The Van of the Year for Company Vehicle 2022 came in with a beginning of the year entrant and then a follow-up vehicle in the closing months of voting time.
These ‘bookend’ entries made selecting the Volkswagen Transporter a comparatively easy decision, despite some strong contenders in the van space which just couldn’t match the versatility the Transporter offers.
In the first instance, Volkswagen New Zealand seems to have picked its battleground with the Transporter 6.1, a vehicle which has seen an acceptance of where it sits in our market in terms of pricing, specification and features.
Transporter has always had a bone in its teeth as it settled itself here then found itself challenging a very dominant run of competitors out of Asia. With the arrival of the 6.1 model line-up, it seems Volkswagen NZ has opted to go its own road and let Volkswagen’s excellence speak on the brand’s behalf.
In short, this is what Volkswagen is, this is where Volkswagen belongs and this is how Volkswagen excels, seems to be the philosophy behind the Transporter 6.1.
But this is not Volkswagen commanding a price for a high level of standard specification. The Transporter delivers in terms of its performance, driving dynamics and its ability to do what a van needs to do.
But the Transporter goes just that little bit further, offering a standard model range which is easily adaptable to different customer and market demands, so Volkswagen has lived up to its name heritage – a wagen for the people.
As such, you can have a cargo hauler which looks after your people on the road as they deliver whatever they need. And you can have Transporters of different sizes in terms of payload and carrying capacities.
If cargo isn’t what you need to move but rather it is executive transportation of people, the Multivan is a direct extension of the Transporter, and the Multivan has a model range in itself.
Making sure that the 6.1 remains in keeping with expectation of the environmentally conscious, the Multivan also comes to us with a PHEV selection of three vehicles, putting a hybrid van firmly in place as a practical family vehicle option.
All the above options highlight one of the core considerations for a van – versatility. Add to this value, because while the Transporter may not be the cheapest van in town, you’ll remember the quality against the price over the fullness of time – especially when computing residuals.