Yes, you’ll end up with a huge diesel bill and more dents than you can shake a stick at if you hand the keys to a teenager who has barely passed his driving test and thinks he is Sebastian Vettel. But no, you don’t have to end up with a shed-load of grief if you hand the keys to an older and more experienced individual who you’ve taken the time to put through a training programme such as the Safe and Fuel-Efficient Driving (SAFED) course and whose activities are monitored by an onboard electronic device that flashes red every time he or she, say, accelerates way too harshly.
Such devices are available and the data on the driver’s on-the-road behaviour that they record can be downloaded subsequently and discussed with the employee concerned. Put these safeguards in place and you can start to benefit from the advantages such a powerful engine brings.
The amount of torque the engine has on tap enables the van to scoot up steep hills, leaving other, less-powerful, 3.5-tonners floundering in its wake. Overtaking becomes a lot easier and much safer and you can quickly regain your chosen motorway cruising speed when held up temporarily by slower traffic.
Winner of What Van?’s Large Panel Van of the Year award for 2012, a revised and restyled Daily brought up to Euro5/ Enhanced Environmentally-friendly Vehicle (EEV) standard debuted last year. The line-up encompasses chassis cabs, chassis double cabs, crew vans and Irisbus-badged minibuses. With gross weights of from 3.2-7.0 tonnes, and with a van body offering up to 17.2m3 of load area space, the model we picked, the rear-wheel drive Daily, can be ordered with the optional Agile automated manual gearbox and with four- wheel drive.
A range of ready-bodied DriveAway Options models has just been launched. On top of all that, a Daily that will run on landfill gas remains available alongside an electric model.

Cab

The Daily’s roomy three-seater cab offers plenty of storage space.
While the lock-less glove box’s usefulness is limited by its rather odd shape, there are bins in both doors – the large lower bin incorporates a moulding that can clasp a flask or a big bottle of water – not to mention shelves of various sizes strategically positioned around the dashboard and a bin that will hold an A4 clipboard. There’s also a cup-holder at each end of the fascia and a net for maps, magazines and newspapers on the bulkhead behind the driver.
There is no lack of either head or shoulder room and both the driver’s seat and the steering column are height-adjustable.

Load area

Looking rather like the main entrance to a cathedral, the opaque twin rear doors are remarkably tall, and open to reveal an enormous loading aperture. A full-width rear step plus a grab handle ease entry into the cargo area.
A nearside sliding door is fitted while a step and handle ease passage through the side entrance. Big vertical handles make it easy to open and close all the vehicle’s doors even if you are wearing thick working gloves.
A full-height solid steel bulkhead is installed along with no less than 10 cargo tie-down points, and lashing straps can be stowed on a shelf above the cab accessible solely from the load bay. There are two interior lights, but the marked tumblehome – the degree to which the van’s sides curve inwards as they meet the roof – means that making maximum use of the load area’s height could be a little problematic for some operators.
A big drawback of our 3950mm-wheelbase demonstrator was its modest payload capacity for a 3.5-tonnner – just 1145kg – which explains why it was delivered with an inflation pump and sealant to deal with punctures rather than a proper spare wheel. The weight of a spare would have cut the available payload capability even further.
On the other hand, the maximum permitted towing weight is quite high at 2800kg, although making use of it is likely to drag you into heavy truck drivers’ hours/tachograph territory.
Our demonstrator boasted a Super Van Option Pack for an extra £890 (all prices quoted here exclude VAT). It includes a  welcome reversing camera (the image appears on a screen above the windscreen when reverse is engaged and could perhaps stand to be a bit clearer), while the rear doors swing through a full 270 degrees. A spotlight, too, above the doors aids loading and unloading at night, and there’s a phenolic-coated timber cover for the load bed among other items, such as a third rear brake light.

Powertrain

The twin-turbo 16-valve four-cylinder common rail diesel produces its maximum power across a 3000-3500rpm plateau. Maximum torque of 470Nm
makes its presence felt over a 1400rpm-2600rpm plateau and the engine is married to a six-speed manual gear box operating through a single dry-plate hydraulic clutch.
A particulate filter comes as standard along with Exhaust Gas Recirculation.

Chassis and steering

Parabolic transverse leaf suspension is deployed at the front while single-leaf parabolic springs plus an anti-roll bar help support the rear. Our demonstrator’s 16-inch steel wheels were shod with 225/65 R16 C Continental Vanco 2 tyres. Hydraulically assisted rack-and- pinion steering offers a 13.2m turning circle between kerbs increasing to 14.3m wall-to-wall.

Performance

The acceleration is phenomenally brisk. For a big van, the 205hp Daily really gets a shift on, sprinting away from rest, thundering up through the gears and easily maintaining the maximum- permitted motorway speed up hill and down dale even when fully laden. A decent gear-change allows the driver to swap cogs quickly, while the gear lever housing itself has been re-positioned to ease cross-cab movement as part of the most recent package of changes. The danger is that you end up drifting above – possibly considerably above – the motorway speed limit without realising it. You have to keep reining in the big Daily, and as a consequence there is a strong case for using cruise control or (whisper it quietly) a top-end speed limiter.
Like so many big vans these days the Daily handles well despite its bulk, with lots of feedback through the responsive steering. It is manoeuvrable at parking speeds too – the reversing camera definitely comes in handy – once you have become used to its king-size dimensions of just over 7m long.
On the downside it can be a little noisy at idle – although that noise reduces markedly once underway – and the ride isn’t always as compliant as it ought to be.
Even with an evenly spread 980kg cargo of bagged gravel and timber on board the Daily had a tendency to hop about more than we felt was acceptable. We suspect things could get really lively when it is empty.