THE VAN PRIX

This is the most important test you’ll read this month. Why? Because it’s about vans. The workhorses of the UK stable, the nervous system of order fulfilment, the dieselly enabler of your online shopping habit.

- TOM FORD

You, or someone you know, owns a van. In urban areas they're like rats – you're never more than 49 metres from one. And the numbers are growing. As of 2024, there were approximately 4.6 million licensed vans in GreatBritain, one for every 15 people in the country, and the Ford Transit alone has over 960,000 vehicles licensed and gambolling about our road network. So yes, vans. The most important vehicles you never notice...

The truth is that vans support everything. From small businesses to construction to retail, to propping up the near instantaneous delivery of your sweatshop specials, vans are the key to that 'last mile' delivery puzzle. And while you might think that vans haven't changed much over the years, you'd be wrong. They're cleaner, more equipped, handle better and last longer (in some cases) than they ever did. Interestingly though, the stats show that 96 per cent of vans are still vehemently diesel powered (electric vans only account for a single per cent of the current van ecosystem), so we thought we'd take a look at three of the most popular medium sized diesel vans currently on the market to see which is the best. Now, obviously we could have used spreadsheets and science, instead preferring tactical stupidity and inaccurately applied smartphone stopwatches to determine the winner, in the grand tradition of TopGear professional chaos. Don't say we didn't warn you.