Double delight for Citroen at What Van? Awards

Fresh from its triumph at the recent International Van of the Year awards, Citroen has now scooped two major UK honours at a ceremony in London on 28 November. The Dispatch has just carried off the What Van? Small Panel Van of the Year title, while Citroen’s unique and comprehensive Ready to Run programme took the What Van? One-Stop Shop conversion programme award.

Citroen’s commercial vehicle operations manager, Robert Handyside, said, “Following so closely on the Dispatch van’s success in winning the International Van of the Year award, we are delighted that the prestigious UK What Van? Awards have recognised the class-leading competence and value of the Dispatch and the quality and strength in depth of our Ready to Run range.”

High praise for Citroen Dispatch

What Van? editor, Neil McIntee was full of praise for the new Dispatch. The van, he said, “has been completely redesigned, taking it into a new sector of the market.”

He also applauded the level of choice on offer. “Customers get to choose between two different common rail diesels; a 1.6-litre generating 90hp or a 2.0-litre good for either 120 or 136hp.” Moreover, the new Dispatch is available with three different cargo areas ranging from 5.0cu m for the short wheelbase, low roof version – able to get into most multi-storey car parks – through 6.0 cu m for the long wheelbase standard roof model to a whopping 7.0 cu m for the long wheelbase, high-roof version. The Dispatch van has a sliding door which gives access to each side of the load space and payload ranges from 1,000 to 1,200kg.

Neil McIntee continued: “Few, if any, drivers will moan that the Dispatch’s three-man cab is difficult to get into. There’s no step up thanks to the low floor.” He added that the comfortable seating was set at “just the right height for those users who have to hop in and out umpteen times. Vision ahead and to the sides is good, while to the rear it is helped by large exterior mirrors.”

Inside, there is plenty of storage space, including a bin in each door and a lockable glovebox – all of which incorporate cup-holders – and there is also a deep bin on top of the dashboard on the passenger side, plus overhead shelving, and a shelf behind the steering column. All Dispatch panel vans come with Trafficmaster Smartnav as standard, along with the RAC Trackstar GPS-based stolen vehicle tracking system.

Robert Handyside adds, “The Citroen Dispatch continues to lead the field and we’re delighted that this has been recognised by such a well-respected publication. We anticipate that the Dispatch will continue to delight our customers for many years to come.”

Ready to Run: strength in depth

Many have tried, but “few manufacturers can match the breadth and depth of Citroen’s Ready to Run line-up,” said What Van? editor Neil McIntee. “That’s why it has won our 2007 award for the best one-stop shop conversion programme of the year.”

The judges praised the attention to detail offered by Citroen and its hand-picked specialist converters, all of whom offer packages that match the manufacturer’s own warranty, but without costing the earth. For instance, the Relay 3.5-tonner-based tipper from Tipmaster and Relay 3.5-tonner-based dropside from Ingimex both come, “at a remarkably competitive price”, but the former comes with a steel-floored body and alloy sides and with a 1.28 tonne gross payload. A chromed, under-floor scissor-action ram raises and lowers the body, with power supplied by Tipmaster’s own electro-hydraulic power pack and with tipper controls on a handy wanderlead.

The Ingimex dropside also features alloy sides, along with a non-slip phenol resin bonded one-piece ply cargo deck with recessed tie-down points. It offers a gross payload of around 1.5 tonnes.

Similarly, Buckstone’s Relay-based Luton has a generous load volume of up to 20 cu m and load floor length up to 4 metres, depending on chassis. All come with tie-rails, rear roller-shutter door colour-coded to match the bodywork and reverse parking sensors.

But the Ready to Run range doesn’t stop there. Citroen’s Berlingo, Dispatch and Relay can all be ordered as glass carriers, converted by Supertrucks. The Ready to Run range also includes Relay-based KFS car transporters. Perishable goods transporters can choose from a Ready to Run range of over 40 different Somers Refrigeration temperature-controlled converted vans.

In addition to all this, racking specialist Q1 Van Systems has come up with nine different Ready to Run packages for Berlingo, Dispatch and Relay vans. The Ready to Run programme also extends to minibuses with Advanced Vehicle Builders’ 12, 15 and 17 seat Relay minibus conversions with seats, three-point seat belts, mountings and underframe structure tested to M1 safety standards. Wheelchair accessible Ready to Run minibuses are also available.

The ingenuity of Citroen’s Ready to Run converters also extends under the bonnet, with a Nicholson McLaren converted Berlingo Dual Fuel van, which runs on environmentally-friendly liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as well as petrol – and is exempt from the London Congestion Zone Charge.

As Robert Handyside comments, “Thanks to our dedicated team of conversion specialists, the Citroen Ready to Run programme truly offers a van – or a truck or a minibus – for all seasons and reasons.”