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

Small vans would be becoming an endangered species if it were not for the considerable presence of market leader Ford in the niche sector.

The segment used to see car-derived vehicles, such as the Ford Fiesta Van and Vauxhall Corsavan, jostling for position with compact cubed city vans, such as the Fiat Professional Fiorino and its re-badged siblings the Citroen Nemo and Peugeot Bipper. Customers could also opt for microvans from the likes of DFSK, with its Loadhopper, or Piaggio with its Porter.

But the past few years have seen the PSA pair Citroen and Peugeot withdraw from the market having failed to find it economically viable, while DFSK’s most recent prospective importer, the Bassadone Automotive Group, dropped its plans to bring the budget microvans to the UK from China in order to concentrate all its resources on the Korean 4x4 brand Ssangyong.

As for Piaggio, it’s a case of watch this space, with a deal with Chinese manufacturer the Foton Motor Group purported to be bringing a new range of four-wheel LCVs to the UK in 2020.

Most recently, Vauxhall, now owned by PSA, of course, has decided to pull the plug on its Corsavan, as it launches a new Corsa passenger car this year. LCV product manager Brad Miller says the five-door-only design of the car makes it unsuitable for conversion into an LCV and also cites underwhelming sales (Vauxhall sold 2,500 Corsavans in 2018).

He also claims the fact that the new car is only offered with a petrol engine would hamper its prospects in the light commercial sector, which remains weighted towards diesel.

Almost at the same time as the Vauxhall Corsavan was taking its leave of the sector, Ford was reversing its decision of a year earlier to drop the Fiesta Van by bringing a Fiesta Sportvan back to the market, leaving some observers to suggest the two events were not unrelated.