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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.

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