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

The 2014 What Van? Awards will be the biggest and best yet, with both an exclusive event and a dedicated awards edition of the magazine, highlighting the best in the business, as judged by this magazine’s expert editorial team.

For 2014, we have resurrected the Website of the Year category that debuted with a victory for Renault in 2012, while we have also added a Used Van of the Year prize, and opened up a What Van? Hall of Fame, with the first occupant indoctrinated in the Awards Special issue The exclusive What Van? Awards lunch will take place at the UK’s first Indian restaurant to gain a Michelin star – London’s Zaika – where the winners will be rewarded in front of a select group of the LCV industry’s biggest names.

The 2014 What Van? Awards are being supported by leasing giant Leaseplan, which has been making inroads into the LCV sector in recent years since establishing a dedicated commercial vehicle strategy in 2011.

“The strategy is off the back of recognising that the van leasing market had a lot of untapped potential and we needed to embrace the specialist marketplace, and ensure we understood the characteristics of CVs. Before, we were overly focused on passenger cars,” Leaseplan commercial vehicle boss Mark Lovett told What Van? earlier this year. “If you want to embrace the opportunities and potential in CVs, you need to understand it.”

The big winner in the 2013 What Van? Awards was Ford, which took Van of the Year for the Transit Custom among its three awards, while Vauxhall, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, Mini and Emerald Automotive also picked up prizes.