Citroen Dispatch - Technology Focus Car Review

Facts At A Glance VAN: Citroen Dispatch L2H2 120 ENGINES: 2.0HDi 120bhp DIMENSIONS: length/width/height 5135/2194/2276mm LOAD VOLUME: 7m3 GROSS VEHICLE WEIGHT: 2,963kg

Two Navigation Systems

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Many car companies seem to be happy producing a line of cars that are at the top of one class while they tend to deliver mediocre cars in other classes. Then there is Citroen. The French automaker only seems to be satisfied when they deliver class leading vehicles. It seems that when the Citroen Dispatch was released it wasn't leading in any classes. In fact it kind of ended up in a class of its own. Which some people might view as a compliment, but since the market being aimed at with the Dispatch was the much coveted panel van crowd. Sadly for Citroen the Dispatch was too small to be considered a true panel van and too big to be a cargo style van.

Citroen went back the drawing board and released a Dispatch with a good range of sizes, engines and gadget choices that it would be hard for people not to find something to like about this vehicle. They now offer the Dispatch in volumes ranging from 5m3 to 7m3 and payload areas that can carry 1,00kg or 1,200kg. All while keeping the size relatively petit to suit people who need to drive in tight confines.

The standard roof height of the Dispatch is 1,942mm. The cargo area is easily accessed in tight quarters by sliding doors that open far enough to easily fit a normal sized pallet. Both the overall height and the loading height can be lowered by adding the pneumatic suspension and/or the self-leveling suspension. The addition of the pneumatic suspension will lower the driving height to 1,894mm while the self-leveling option lowers the load bay to 62mm.

An interesting thing about the Citroen is that it can come with two different satellite navigation systems. The reason or this being the Citroen has a partnership with TrafficMaster that puts their SmartNav system in all the Dispatch vehicles and Citroen offers their own integrated map screen NaviDrive system as well. The SmartNav comes free and includes theft tracking and a three year subscription while the Citroen system comes with a £1,000 price tag.

Since navigation is an important option for fleet managers when considering what to equipment their vehicles with it is worth a moment to discuss the differences between the two. One of the nice things with the SmartNav system is that the driver is always connected in real time to the Traffic Master Headquarters. When the driver inputs their destination TrafficMaster used real time information to plan the best route. This service comes with the first three-months free. SmartNav also comes with the ability to be updated remotely insuring that all the data is current and accurate.

The Citroen NaviSmart wins out as far as screen features go. The NaviSmart system has a nice full-colour screen that is much easier to read than the SmartNav. One huge draw back though is that when using the NaviSmart the CD has to be in the cars CD player meaning that a music CD cannot be played while using that system. Though it can be imagined that the fleet mangers view this as a plus not a negative.

Fleet managers who routinely send their drivers to new locations will be very happy with the navigation systems offered in the Citroen Dispatch. No matter which system they use they can rest assured their drivers will know how to get to their destination.