What Van? Britain's biggest and best van buyers' guide

Japanese manufacturers have excelled at microvans, as typified by offerings from Suzuki, Daihatsu and Honda, and been dominant among mono-box medium vans with the likes of the Toyota Hiace, Mitsubishi L300, Bedford (but also badged Isuzu) Midi and Nissan Vanette Cargo (marketed also as the LDV Cub), but have never really got into the mainstream. Only Toyota had tried over here with the Hiace Powervan, and good though it was, it never worried Ford and Volkswagen. Nissan is a truly global player, known in the UK for cars, 4x4s and pick-ups, but elsewhere in the world it has a large portfolio of goods vehicles and bus models, its diesel engines even powering large mobile cranes, one or two of which have sold in the UK. But it didn’t have a 3.5t van.

On 27 March 1999, the Renault-Nissan Alliance was signed, bringing about shared designs, components and technologies. That meant Nissan could use Renault’s excellent Master – already jointly developed with GM, which called its version the Vauxhall Movano – as a model for its own entrant into the sector.

Nissan’s Interstar features a 2.5-litre dCi powertrain available with three outputs: 100hp, 120hp and 150hp. Service intervals are infrequent at 20,000km or 30,000km depending on the engine, or every two years. In terms of safety, it offers ESP and ABS, automatic door locking and a speed limiter.

Nissan, Renault and Vauxhall all facelifted their models in 2006 to give the look seen here, with a revised front bumper for better cooling, front fog lights, and double overhead storage in the cab. There were three wheelbase lengths and three roof heights, with the variety of side door options and rear door configurations you would expect given that Renault has two generations of Master van behind it. In addition, Nissan’s Good To Go range included tippers, dropsides, box vans and fridge vans, available from stock through the manufacturer’s network of specialist CV dealers