Double Honours For Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles In Fleet World Awards

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has claimed two awards in the 2004 Fleet World Honours, presented at a special ceremony at the RAC Club in London yesterday.

The new Transporter was named Best New Van in the Commercial Fleet World awards, judged by a panel of experts representing the leasing industry, fleet managers, residual value guides and the magazine’s editorial team.

Commercial Fleet World editor, Gibb Grace, commented: ‘The latest Transporter range is simply bigger and better than the outgoing model. There’s more room for the driver and passengers, more loadspace, more power and torque from new engines providing more performance, more stopping power from front ventilated disc brakes and more safety from innovative electronic systems. Also with more body configurations and more GVW offerings, new Transporter has a wider appeal and offers more transport solutions than ever before.’

He added: ‘With so many new models vying for this year’s Best New Van title, the award is more meaningful than usual this time. In short, Transporter is the best of a crop of first class contenders.’

This award comes in addition to the titles of International Van of the Year 2004 and What Van? Van of the Year which have been bestowed upon the Transporter since launch in October last year.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles also won the Commercial Fleet World Safety Award, thanks to the high level of active and passive safety features across the range, for example ABS which is standard on all Volkswagen vans, as well as a number of sophisticated optional safety items including ESP (Electronic Stabilisation Programme).

Gibb Grace explained: ‘Modern light commercial vehicles have broadly similar performance to cars, and now have comparable safety requirements, comprising both passive and active systems. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, our safety award winner, in particular, designs its products from the outset with people-carrying versions in mind, and as a result, they have outstanding active safety.’