Faults:

Every panel with the exception of the plastic wings has shown rust. Merecedes dealership agreed to make good and the vehicle was booked in for a two week job.

Upon further investigation, the body shop found that the tail gate and the supporting panels had extensive rust inside the panels and recommended replacing them. 'Oh no' said Mercedes at Milton Keynes head office, 'clean them up and respray them'. After some haggling with my local dealer, it was agreed to replace them. I believe the suggested course of action is refered to as 'dabbing and scabbing' - the scab being the surface rust. The van has now been with the Mercedes dealers preferred body shop for 7 weeks come Tuesday and still the body shop cannot give me a collection date. In the words of Diana Ross 'I'm still waiting'.

Dealers attitude is terrible, not chasing body shop, not returning phone calls, coming up with dodgy excuses and worst of all - Passing the buck to everyone else 'it's not my fault, like you I'm stuck in the middle'. Yeah right!!!

General Comments:

My point is very simple - buy Ford, buy Renault, buy VW, buy Vauxhall, but if you value your money. Well you work it out?

Faults:

Accelerator pedal broke off (made from plastic, hmm)

Rear window wiper packed up (dealer fitted new switch, but still hasn't cured problem)

ESP failure warning light comes on after about 20 minutes. of driving (dealer seems unable to fix)

Floor covering has worn through already where my heel pivots to operate the accelerator pedal.

Premature & unusual wear patterns on tyres, back & front, the fronts were shot at 20,000 miles, the rears 30,000.

Airconditioning has packed up 3 times, have given up having it repaired.

Gearshift gaiter badly split through wear.

Centre arm rest ratchet broken after very short time.

Side sliding door hinges keep coming loose so that they don't shut properly.

Gearbox jumps out of first occasionally.

Corrosion on tailgate already (1 year)

General Comments:

The engine is quite torquey & is getting better with the miles.

The 110bhp engine gives the van a surprising turn of speed at times, however Mercedes have electronically limited the torque in the first two gears (so that the wheels don't spin up so easily, but the van already has traction control) ; this means you struggle to get a quick getaway on say roundabouts or junctions.

The engine too noisy at low speeds, but is reasonably quiet at motorway speeds.

The handling is very good for a van & it has a very tight turning circle.

The mirrors are the worst I've experienced on a van; they're huge, but there's no convex insert that you get on other vans & consequently you have to strain to check blindspots.

Who's idea was it to fit a foot-operated parking brake on a van with manual transmission?

With the bulkhead fitted the seat doesn't go far back enough -I'm 5'10" & feel cramped.

The dealer's technicians don't seem to have all the technical info they need to service Vito's satisfactorily.

The interior it has to be said does have a quality air about it.

There are a few nice touches such as a quick flick of the indicator stalk will initiate three flashes of the indicators for lane-changing & the window wipers revert to intermittent when you're stationary. Also the rear window wiper gives a swipe when you select reverse gear & the front wipers are on. The steering wheel is also adjustable for rake & reach.

The load space light is feeble.

Fuel economy is only average for a diesel.

The brakes take some getting used to as they feel spongey initially, but have good stopping power.