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An exercise in badge engineering it may be, but the Peugeot Bipper has a unique character of its own. CM goes all urban...
Van buyers have never had Uso good when it comes to the range of sizes and models on offer. There's a light CV to suit just about every possible application.
A perfect case in point is Peugeot's cutesy compact van, the Bipper, which sits snugly between the 207 and Partner in the company's rejuvenated light CV range - and to add to this little van's appeal Peugeot has now introduced an automatic option.
There's only one trim level available, called S. Initially we thought S stood for Spartan, because the standard items are limited to 14-inch steel wheels, ABD, a radio and driver's airbag, but drivers can choose the Plus Pack or tuck into the generous list of options to enhance specification.
The Plus Pack, for instance, adds remote central locking, deadlocks, one-touch electric windows and heated electric door mirrors. And if those still aren't enough for you, we can recommend the Bluetooth hands-free system.
Being a small compact van, the Bipper comes with a choice of equally small and compact engines. The first is a 1.4-litre eight-valve petrol engine that develops 75hp and 118Nm of torque; alternatively there's the 1.4-litre turbo-diesel (our test vehicle) - it generates 5hp less than the petrol example, but has that bit of extra grunt with 160Nm of torque.
As for the competition, the Peugeot goes up against Citroën's Nemo and Fiat's Fiorino (essentially the same van since they were all co-developed by the three manufacturers), along with Renault's new Kangoo Compact.
Prices start at £8,595 for the petrol version, rising to £9,395 for the five-speed manual HDi and £10,095 for our 2-Tronic HDI.
Productivity
So, does fuel economy suffer as a result of the small engine, automated manual and a 610kg payload? Surprisingly not. On a laden run on our regular Kent test route the diesel Bipper returned 55.2mpg, which is an impressive result for a van running at maximum payload - and an auto.
As you might expect,fuel economy rose by a considerable margin after we unloaded the weights. We squeezed out 62.1mpg on the route the second time around.
With a load...