Passenger vans always look odd; but they're great value.
While we all may ache after a handsome Aston Martin or Masserratti, in reality these vehicles are as useful as a jelly spade when it comes to ferrying kids and gear about or taking the grass cuttings to the recycling centre. Okay, so if you have a posh motor you probably have someone to take care of these trivial things, but there is a brutal honesty to van-derived cars that is hard to argue against. I'm testing the Fiat Fiorino 'Qubo' this week and must admit it has helped me tackle most of the DIY jobs about the house that I had put on the long finger. The Qubo in a nutshell is a 'Pimped' Fiorino van. Inside there is seating for five and when full, unlike many a mini MPV, there is plenty of cargo carrying capacity.
The exterior features a front end that has a pronounced bumper; colour coding and alloys on higher trimmed versions give the Qubo a bit of a styling lift, but otherwise the exterior is boxy at best.
Inside once you get past the hard plastics and functional nature of the dash and trim finish the Qubo starts to impress. Like all van-derived passenger cars, the high roofline means that there are simply acres of headroom inside (not to mention vertical packing space). The boot holds 330 litres but if you take the rear bench seat out (with a bit of effort) there are 2,500 litres of space available - that's a lot of flat pack furniture and moss peat! A word of caution, though: as the boot lip is low, the tailgate needs a decent amount of space to open up - keep this in mind when parking. Sliding side doors make loading passengers effortless and very car park friendly. The driving position is SUV-like and the five-speed gearbox and secondary controls fall nicely to hand. The Qubo has one of the most comfortable steering wheels I have used in a while too.
Built on the platform of the Grande Punto, the Qubo comes with a tiny but useful turbo diesel (1.3 litre/75bhp 'Multijet') engine that simply does the job with no frills or face-melting speed ability; though that would truly be frightening seeing as the suspension and chassis is more agricultural than Aston Martin in nature. Unlike an Aston Martin, the Qubo falls into the lowest tax band for CO2: your annual road tax will cost just €104! A 1.4 litre petrol version is available for a few quid less (€800) but it has a higher tax rating, so the figures don't add up in the long run. Prices in the four car range start at €15,465 for the entry level 1.4 'Active', rising up to €17,365 for the top of the range 1.3 'Dynamic'. 62mpg is possible with Qubo and that's impressive.
If you have kids and need a versatile motor that does what is says on the tin then logic insists that you take a look at the Qubo - whether you can look at it for long depends on you. If you want to be noticed, go for bright paintwork like Fiat's 'Disco Green' or 'Funky Orange'.
Michael Sheridan
