Citroen XSARA ENTERPRISE RANGE
At What Point Does A Car Become A Van?
Citroen Would Have Us Believe That As Soon As A Family Estate Car Is Relieved Of Its Rear Seats, It Takes On A New Commercial Vehicle Persona. Thats If Their Xsara Enterprise Is Anything To Go By. Steve Walker Reports
Park the Xsara Enterprise outside your house then, pausing only to open a rear side door and take out your briefcase, nonchalantly walk inside. The neighbours wont even batter an eyelid. Externally, the only clues to the Enterprises true identity are those suspiciously blacked-out rear windows. Without them, the Enterprise and a standard Citroen Xsara Estate would be indistinguishable from each other.
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Itll only be if those nosey parkers next-door pluck up the courage to scale the garden fence, crawl through the shrubbery and press their noses against the transparent glass of the vehicles tailgate, that your secret will be revealed. Drum roll please; the Xsara Enterprise is, in fact, a van.
Its precisely these car-like characteristics displayed by the Xsara Enterprise that
Citroen hope will appeal to British van buyers in, what the manufacturer calls, the sub high-cube sector of the commercial vehicle market. There is, were told, a sizable section of UK business thats poorly catered for by LCV producers. Its made up of people who want the appearance, comfort and road manners of a car with an added dimension of extra carrying capacity. There are car-derived vans based on superminis out there, but their load lugging potential is severely limited, and there are 4x4 commercials that retain the outward appearance of their source model, but you also get that bouncy offroad ride quality.
Vauxhalls Astravan is an estate car turned van but it does little to hide the fact by forgoing the hinged rear side doors that we see on the Enterprise. All things considered, Citroen seem to have come up with an interestingly unique proposition.
"Fortunately, the specification is high and the engine is a beauty!"
I know what youre thinking; why dont I just buy a family estate car and fold the back seats down. That way I retain the option of folding them back up again, when the load space is not required, and taking extra passengers. Its a fair point and probably the best course of action for some people but there is a bit more to the Xsara Enterprise than a Xsara Estate minus the back seats although, admittedly, not a lot. The benefits to business users lie less in the vehicles form and more in its classification by, your friend and mine, the VAT man.
Citroen might be sailing a little close to the wind in retailing a car with such minor modifications as a van but as long as the Inland Revenue dont find fault, business owners can reclaim the VAT and drivers avoid paying the dreaded benefit in kind company car tax. It might be tempting to view the Citroen Xsara Enterprise solely as an underhand exercise in legal tax evasion but its a desirable product in its own right. Rather than simply ripping out the seats of the Estate and leaving CV buyers to get on with it, Citroen have levelled the whole load area, covered it with non-slip matting and included a full-width steel load restraint to stop loose cargo colliding with the back of the drivers
seat. The resulting 511kg payload capacity is not massive but its easily accessible via the tailgate and twin hinged side doors.
You may want to load larger items from the rear, however, because the car-style openings on each flank werent designed for the purpose and the open doors tend to get in the way. The load bay itself offers 1.5 cubic meters of space, its nice and high to spare those back muscles and its regular shape should ensure that you can fit plenty in, with the minimum of fuss. If you like to scour the brochures, agonising over the different engine choices and trim levels when you buy a new vehicle, you might want to consider other options.
Citroen have seen fit only to offer the Xsara Enterprise with one standard specification and one engine. Fortunately, the specification is high and the engine is a beauty! Veteran van drivers used to a less is more approach to CV creature comforts will feel like theyve died and gone to heaven on plonking their posterior into the Enterprise. There are ABS brakes (with EBD and EBA), the driver and passenger get two airbags each, electric windows and mirrors are included, theres an RDS stereo with steering column controls as well as remote central locking and a multi-function digital display. The list goes on but you get the general idea this is one well-equipped commercial vehicle.
Theres a 2.0-litre HDi common-rail diesel powerplant occupying the Xsara Enterprises engine bay. Its smooth, quiet and powerful with 90bhp and 154 lb/ft of torque available. This is another big plus-point for the Enterprise, its car-like handling and refinement make long journeys far less of a chore and the vehicle is even capable of averaging around 50mpg.
The accomplished engine goes further beyond the call of duty in affording the driver additional load-carrying potential. Theres a 1,100kg braked trailer towing limit and the option of bolting on a 100kg roof rack. Before you know it, your Xsara Enterprise will be hauling enough to put a decent sized panel van to shame. Citroen themselves have demonstrated no shortage of enterprise in developing this car-based commercial vehicle.
It offers buyers a genuinely car-like driving experience - something that all small van makers aspire to but few accomplish. Whats more, to the casual observer, it looks just like a normal Xsara Estate, something that will appeal to people who need a van but dont want one lowering the tone outside their house. For this unusual concept alone, the Xsara Enterprise has the potential to boldly go where no van has gone before. Whether it will or not remains to be seen.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
VAN: Citroen Xsara Enterprise Van range
PRICE: £10,995 + VAT ENGINES: 2.0-litre HDi diesel. WARRANTY: 2-year unlimited mileage or 3-year/100,000-mile SERVICE INTERVALS: 12,500 miles
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