Toyota Proace City Review & Prices

This is the Toyota Proace City, and it’s a little bit confusing. Most of us are accustomed to Peugeot, Citroen and Vauxhall selling the same van with a different face, because they’re all owned by the same company - but now Toyota’s in on the action. The Proace City is essentially the same van as the Citroen Berlingo, but Toyota’s not part of the Stellantis group, so it’s a bit of a different ownership experience.

It’s a bit like buying a telly from John Lewis - the brand is the same and you probably pay a bit more, but you’re doing it for the customer service, the warranty, and the aftercare. That aftercare is worth such a lot that the Proace City took home Highly Commended in the 2025 Carwow Car of the Year Awards.

Besides, being mechanically identical to the Peugeot Partner, Vauxhall Combo, Fiat Doblo and yes, the Citroen Berlingo is no bad thing. It means that the Proace City gets the best benefits of those vans - namely, a great payload of nearly a tonne in some models, clever tech to make life on the road a little bit easier and a good driving experience.

However, it also gets access to Toyota’s aftercare. A growing network of highly regarded Toyota Professional centres takes care of servicing and maintenance, and an industry-leading warranty offers up to ten years of cover. This alone should make Proace City ownership more reassuring than its sister models, which get an unimpressive three-year warranty.

Of course, it’s not just its sister vans that the Proace City is up against. Other alternatives include the Renault Kangoo, Volkswagen Caddy and Ford Transit Connect, all with their own plus points.

As with the Berlingo et. al, the Proace City is available in a few versions. There are two body lengths, simply named Short or Long, and three trim levels including a good-looking Sport model. You can have a choice of two diesel engines or a fully electric model, which we’ll review separately. The only thing missing is a crew cab, but you can get the plusher Proace City Verso if you want this silhouette but with more seats.

And while prices are slightly higher than the Berlingo, all Proaces come with a high-res 10.0-inch infotainment display, a raft of safety features, digital dials and the ‘Smart Cargo’ loading system for bigger items, so it’s difficult to argue you aren’t getting value for money.

While you’re here, check out the best Toyota deals available through Carwow. You can find a used Toyota for sale here, and remember that Carwow can even help you sell your old van.

At just over £22,000 ex. VAT for a basic ‘Active’ variant, the Proace City is around £2,000 more expensive than an entry-level Citroen Berlingo, putting it on a closer level with the Ford Transit Connect and Volkswagen Caddy. You can pay less than £1,000 to upgrade to the slightly plusher Icon grade, while the range-topping Sport comes in at just over £25,000.

You’ll also pay around £600 to upgrade from the Short to the Long body, though the latter is only available in mid-range Icon trim.

Active and Icon models very much look like vans, with black plastic bumpers and door handles. All versions do get a 10.0-inch infotainment screen, smartphone connectivity and digital dials, as well as air-conditioning, rear parking sensors, automatic headlights and cruise control.

Icon grade adds a whole load of safety kit - blind-spot monitoring, front parking sensors, a rear-view camera and a digital rear-view mirror, while Sport is more stylish with body-coloured mouldings and alloy wheels. It also comes only with the most powerful engine on offer.

Quiet, refined and most un-vanlike - the Proace City is great to drive, though the electric model is better around town

The Proace City is available with a single 1.5-litre diesel engine, in two states of tune. The base version has 100hp and a six-speed manual transmission, while the more powerful version has 130hp and can be had with a manual or eight-speed automatic transmission.

Even the base engine has enough poke for around town - it’s not quick, but it has plenty of low-down torque to get even a fully-laden van moving and can cruise comfortably on the motorway. The 130hp version is the pick of the range, though, because it has that extra in reserve for overtakes or joining faster roads - it’s a shame it’s only available on the range-topping Sport.

Both versions are quiet and smooth, though, making the Volkswagen Caddy seem quite unrefined in comparison.

The six-speed manual is a good gearbox, and the position of the lever is close to your hand to make shifting easy. The eight-speed automatic makes light work of traffic and is better if you do a lot of town driving, but it’s only available on the Sport model. It’s also not quite as smooth as the automatic in the Mercedes Citan, feeling a little jerky if you ask for quick acceleration at a junction, for example.

The Proace City Electric is the better version for driving around town, as it has no gears at all to worry about and simply makes very smooth progress.

Whichever model you choose, the Proace City is comfortable over bumps. The payoff is that it leans more in bends and feels a little less stable when you’re cornering on a fast road - the Ford Transit Connect is more like a car in this regard, being quite tied-down.

Visibility out of the Proace City is quite good, and the mid-spec Icon and top-spec Sport both get a digital rear-view mirror which is a really nice touch. A reversing camera on these models also aids manoeuvring in town or parking, though even the Active model has rear parking sensors and big door mirrors so it’s not exactly difficult.

Payload is a few kilos down on the Berlingo but still excellent, but there’s no Crew van available to balance passengers and load carrying

The Proace City is available in Short or Long body lengths - quite self-explanatory. Both are capacious, being on the larger side for a small van. All models also get twin side sliding doors - the Berlingo only gets one as standard - and barn doors at the rear.

