There’s a new player in the large van and light-duty cab-chassis market in Australia with the new-gen Volkswagen Crafter landing in local dealerships.
The new vehicle, which is almost entirely different to the outgoing Crafter, has been launched officially in New Zealand and Ute and Van Guide is in attendance.
We will have a full first drive review for you on Thursday when an embargo on drive impression lifts.
In the meantime though we can bring you more details on the keenly anticipated addition to the local Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle range.
Some of the key points from this afternoon’s presentation included:
The new Crafter will be offered in Australia in a total of 59 variants.
Volkswagen hopes to win-over Aussie light-duty truck buyers with the higher capacity variants (GVMs now up to 5500kg, up 500kg on the superseded model) and dual-wheels.
There’s now a front-wheel drive version of the Crafter available, this allows for a floor that sits 100mm lower.
Want all-wheel drive? The Crafter is available with Volkswagen’s 4Motion AWD carrying just a $4,500 price premium.
Larger capacity versions can be chosen with rear-wheel drive and even dual rear wheels.
The new van/cab-chassis picks up features not before seen in this segment of the market including Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, side curtain airbags and Autonomous Emergency Braking.
While the VW team has also fitted all the hardware making the Crafter telematics ready (with your chosen service provider).
The big news though is the arrival of an auto transmission in the big Volkswagen van.
The ZF eight-speed automatic is the same transmission found in the Amarok and promises a smooth and less tiring drive for those who did big miles (or in our case, kilometres) in their commercial vehicle.
Under the bonnet is a 2.0 litre four-cylinder diesel that in standard spec offers 103kW/340Nm.
A bi-turbo version steps things up to 130kW/410Nm.
The 2019 Volkswagen Crafter range is priced from $$48,490.
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