1462 customers clock up 22,240 miles at Van Experience 2011
This year’s Mercedes-Benz popular Van Experience event, which focuses on giving customers the chance to try products and technology first-hand, welcomed 1,462 guests over eight days, with attendees clocking up an impressive 22,240 miles!
The ‘must visit’ event took place at the Prodrive Performance Centre in Warwickshire, with 140 vans in action. Over the course of the event, less than £60 worth of electricity was used to power five Vito E-CELL vans, which collectively travelled 1,000 eco miles.
Guests were invited to put the vehicles through their paces with an abundance of practical challenges, including pitting their eco skills against each other on a race-track competition with a difference - to achieve the highest possible mpg from the latest Vito BlueEFFICIENCY models - with the highest figure achieved of 66.1mpg!
On the other hand, guests were also invited to put vehicle ESP systems to the test on a skid pan, with amazing results demonstrating the real-world life-saving benefits of having such systems on a van - standard on every Vito and Sprinter. They also had the opportunity to drive the new Vito E-CELL for the first time in the UK, with attendees amazed by the driver-friendly benefits of the world’s-first factory-built fully-electric van.
Van Experience this year focused on delivering business benefits, while offering the opportunity to experience the full breadth of products and services offered by Mercedes-Benz vans, including the official launch of the exciting Vito Sport and Vito SportX.
However, with all of the physical challenges that faced them, the guests never went hungry. Almost 2,150 bacon and sausage butties were eaten and 366kg of ice cream was consumed!
When not eating and driving, attendees were able to discuss business topics and issues, as Mercedes-Benz was joined by an exclusive selection of industry partners, including Energy Savings Trust, Balfour Beatty, RoadSafe, TyreSafe, Brake, and the Freight Transport Association. These event partners all shared expert knowledge on a range of key topics such as best practice, whole life cost management, legislation, safety, duty of care and environmental issues.
An exhausted but elated Steve Bridge, Van Sales and Marketing Director for Mercedes-Benz UK, commented: “A measure of how successful the Van Experience event has been is definitely looking at the smile on people’s faces; it was great to see everyone genuinely enjoy their time. Attendance was up too and over 350 more people attended this year’s event compared with 2010.
“We ate a lot, drove a lot and, most importantly, discussed a lot! It’s a brilliant way to meet our customers face-to-face and safely demonstrate the “Mercedes-Benz extras” that we fit as standard to our vans, and the service that our head office and nationwide dealer teams offer. Of course having fun is important, but there’s an important business benefit – if there wasn’t, then we couldn’t attract 1,400 people to spend a day away from their own company.”
Steve concluded: “Many customers were able to use the event to ask key questions not only to dealers, but also to the product teams in order to gain the maximum amount of knowledge they needed. It is a valuable event and we look forward to building on the success of Van Experience 2011 next year; when Van Experience 2012 will be bigger and better than ever before.”