Smart Cargo is also standard - this is the equivalent of Citroen’s Extenso Cab, and takes the form of a folding passenger seat and a bulkhead passthrough. This allows you to increase maximum loading length and overall load volume by a not-insignificant amount, rivalling full-sized panel vans in length terms.

The only thing the Proace City doesn’t get in the UK that its sister vans do is a Crew Van option.

Internal and external measurements

Exterior dimensions (Short/Long)
Exterior length: 4,403mm/4,753mm
Exterior height: 1,840mm/1,849mm (Worker models 1,860mm)
Exterior width with mirrors: 2,107mm
Exterior width without mirrors: 1,848mm

Interior load length (Short/Long)
To bulkhead : 1,817mm/2,167mm
With Extenso cab passthrough: 3,090mm/3,440mm

Interior loading width
Max: 1,527mm
Between wheel arches: 1,229mm

Interior loading height (Short/Long)
Max height: 1,200mm/1,270mm

Rear door aperture height/width
All versions: 1,196mm/1,241mm

Side door aperture height/width
All versions: 1,072mm/675mm

Towing capacity

The Proace City can tow up to 1,000kg braked or 750kg unbraked, 50kg less than the Berlingo.

Payload

Maximum payload capacity for the Proace City is a few kilos off the Berlingo, probably due to the additional standard equipment offered. While Toyota describes it as a ‘1-tonne payload’ the truth is it’s a few kilos off - however, a maximum capacity of 982kg in the Short model and 936kg in the Long model isn’t anything to sniff at. It’s still among the best in the small van class.

Comfortable and reasonably high-tech, too - though narrow for three occupants

The Proace City’s cab is lifted directly from its sister vans, so it’s entirely comprised of Stellantis fittings with a Toyota badge glued on top. So if you were expecting the hewn-from-rock feeling you get in Toyota’s other hard-working vehicles, such as the Hilux, you might be a little disappointed.

However, it works reasonably well and feels quite hardwearing. It’s a shame that even the top-spec Sport has a plasticky steering wheel, but the seats are comfortable and supportive.

All versions of the Proace City get a 10.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system as well as a 10.0-inch digital instrument cluster. That’s in contrast to its sister vans, which only get a smartphone mount on their base models - and goes some way to explaining the price difference. The screen itself works quite well though it’s not the most responsive in all of its menus - and some functions are buried quite deep.

Sat-nav isn’t standard but wireless smartphone connectivity is, so you’ll be able to plumb your phone in to get Google Maps with ease.

It’s nice that there’s still a panel of physical climate controls, too, so you don’t have to dive into menus to change the temperature - and there’s even a shortcut button to turn off the more annoying safety systems in one move.

Storage is alright. There’s no proper glovebox underneath - just a hole in the dash, accounting for the location of the fusebox. But there is a deep cubby above this, and another on top of the instrument cluster, though it’s quite annoying to access on the move. The cupholders sit at either end of the dash and are quite shallow - and there’s only two of them.

Despite the Proace City being quite a wide small van there’s still precious little room for three across the cab, so the middle seat should remain for occasional use only. There’s no optional two-seat layout as there is in its sister vans, either.

The Proace City’s diesel engines are very economical. Over 50mpg is easily attainable, while the 100hp engine with a light load could see more than 60mpg on a long run. Official fuel economy is only around 50mpg, but it’s good that this can be beaten without too much hard work.

Expect slightly lower economy from the automatic, especially round town - though a long top gear means it should remain pretty efficient on the motorway.

A 17-litre AdBlue tank is fitted.

The Proace City gets a long list of standard safety equipment. Driver, passenger, side and curtain airbags are all fitted, as are the now-mandatory lane departure and speed limit warning systems.

All models also get cruise control, hill-start assist and automatic headlights, while mid-spec Icon models and above also get blind-spot monitors, fog lights, a rear-view camera, all-round parking sensors and a digital rear-view mirror which includes a blindspot camera on the offside mirror.

Euro NCAP doesn’t crash test vans, but the Berlingo passenger car was tested back in 2018 and scored four stars. That’s quite an old test, but shows that the Proace City is built to passenger car standards.

On the security front, an alarm is standard across the range, as are deadbolts. The cab and load area can be locked separately, and the rear door hinges are hidden to make it more difficult for thieves to gain access.

The Proace City is basically a Citroen under the skin, and that means it’s not necessarily as reliable as you might hope for a Toyota product. A long list of (thankfully quite minor) recalls shows that this van isn’t quite built up to the Japanese brand’s exacting standards.

However, Toyota’s growing network of van service centres promises to remedy that as quickly as possible. Though servicing is on the pricier side, there are fixed-cost appointments and servicing plans to help spread the load. Plus, you’re guaranteed an appointment within a certain time frame or your servicing is half price.

Service intervals for the Proace City are variable but max out at two years or 25,000 miles, whichever comes first. As part of Toyota’s brilliant ‘Relax’ warranty, you get three years and 60,000 miles of coverage as standard - but every time you service your van at a Toyota centre, you extend your warranty coverage until the next service appointment.

Continue doing this and you get a maximum of ten years and 100,000 miles of coverage - and that can even be applied to used vans.

This alone makes the Proace City a more appealing package than its Stellantis siblings, and is a good reason to buy it.