Road test review: Renault Trafic

Thursday, 5 March 2020

**RENAULT TRAFIC LWB AUTO

Base price:** $55,990

Powertrain and economy: 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder, 125kW/380Nm, 6-speed dual clutch transmission, FWD, combined economy 5.9L/100km, CO2 156g/km (source: Renault).

The hot hatch of the van segment - the Renault Trafic is quick and fun to drive. Really!

Vital statistics: 5399mm long, 1956mm wide, 1967mm high, 3498mm wheelbase, 16-inch alloy wheels.

We like: Fantastic engine, comfortable cabin, impressive amount of standard safety tech, actually enjoyable to drive.

As well as the new, more powerful engine, the Trafic also gets a new grille and headlights.

We don't like: Dual clutch transmission is quirky around town, tiny cupholders almost useless.

While we think of Renault as something of a bit-player here, in Europe it is a veritable colossus, utterly dominating the commercial segment with its range of vans - the small Kangoo and large Master book-ending the super-popular, weirdly-spelled medium size Trafic, which has just been refreshed and unleashed in New Zealand as the company makes a renewed push in the van segment here.

A white van? Really? Is this Courier Driver Weekly now?

While it has lots of protective black plastic, the Trafic is also bristling with sensors and has a reversing camera.

Hey, come on - vans are cool and while this particular van is white, Renault offers the Trafic in a surprisingly large range of colours other than white. Although you do have to fork out an extra $900 for any colour that isn't white…

**READ MORE:

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* Trade you a flash van for this basic one

Comfortable and well-equipped, the Trafic's interior is a pleasant place to spend long periods of time.

* Return of an old friend will boost the Kiwi van market

* Five reasons why the best city car is actually a big white van**

Wide-opening 270 degree barn doors and twin sliding side doors as standard mean the is no shortage of ways to access the Trafic's load space.

But that aside, the Trafic has another feature that stops it from just being a boring, white appliance - it is actually fun to drive.

No, no: hear me out - it is possible for something functional and utilitarian to be fun to drive, the last iteration of the Trafic proved that.

And this new version takes it further, by adding a gruntier diesel engine: a 2.0-litre turbo diesel unit that pumps out 125kW of power and 380Nm of torque, which actually makes it something of a hot hatch in the medium van segment.

Yes, really - when unladen, the Renault Trafic is an absolute flyer. It effortlessly belts past slower traffic on the open road and is muscular enough around town that you genuinely have to be careful you don't spin the front wheels with an over-enthusiastic launch for a gap in traffic.

The centre seat folds down to form a mobile desk, complete with a clipboard.

Yeah, but extra grunt alone doesn't make something fun to drive, does it?

Come on - of course it does. Even extra grunt in a crappy car makes it at least more amusing - an underwhelming chassis flailing about hopelessly due to the extra power it is failing spectacularly to deal with is massive fun…

It's a white van. Yet the Renault Trafic is also so much more than just a white van.

But fortunately for the Trafic, that isn't actually the case here, because it is a remarkably well-sorted thing.

Sure, it will ultimately push its nose wide under too much speed through a corner, but it is a FWD van after all, so that is to be expected. But what isn't so expected is the sharp accuracy of the steering and the responsive and surprisingly agile chassis that happily follows your lead.

Yep, this really is the hot hatch of the van segment.

But how does it measure up as a van?

Well, like every other van, really - it has a huge amount of space in the rear (6 cubic metres), along with twin 270-degree barn doors at the back (you get a lift up tailgate if you go for the SWB version), a steel bulkhead separating the cargo bay from the cabin and a genius load-though port under the floor of the passenger's side that allows items up to 4.1 metres long to slide though. Practical!

But it is the cabin where Renault have really lifted the Trafic's game above the pack.

While all that 'driving enjoyment' stuff isn't actually that important in a van (it is brilliant though), a comfortable, functional cabin is essential to a driver who will quite often be spending a large part of their working day in it.

And the Trafic excels here too - the cabin is brilliantly functional, with clever touches like the centre seat that folds down to serve as anything from a storage unit to a laptop table, complete a clipboard-holder that can be slotted in to face either the driver or passenger.

And there's no shortage of nooks and crannies in the cabin either, with about 90 litres-worth in total.

The seats are impressively comfortable and are upholstered in a clearly durable, but pleasant-feeling fabric, while the addition of a touchscreen infotainment system complete with satellite navigation, as well as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, is a welcome addition.

The one downside we came across was that the cupholders are all essentially espresso size and won't hold a bottle (the door pockets will, however) or a larger cup. Disappointing…

It sounds like the perfect van. Nothing you don't like then?

Don't be silly; nothing's perfect. And the one thing I would consider possibly a chink in the Trafic's armour is its dual clutch transmission.

Having an automatic in a van is actually a big thing for Renault, as 90 per cent of van sales in New Zealand are self-shifters.

But while the Trafic's new six-speed dual clutch transmission is a very good thing when on the move, it does throw up a few issues at lower speeds, much as DCTs are known to do. Except those issues will be more irritating in a van.

Off the line, the combination of slight turbo lag and DCT hesitation means the power delivery is a case of 'nothing… nothing… EVERYTHING!' if you jam the pedal to the floor, making last minute lunges for a gap in traffic a hair-raising experience if you are not expecting it.

It also has a tendency to get a bit flustered when slowly maneuvering, which is a common DCT thing, but is a bigger annoyance in a van.

Of course, whether or not these tendencies are amplified when it is fully loaded could also be an issue.

Any other cars I should consider?

The only similar 'actually-fun-to-drive van with an auto' in the segment is the equally excellent Ford Transit Custom, which at $61,490 for the equivalent LWB low-roof version is a solid $6k more than the Renault and doesn't get the dual sliding side doors that the Trafic comes standard with either.

Toyota's latest version of the Hiace is a cheaper option at $47,990 for the equivalent diesel/auto ZR, but only offers two seats up front and less creature comforts in a far more utilitarian cabin.

Other similar vans include the slightly smaller $51,990 Hyundai iLoad, the LWB versions of the Volkswagen Transporter and Mercedes-Benz Vito that come in a vast variety of sizes and options, as well as Peugeot's forthcoming new Expert that has yet to have its price revealed locally. While at the budget end of the spectrum you have LDV's smallest V80 van at $36,788.