Latest technology on show at Van Experience
18th August 2011
Around 1,500 guests attended Mercedes-Benz’ popular annual Van Experience event last month, at the Prodrive Performance Centre in Warwickshire, where they were able to try out for themselves the very latest new products and technology – including the exciting new Vito Sport and Vito SportX.
With 140 vans in action, visitors clocked up an impressive 22,240 miles over the course of the eight-day event. Some 2,150 bacon and sausage butties were eaten, and 366kg of ice cream was consumed as well!
Guests were invited to put the vehicles through their paces with an abundance of practical challenges, including a racetrack competition with a difference – to find the highest possible mpg from the latest Vito BlueEFFICIENCY models, with the winner achieving 66.1mpg – and a skid pan for putting ESP braking systems to the test.
Meanwhile, less than £60 worth of electricity was used to power five Vito E-CELL vans, which collectively travelled 1,000 eco miles. It was the first time the world’s-first factory-built fully-electric van had been driven in the UK.
Attendance was up on 2010 with 350 more people attending this year, sharing their knowledge on a range of key topics such as best practice, whole life cost management, legislation, safety, duty of care and environmental issues.
“It’s a brilliant way to meet our customers face-to-face and to safely demonstrate the ‘Mercedes-Benz extras’ that we fit as standard to our vans, and the service that our head office and nationwide dealer teams offer,” Steve Bridge, Van Sales and Marketing Director for Mercedes-Benz UK, said. “We ate a lot, drove a lot and, most importantly, discussed a lot! Many customers were able to ask key questions not only to dealers, but to the product teams.”