It’s been a minute since we last reviewed the Volkswagen Crafter, in fact, since our last review, Volkswagen has proven the Crafter’s mettle with a very successful camper model, but what’s the Crafter like as a load lugger?
In the interest of full disclosure, Volkswagen allowed us to review a Crafter while it was enjoying a limited time leasing offer of $999 per month, a deal which – after a week’s worth of temporary ownership – made for few dollars and a lot of cents/sense.
Oh, and the name? Yes, most will call it the Vee Dub in their fleet, but in fact the name Crafter is the Anglicised version of the German ‘Krafter’ which literally translates to ‘worker’, just in case you end up on the Chase or something like that.
While visually, the Crafter falls into the Large category of our van focus, this is in fact, the medium wheelbase Runner version of the five model Crafter range of strictly commercial vans.
Some years ago, Volkswagen in its infinite wisdom decided to rationalise the engine range available for the Crafter, then rationalised it again. Accordingly, you can’t get a big, sexy six-cylinder for the Crafter, but you do get a frugal – eight litres per 100km or so – very efficient turbo diesel across the range.
Power and torque figures are hardly eye popping, but this is a worker, remember and 103kW and 340Nm suits worker drivers just fine. If you want to go Fast and Furious, yeah, you’re reading the wrong review.
As a ‘Runner’ this Crafter is the entry level model with the entry level GVM of 3000kg, entry level payload of 742kg and entry level CO2 emissions of 225gm/km.
It does have a high roof as standard however, which is great if you have technicians 1961mm tall!
Runner spec’ does have the 30,000km/two-year service interval of its stablemates along with the five-year/250,000km mechanical warranty, five-year roadside assist and 12-year anti-corrosion warranty, so in terms of peace of mind motoring, all Crafters are equal – except not all Crafters can be had for $999/month.
So, who does the Crafter best suit? I’ll answer your question with a question: How many commercial applications can you name?
We know for example, of a drainage specialist company who have some new Crafters. These have been kitted out with a ‘split-pod back office’ with a spacious workstation partitioned off from the equipment/tool bay and it’s a slick setup, man – an office and workshop on wheels!
And it’s a spacious workshop too, accessed in this instance with twin side sliding doors and a full closed-to-wide-open-and-magnetise to the exterior side walls, barn-style rear door access. In theory and with a halfway professional lifter, I could ride my oversized motorcycle into the van, work on it and bill myself for the privilege.
Our tested unit had a very smart shelving system from an outside supplier and so should not be factored in, except to add that even with the floor to ceiling wall shelf, there was still stacks of room onboard the Crafter.
Volkswagen has equipped its big fella with a very good, high mounted camera for wide angle rearward visibility, supplementing the excellent external mirrors – the internal one might as well not be there, given the presence if the solid bulkhead for safety and sound deadening.
The Crafter’s interior is exactly what you would expect of a German van calling itself a ‘worker’. It’s a practical and functional place for the most part, with little spent on frippery or ‘carlike sophistication’ as most van makers try to claim – except in one area: the seats.
The single + two crew bench arrangement in our tested version didn’t have super swanky individually suspended seats or even air adjustable ones. Nope, they are manually adjustable in every aspect in fact, but damn, they were comfortable.
A full-time professional truck driver I know was moved to favourably comment on the comfort the Crafter’s seats offered. “Wish my Isuzu had seats this good,” was the strength of the comment.
However, Volkswagen could make certain things better in cabin. We’d like to see the screen grow a little bit. The camera image is great, so celebrate it Volkswagen, with more than a 6.5-inch screen!
Yes, an 8-inch can be optioned up from the factory, but even that looks a little sad compared to 10.25-inch which seems to be the industry standard.
We do have to comment on the safety element. ANCAP acknowledges commercial vehicle safety with a Bronze to Platinum score and the Crafter scores Silver, not the worst, but a few steps lower than we would have thought.
Crafter does have a number of what we would call crucial safety features as standard.
Things like crosswind compensation, hill start assist, that brilliant rear camera system, park distance control front and rear with side protection and autonomous post collision braking.
Our Crafter also offered blind spot monitoring, lane change assist and rear cross traffic warning, but compromised its potential Gold score by not giving these features autonomous control. The systems warn, but don’t intervene for the driver.
We would also like to see the tyre pressure monitor as a standard fit rather than a cost option, and although Crafters have cruise control, an adaptive system would probably score some more ANCAP Brownie points too.
Happily, commercial vehicle purchases are not contingent on ANCAP star ratings, which means that if you like the sound of the Crafter – and you should; we were pleasantly impressed with its performance, fit and finish levels and comfortability, and then there’s that special pricing – perhaps a trip to talk to your nearest Volkswagen dealer is in order.
