TOYOTA PROACE VERSO
Able to carry up to 9 people, the Toyota Proace Verso offers near-unbeatable levels of practicality and passenger transport capability.
The car market tells us that if you want to produce a highly practical and successful MPV, you first need a good van. Well, Toyota has one of those and it’s called the Proace, so the Japanese giant decided that it would add some seats, extra windows and comfort as well as the ‘Verso’ moniker to produce its new MPV, one with room for up to 9 people.
Though it’s a Japanese van, the Toyota Proace is actually almost entirely French. The Proace is a van produced under partnership with Peugeot and Citroen, and together they produce a number of commercial vehicles under their respective brands. When you get into it, mechanically speaking, the Toyota Proace, Peugeot Expert and Citroen Dispatch are all pretty much identical. Like Toyota, Peugeot and Citroen also make their own people-moving versions of their respective vans too, as do other manufacturers entirely such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.
Power for the Proace Verso will arrive from one of 2 engines – a 1.5-litre 118bhp turbo diesel or a 2.0-litre turbo diesel available in 148 or 177bhp outputs. The smaller 1.5 is available only in entry-level ‘Shuttle’ trim, which is the 9-seat configuration of the Verso, while the 2.0-litre engines appear on other trim in the range. The 177bhp 2.0-litre engine only comes with an automatic gearbox, while other engines in the range come with manual transmissions as standard.
Synergy customers wanting a touchscreen will need to pick either ‘Family’ or ‘VIP’ versions of the Proace Verso as these models are the only ones that get the 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system. It features Bluetooth, DAB radio, and smartphone integration (Android Auto and Apple CarPlay), but navigation is only an optional extra on lower levels of trim, though on some high-spec versions it does appear as standard.
Ultimately, the Proace Verso and its French partners are one of the few vehicles available to lease that can carry so many people, and while they might not be luxurious machines, their skill is simple human transport capability, which is exactly what some Synergy customers require.