To encourage van buyers to experience how smooth and easy the Volkswagen Crafter is to drive, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has launched a test drive offer through its Van Centre network. As an added incentive, anyone taking a test drive before 30 September 2010 has the chance of winning £5,000 worth of business supplies.

Since Volkswagen introduced its latest, more refined BlueTDI engines to the Crafter range last year, a variety of independent road tests have remarked on how smooth and comfortable it is to drive. This is thanks to the five-cylinder BlueTDI engines which are quieter and more economical, with an improved gearbox and lower emissions which are comfortably beyond the current Euro5 standards. A new optional Stop/Start function has subsequently been introduced offering even further fuel savings with reduced emissions, noise and engine wear.

With short, medium and long wheelbases plus low, high or extra high roofs, the comprehensive Crafter range suits all businesses. The range includes panel vans and kombis, plus window van people carriers and an off-the-shelf conversions range with tipper, dropside and Luton bodies. The panel van range can carry load volumes from 7.5 m³ up to 17.0 m³, while the kombi model seats five with a removable/folding rear bench, or the window van range can seat up to nine people.

Retail prices for the Crafter range start from £18,000 (ex-VAT), while current Contract Hire and Finance Lease offers available from Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Finance make the Crafter available from £349 a month (plus VAT and initial rental).

‘The Crafter has to be driven to really appreciate why it has received so many positive comments in road test reports about how smooth it is to drive,’ said David George, Head of Marketing for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. ‘It delivers everything you would expect from a big van, yet is so good to drive that it makes you feel like you are in a much smaller van,’ he added.

Full details of the Crafter range, plus the test drive and finance offers, and locations of the nationwide network of Volkswagen Van Centres are available by visiting www.volkswagen-vans.co.uk or by calling 0800 717131.