the body during<br />
a long day of deliveries. Sure, it’s<br />
a bit of a step up into the cabin,<br />
CAVERNOUS: Low load height makes placing items in the<br />
cargo section easy.<br />
MITSUBISHI EXPRESS: Choice of two engines and transmissions.<br />
certainly not made easier by old<br />
age, but once there, the seats have<br />
good support. Incidentally, there<br />
are three seats, although individual,<br />
they do represent a bench seat type<br />
of configuration.<br />
The cabin section is full of clever<br />
compartments and ideas to make<br />
commercial use easy. I particularly<br />
like the workstation and clipboard<br />
holder that sits upright and extends<br />
from the middle seat back rest<br />
and can be folded flat. What’s not<br />
so clever is the central cup holder<br />
which won’t hold your Coke bottle<br />
when gravitational force takes over<br />
– that required a bit of a clean-up<br />
job. Thankfully, easy to remove<br />
rubber mats made that job easy.<br />
As an aside, the Express is also<br />
entering a mild-facelift phase and<br />
some of the interior features are<br />
receiving an upgrade, centre dash<br />
display panel will be introduced<br />
and it will include touch screen<br />
audio.<br />
As you would expect from a<br />
European-sourced vehicle, the<br />
Express van is high on safety, there<br />
are five air bags, electronic stability<br />
control, and rear view reversing<br />
camera.<br />
In terms of load space,<br />
Mitsubishi rates the Express with<br />
a 5.2m3 cargo area, it also gets<br />
around an 1150kg payload rating<br />
and a 1715kg braked towing<br />
capacity. In simple terms, it will<br />
also take a standard NZ pallet<br />
or Gib sheet between the wheel<br />
• Price – Mitsubishi Express,<br />
$52,990<br />
• Dimensions – Length,<br />
4999mm; width, 1956mm;<br />
height, 1971mm<br />
• Configuration – Fourcylinder,<br />
front-wheeldrive,<br />
1997cc, 125kW,<br />
380Nm, six-speed<br />
automatic.<br />
• Performance –<br />
0-100km/h, 10sec<br />
• Fuel usage – 7.3l/100km<br />
arches, there’s also an under-seat<br />
flap which opens on the passenger<br />
side so that long lengths of material<br />
can be carried. Loading can be<br />
made from the wide-opening rear<br />
doors or from the sliders on each<br />
side. One of the features I made<br />
good use of was the multitude of<br />
cargo rings that can be utilised to<br />
tie down loads.<br />
There’s plenty of power to haul<br />
that big load. The 1997cc engine<br />
is rated at 125kW (3500rpm)<br />
with 380Nm of torque available<br />
from 1500rpm. The automatic<br />
gearbox is a dual clutch type and<br />
that allows extra engine flexibility,<br />
the combination is fluid and<br />
responsive. Of course, the van’s<br />
main function is that of load<br />
capacity, so the entire driveline is<br />
geared for that. Incidentally, drive<br />
is sent to the front wheels.<br />
Such is the smooth operating<br />
manner of the engine, it’s hard to<br />
tell that there’s diesel power, until<br />
you look at the fuel consumption<br />
figures. Mitsubishi rates it with<br />
a 7.3l/100km combined cycle<br />
average, during my testing time the<br />
readouts were hovering close to<br />
that at 8l/100km and 6.7l/100km<br />
instantaneously at 100km/h, the<br />
engine turning over slowly at<br />
1900rpm.<br />
Interestingly, the Express van<br />
comes with an 80-litre tank, it<br />
was full of fuel when I picked it<br />
up and the fuel usage readout was<br />
indicating an achievable distance<br />
of 800km, the fuel gauge was also<br />
showing nearly full after travelling<br />
well over 200km during my time in<br />
the vehicle.<br />
In terms of open road<br />
performance the Express moves<br />
quietly and effortlessly, I drove it<br />
as I would a car and found it stable<br />
and balanced through the corners.<br />
You have take into consideration its<br />
construction and, of course, it’s not<br />
dynamic, but it does have a certain<br />
amount of handling prowess, it<br />
won’t catch you out if a corner is<br />
presented just that little bit quicker<br />
than you had anticipated.<br />
After a week in my care, I<br />
became quite attached to the<br />
Express van and it’s fair to say I<br />
made good use of its load carrying<br />
capacity, completing a multitude<br />
of different household tasks. The<br />
low load height making those jobs<br />
very easy.