The entry-level Startline short-wheelbase panel van can be bought for less than £30,000 including VAT it comes with a 109bhp 2.0-litre diesel engine and front-wheel drive and it will haul 800kg of cargo or swallow a couple of Euro 3 pallets in its hindquarters. Elsewhere in the wider line-up, of course, configurability is the Transporter’s middle name. And while you get a choice of wheelbase lengths (3.0m or 3.4m), there’s only one default choice of roof height and carrying capacity (all Transporter Sportlines are based on Volkswagen’s T32 chassis specification, with maximum payload ratings ranging from just under to just over one tonne). You can only have a two-pedal dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
#Vw transporter driver#
So what are we to make of the idea of a 2.1-tonne utility monocab that wears hot hatch garb at least semi-seriously? Is this a real attempt at a cargo carrier with a little added driver appeal? Or is it simply a dose of visual razzle-dazzle for the entrepreneur who wants the world to know his bathroom-fitting business is doing well? And whichever it is, does that have implications for how functional or useful this vehicle is in its primary purpose? Its specification includes 18in alloy wheels with performance tyres, lowered sports suspension and part-leather sports seats, as well as the dinky roof spoiler and eye-catching front bumper pictured on these pages. Having been added to the Transporter range in 2021 shortly after a mid-life facelift for the T6-generation vehicle dubbed the T6.1, the Sportline adds more than a few tokenistic performance-aping exterior styling touches. The Transporter Sportline is the new range-topping version of Volkswagen’s mid-sized van.
Would something subtler have been better? Perhaps. Front bumper design looks aggressive from a distance, but up close it’s pretty obvious how little of it provides necessary airflow.
0 kommentar(er)
