The best medium vans 2025

Mid-sized panel vans are the lifeblood of many businesses in the UK. Whether they’re delivering parcels, carrying the tools of a trade or kitted out for more specialist work, these versatile masterpieces have a footprint no larger than a family SUV but endless versatility. They’re more manoeuvrable in big cities than a large van such as a Mercedes Sprinter, while being more useful and not really any less practical than a small van such as Citroen Berlingo or Renault Kangoo.

Most sales are of medium-sized panel vans – in fact, the Ford Transit Custom is the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the UK, eclipsing sales numbers for even the most popular cars.

The best medium-sized panel vans demand minimal compromise. These vehicles used to be cramped, agricultural and unrefined – almost punishing their drivers. But these days, they’re as comfortable as any car to drive, and frequently get the same safety, comfort and entertainment tech as their manufacturers’ passenger vehicles.

These refinements even extend to powerful engines, sporty-looking trim levels and even sophisticated and efficient hybrid or plug-in hybrid systems.

But no matter how posh a medium panel van gets, it has to be good at the basics. The load area must be large, practical and accommodating, and the underlying vehicle needs to be tough enough to deal with serious payloads. For added practicality, it’s also useful to have a hefty towing limit, while neat features such as through-loading bulkheads, roof bars or innovative storage solutions all help create additional flexibility.

Our expert road test team has driven all the key vans out there and come out with the vehicles below. They’re all diesel-powered (or in one case, hybrid) – if you’re looking for an EV, then check out our roundup of the best electric vans.

Best medium vans to buy 2025

1. Ford Transit Custom
2. Toyota Proace
3. Citroen Dispatch/Peugeot Expert/Vauxhall Vivaro/Fiat Scudo
4. Mercedes Vito
5. Renault Trafic

Ford Transit Custom

Best for: versatility

The Ford Transit Custom is the best-selling vehicle in the UK and a deserving winner of Carwow’s first Van of the Year award. What makes it so good? It’s a combination of smart design, sensible features and the sheer breadth of choice in the range, all of which make it an ideal option for more businesses than any other alternative.

First, the engine line-up. On the diesel front, you’ve a choice of three power outputs, automatic or manual gearboxes, and front- or four-wheel drive. On top of that, you can select a plug-in hybrid option, which gives you the ability to be zero-emissions in the city while still retaining a combustion engine for longer drives. There’s also a pair of all-electric options in the E-Transit Custom.

Then you move onto bodystyles. Panel van and crew cab are par for the course, but Ford also offers the genius ‘Multicab’ – an L-shaped bulkhead which allows you to carry five people and still have a portion of the full loading length available for long items.

You can have your Transit Custom as a basic working van with black plastic bumpers, steel wheels and cloth seats, or you can head right up to positively luxurious (and very eye-catching) Trail or Sport variants. Smart features such as a flat floor, optional integrated roof rack and extensive app connectivity are just the icing on the cake.

Of course, none of this would be any use at all if the Transit was rubbish at carrying stuff – but it’s not. The load area is bigger and wider than on most of its alternatives, and its payloads are among the best in this class.

Even the Transit’s cab is a good place to be. It’s thoughtfully designed, with a flat floor and out-of-the-way gearshift making life much nicer for the middle passenger. All versions get a huge touchscreen and digital dashboard with smartphone connectivity, too, so no need for awkward and dangerous phone mounts clinging to the windscreen just to get the sat-nav on.

Add in a truly fantastic driving experience – better than several large SUVs we could name – and the Transit Custom really does tick every box.

Toyota Proace

Best for: warranty and aftercare

If the Toyota Proace looks familiar, it’s because it’s the same van – mechanically, at least – as the four Stellantis vans (below). What separates it from those vans is the aftercare proposition.

Toyota offers up to a ten-year warranty on its vans provided that servicing is undertaken according to the schedule and at approved service centres – in the case of the Proace, that means every two years or 25,000 miles. Do this and a van you buy in 2025 will still be covered until 2035.

You can also activate the Relax warranty on used vans, with Toyota giving you two years of cover with every service – so if you buy a second-hand Proace you can be reassured that you won’t be left high and dry by premature parts failure.

