Pretoria - While the world continues to turn its back on sedans in favour of SUVs, thankfully the appetite for vans hasn’t suffered the same fate..
Almost every major manufacturer has one in their stable because of their people carrying ability, car-like driving characteristics and practicality.
And when it comes to the pinnacle of vans there’s not much standing in the way of the Mercedes-Benz V-Class, which has become the go-to van for many South African consumers.
It’s amusing, when you’re behind the wheel of one, how many of them you happen to notice on the roads. From hotel shuttles, executive airport transport, funeral services and as daily transport for those lucky enough to own one.
Building on the success of the V-Class, Mercedes-Benz Vans has added a V-Class Special EDITION into the mix, and it’s only available in South Africa.
When it comes to special editions, whether it’s decals, special rims, bumpers, paint, interior tweaks… you name it, we love a car that’s a little different to the normal garden variety.
The standard V300d from which it takes its cue is already a special van but the Special EDITION adds a number of spicy items to the list to lift it just that much higher, to make it a bit more…well, special.
Outwardly the most obvious addition is the removable roof box from the AMG range of accessories, adding welcome additional space. Considering it’s a seven seater and with just over 500 litres of boot space behind the third row of seats, if you’re going away with a large family or group of friends with luggage, that space will be at a premium.
On the Special EDITION It’s mounted on black roof rails that have a load capacity of 150kg.
The boot is split by a covered shelf hiding two handy collapsible plastic crates for shopping bags or when you don’t want your expensive chardonnay to roll around the well-appointed, cavernous interior.
The rear door has a split window which allows you to place items on the parcel shelf without having to open the entire electric tailgate.
Additional exterior exclusives include black side mirrors, anodized black belt-line strip, chrome and black finished AMG bumper trim with black AMG 19-inch light alloy rims finishing off the package.
Apart from the lavish interior, two seemingly minor things make quite a difference to your driving experience. It’s got nothing to do with the fine leather heated seats or electric sliding doors but rather a 3.2 litre refrigerated compartment in the centre console and temperature controlled cup holders.
They point to special consideration and when on a road trip, because that’s what you want to be doing in something like this, a cold drink on a hot day or keeping your coffee warm on a winter’s morning takes away a lot of the hassle of padkos, or drink in this case.
It’s powered by the same 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine providing 174kW and 500Nm of torque coupled to a 9G-TRONIC automatic transmission.
It may only have four cylinders but there’s enough grunt to provide a very sporty drive and sitting in a commanding position with the steering wheel perfectly placed you feel like the captain of a cruise liner.
The gearbox is as smooth as you could wish for and on the Special EDITION they have replaced the Sports Suspension with Agility Control suspension that adapts the damping characteristics to the road conditions and driving situation by scanning the surface and adjusting road roar and tyre vibration.
It’s not just a gimmick as I found out on a rather badly corrugated gravel road on my way to visit a friend living out in the sticks.
It’s also not a gimmick to say it can carry seven people, and in my case, grown men from an annual Old Boys Dinner.
Nothing to drink for me because I was driving so at the end of the evening I was duly promoted as driver for a group of happy men to the Old Boys Club to finish off the celebrations.
These were guys that I played rugby with many years ago and they weren’t all scrumhalves to start off so amid much mocking and chirping (especially those in the two heated second row seats that had the optional fold down tray table fitted to the front seats) everyone agreed that as a seven seater there wasn’t much to beat it.
It also took some negotiation not to use the pop-up console with fold out tables between the two second row seats for an impromptu fines meeting.
Of course there had to be music that had them in raptures as the Burmester surround sound system with fifteen speakers and a bass reflex speaker delivering 640W of audio pumped out Luciano Pavarotti singing “Nessun Dorma”.
The Mercedes Benz V-Class Special EDITION adds a unique touch to the range that had heads turning wherever I went, proving that you don’t need a howling V8 supercharged sportscar to be noticed, and best of all with a consumption figure of 8.7l/100km when I handed it back, you can skip regular fuel stops.
The Special EDITION comes with Merc’s PremiumDrive seven year or 140 000km maintenance plan.
Pricing: R2 190 000