If you were wanting a Mercedes-Benz van with a bit more visual attitude, here’s just the thing. It’s the Mercedes Vito Sport-X, a UK-exclusive trim grade for the five-seat Crew version of the van, and it celebrates an anniversary.
It’s 130 years since Carl Benz made his ‘Combinations Delivery Vehicle’ (Combinations-Lieferungswagen), a very early box van. The vehicle marking the occasion is a little more luxurious, coming with individual sports seats to replace the three-seat front bench, featuring individual headrests and Sport-X branding, plus “motorsport-inspired black eco-leather” with dark suede upholstery and orange stitching.
The cabin is further enhanced with seat heating, a heated steering wheel, a wireless phone charging pad and a centre console storage unit.
On the outside, there’s a new front bumper and grille arrangement featuring a splitter, a rear spoiler, side skirts, roof rails, sporty tailpipes and various gloss black details. The Sport-X rolls on 19-inch diamond-cut black wheels and can be specced in Alpine Grey, Arctic White, Sodalite Blue, Obsidian Black, Kalahari Gold, High Tech Silver, Graphite Grey or Hyacinth Red. Lovely.
The Sport-X trim level now tops the Vito Crew van range and is available on the 187bhp, 440Nm 2.0-litre diesel engine. Driving the wheels via a nine-speed automatic gearbox, the powertrain can whisk the Vito from 0-62mph in a perfectly respectable 10 seconds.
You can also spec the Sport-X trim on either the L2 or L3 Vito body lengths, with payloads up to 733kg and 4.1m³. When not needed, the rear seat bench can be ditched to give more load volume.
While a sporty van may sound like an oxymoron, these things are big business. Only recently, we were driving the new Volkswagen Transporter Sportline, while companies like MS-RT devote their time to sport-ifying commercial vehicles.
Order books for the Vito Sport-X open in September, with prices starting at £56,995. That makes it slightly more expensive than the aforementioned Transporter Sportline in its Kombi crew cab guise.
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