Road Test: Fiat Doblo 2.0 Multijet Dynamic 5dr

Of the various vans with windows seeking new lives as low-cost family wagons, the Fiat Doblo has always stayed nearest its roots: a workhorse for Italian farmers transporting marble and olives to your financial adviser's Tuscan retreat.  

Here's the 2010 version and it drives, well, it still drives like a van. You sit ramrod straight in the driver's seat, and with light loads the suspension will still kangaroo you down the street after speed bumps. The new 2.0 16v Multijet diesel on our test car does elevate performance to new dynamic levels for a Doblo - 11.3 secs 0-60 - but overall feel is still firmly in Transit territory.

But that commercial heritage comes with attendant advantages: it's huge, bigger than ever. Seats-down you've got 3,200 litres to play with, which is officially ‘a lot': the most in its class. Try to lean an elbow nonchalantly on the driver-side window and you'll plummet into one of the cavernous gaps in the cabin. Visibility is excellent thanks to a heavy half-glass boot lid, the rear sliding doors are perfect for loading/unloading human cargo, and 49.6mpg is a good return for something this size.  

It's also cheap: in fact, it's one of the cheapest seven-door MPV options on the market. OK, it looks like a Panda in shoulder pads and platform shoes, but then this is a va-, sorry, car, aimed squarely at the practical. We didn't find much wrong with it, but we'd still go for the Berlingo.