Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert & Toyota Proace share WhatVan? Medium van of the year 2018!

The prestigious WhatVan? Medium van of the year prize has been once again claimed by a joint venture. The Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert and Toyota Proace medium vans are almost identical and WhatVan? Couldn't separate them at the top of the medium van tree!

Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert & Toyota Proace - Medium vans of the Year 2018!

The trio fronted by PSA have scooped the Medium van award for the second year running and have not been beaten in this segment since the release of their all new models. The Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert and Toyota Proace medium vans scooped the prize last year from under the noses of another collaboration in the form of the Renault Trafic and Vauxhall Vivaro vans, who'd previously won the award for three consecutive years.

So what makes the new Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert and Toyota Proace vans deserved winners of the prestigious award once again? For starters the new vans have entered the biggest-selling and most competitive new van market, competing against the likes of the ever popular Ford Transit Custom and Volkswagen Transporter vans.

All three medium vans are differentiated by differences in exterior styling. The Citroen Dispatch van has a soft and kind looking exterior, a short bonnet and headlamps which are mounted high up, the Peugeot Expert appears more aggressive and prominent front-end appearance, whereas the modern appearance of the Toyota Proace is in line with a line of Toyota models.

WhatVan? Were particularly impressed with the comprehensive range of the three medium vans, including compact models which took the segment into uncharted territories. The compact versions of each new van are 4.6 metres in length and boast 5.1 cubic metres of load volume in conjunction with an impressive 1-tonne payload. All three new vans are available in three body lengths with one uniform roof height and up to 6.6 cubic metres of load volume.

The new models have a range of highly economical engines available, a huge improvement from those available in previous models, offering fuel economies up to 53.3 miles to the gallon with Stop/start aiding this figure. The two offerings from PSA (Peugeot vans and Citroen vans) are available with a range of Euro 6 compliant 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre BlueHDi diesel engines with outputs ranging from 95ps up to 180ps. The Toyota Proace is available with the same engines but only goes up to a 120ps output on panel vans.

The three new medium vans are fighting off some serious competition in the segment, this may get even tougher with the Ford Transit Custom facelift!

Highly Commended: Ford Transit Custom

In second place effectively is the excellent and incredibly popular Ford Transit Custom van which has been the UK's best-selling new van for some time now! Time will tell if this year's new facelift will be enough to get the Transit Custom to the top of the WhatVan charts.

Medium vans on finance

Looking for a new medium van? Your search is over! At Vansdirect we have a huge range of medium vans in stock, you can check out our whole range here. All of our new vans are available with flexible van finance options, including: van leasing, contract hire and hire purchase. Interested? Call Vansdirect on 0800 169 69 95 or enquire online,