Add in a growing number of Toyota Professional dealers and initiatives such as a guaranteed courtesy van, express servicing and highly-rated aftercare, and it’s clear that while Toyota may not be able to apply its fastidious processes to the manufacture of the Proace (since it’s built by someone else), it sure as hell wants to make sure that once they’re out on the road, they stay fully functional.

There’s a good amount of choice in the Proace range – three engine choices, the top-spec one available with an automatic gearbox, and four trim levels including a good-looking ‘Sport’ variant. All come well-equipped, though, with a high-res 10.0-inch touchscreen taking centre stage in the interior. It’s comfortable to drive, though the cab does feel a bit cramped compared to the expansive Transit Custom.

Citroen Dispatch/Peugeot Expert/Vauxhall Vivaro/Fiat Scudo

Best for: a choice of dealers

Are you seeing double…triple…quadruple? No, nor quintuple – this is essentially the same van with four different name plates and front-end styling details. Or five, if you include the Toyota Proace (above).

The four offerings from manufacturing giant Stellantis can be lumped together because unlike the Toyota with its superior aftercare offering, there really isn’t anything separating these four vans. Whether you buy it from Citroen, Peugeot, Vauxhall or Fiat, you’ll only find minor differences in trim levels and pricing.

What this does mean is that you have huge flexibility in which dealer you buy it from. Say you see and like the Citroen Dispatch, but you don’t have a local Citroen dealership – instead, you live near a Vauxhall site. You can buy the same van but from a different dealer. This can also be useful for businesses which already have vehicle fleets in place – say you already have several Fiat Ducato large vans, you can now complement them with excellent medium-sized vans from the same dealer network, keeping things tidier.

Whichever brand you choose to buy from, the vans are functionally identical, including in warranty cover – though Fiat alone offers a very competitive extended warranty that’s well worth considering.

All the vans are comfortable to drive, have competitive payloads – albeit with a slightly smaller load area than the best alternatives – and comfortable, if cramped cabs.

Mercedes Vito

Best for: a posh image

Nothing quite like the three-pointed star to indicate that your business is a cut above, is there? The Vito is a handsome and classy-looking van, and after its recent facelift in 2024 it feels much more up-to-date on the inside too, where the ancient dashboard has been replaced with tech that’s familiar from Mercedes’ passenger cars.

You can choose from three diesel engines, and the top two come standard with Mercedes’ nine-speed automatic gearbox – really smooth and responsive. Add that to the rear-wheel drive chassis and pretty satisfying steering and the Vito is one of the nicest vans to drive long-distance – it’s comfortable and quiet, and doesn’t feel like a commercial vehicle at all.

It’s loaded with all the tech you could hope for, rivalling the Transit Custom in this regard – although with traditional dials it’s a little less glitzy in the cab. All those features plus the heavy chassis do hurt the Vito’s payload, though, and no model in the range can carry over a ton – which is slightly disappointing when you think that every van mentioned above can manage in excess of 1.2 tons.

Running costs are good if not spectacular, though Mercedes vans do have a great reputation for dependability. This isn’t borne out in a super-long warranty, but you should be reassured that, as long as servicing is kept up with at a Mercedes-Benz dealer, you get up to 30 years (no, not a typo) of roadside assistance thrown in for free.

Renault Trafic/Nissan Primastar

Best for: long loads

Badge-engineering is rife in the commercial vehicle world and here’s another example – the Nissan Primastar and Renault Trafic, which are functionally identical. The Nissan gets a longer, five-year warranty as opposed to the Renault’s three, but it’s with conditions and Nissan’s servicing network isn’t anywhere near as extensive, so call it a draw on aftercare.

Otherwise these are solid if unremarkable vans. They do offer a lot of loading length, which can be very useful if you have big items to carry but don’t want to step all the way up to a large panel van. Even the shortest model can accommodate three Euro pallets. It’s a shame payloads don’t quite match up in generosity, and they’re bested by both the Transit Custom and the Stellantis-based vans.

The load area is pretty clever, though. All but the base model get a load-through bulkhead and lift-up passenger seat to facilitate even bigger items, there are over a dozen lashing points and Renault can also fit useful extras like an internal roof rack.

There’s also a pretty comfortable cab with tech taken from Renault’s older passenger cars – no glamorous Google-based infotainment here, but the infotainment system is simple and the controls are sensibly laid-out.

Diesel engine options run from 130 to 170hp and there’s a six-speed dual-clutch automatic available, which works well.

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