Toyota Proace City

Toyota was perhaps a little late to the party with the launch of its latest small van, the Proace City. Like its larger sibling the Proace, the Proace City is virtually identical to models from Toyota’s commercial van partners Citroen, Peugeot and Vauxhall, whose versions in this sector are the Berlingo, Partner and Combo respectively, plus the new arrival, the Fiat Professional Doblo.

All are built on the same Stellantis platform but subtle individual differences abound from model to model. Toyota has decided to offer slightly different specs and equipment on its van than that aren’t available on the others, meaning the Proace City entry model is better equipped than rival versions further up the chain. This helps make, Toyota says, the Proace City a better bet for small businesses and SMEs.

First and foremost, the Proace City is offered in two body lengths, L1 and L2, and comes with cargo volumes of 3.3 and 3.9 cubic metres, and a single roof height. There are two trims: Active and Icon.

Two engines are offered, both Stellantis 1.5 diesels, with either 75bhp or 100bhp and a 5-speed manual gearbox. There’s no auto version, nor is Toyota offering the largest 130bhp Stellantis engine either. And there’s a caveat, in that the L2 van is only available in top-spec Icon trim.

To be different, Toyota is offering twin-sliding side doors on both L1 and L2, while only the L2 versions of the Citroen, Peugeot and Vauxhall offer this, so that’s good news. Also standard is a full steel bulkhead and if you order the entry level Active, you can add the twin passenger seat option, which includes the through load fold down back, perfect for longer items.

Standard kit is impressive too, with air con, a USB socket and Bluetooth on Active. We were testing the L1 Icon and this adds an excellent 8” touchscreen, with connected Apps for Apple Car Lay and Android Auto, front and rear parking sensors, a red view camera, cruise control, a second USB, DAB and daytime running lights.

Both models feature excellent safety kit. Active comes with driver and passenger airbags, an option on its Stellantis siblings, curtain airbags, hill start, downhill assist, stability control and brakeforce distribution. Icon adds a speed limiter, tyre pressure monitors and a supplemental restraint system (SRS) on the twin airbags.

Only Icon models can be fitted with an alarm with motion and tamper sensors, while the Toyota Safety Sense system, which adds road sign assist, lane departure warning and tiredness alert is also only offered on Icon variants too.

Service intervals are 25,000 miles or two years. Both models feature a 50-litre fuel tank and a 17-litre AdBlue tank. Proace City benefits from Toyota’s five-year/100,000-mile warranty, while the Stellantis versions only get three years of cover, albeit with the same 100,000mile limit.

We were testing the Icon SWB powered by the larger 100 bhp engine. Top speed is 107 mph, with 0-62 mph reached in 11.5 seconds. CO2 emissions are 151g/km with combined fuel economy on the WLTP cycle between 46.31 and 50.44 MPG.

We’ve stated in these pages many times before, just how much van cabs are now very car-like, and this is definitely the case with the Proace City. The fixtures and fittings will be familiar to Vauxhall, Citroen, Peugeot and Fiat customers. The instrumentation is clear and concise and the large centre dash mounted touchscreen is a real highlight. Importantly for a van, it’s all easy to reach from the driver’s seat.

The seating position is high, while the compact, flat-bottomed steering wheel allows for easier access to the cabin. There’s good storage space too, with two glove boxes and two large door pockets, plus an above the head body wide shelf on our Icon model. Three occupants can also sit abreast in the front of the Combo Cargo although the centre front passenger will find leg room tight.

The build quality is excellent, with plenty of soft touch plastics on the front and top of the dashboard. Even the glovebox lid and door pockets are solid and built to last. The seat fabric feels hard wearing, with the floor covering designed to take some punishment from booted feet. There’s also a handy electric handbrake and the gear stick sits at a good height for gear changes.

For load access, the twin rear doors open 180 degrees if required and both side sliding door open and closes with a reassuring clunk. I’m not a tradesperson, but always try to use a van for purpose when I test one and the Proace City was no different. A visit to Selco to buy some wood to make shed shelving allowed me to load in four pieces of MDF and two 2.4 m lengths of wood via the opening seat hatch.

We travelled over 200 miles in our week in the Proace City, driving on a mix of motorway, dual-carriageway and urban roads and never found it anything less than comfortable. Thanks to the steel bulkhead, the cabin is quiet. The infotainment system works extremely well. We connected an iPhone via the USB to utilise AppleCar Play and made a couple of handsfree calls without needing to shout. This also allowed us into Google Maps.

On the motorway, the addition of cruise control allows the driver to sit back and relax and in town, the five-speed gearbox is well set for slow traffic driving. Driving 212 miles, we averaged a shade over 49mpg.

The 100bhp model worked just fine with small loads and a single occupant, offering plenty of torque in low revs and decent motorway progress. The 75bhp version might feel a little underpowered though, especially with two passengers on board.

Although the entry level Proace City is slightly more expensive than the equivalent Stellantis models, the City is better specced. It also comes with twin sliding side doors and you do get a better five year/10,000 mile warranty, so these factors need to be taken into account.

Like it’s Stellantis counterparts, the Proace City hasn’t got many faults. The only one we could find was the less than accurate air con, which is too cold at 19 degrees and too warm at 20 degrees. But this really is a minor quibble and the Proace City comes highly recommended.

Citroen, Peugeot, Fiat and Vauxhall probably thought they’d corner the market with Stellantis versions of the Proace City, but clever positioning means that Toyota offers something different.

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