Volkswagen Transporter long-term test: report 2
The VW Transporter has long been a staple of the medium van market, so now we're living with one to see if it can be the perfect photographer's apprentice...
The car Volkswagen Transporter panel van T32 Commerce Pro 2.0 TDI | Run by Max Edleston, photographer
Why we’re running it To see how well Volkswagen’s latest medium-sized van stacks up as a photographer’s apprentice
Needs to Offer more than enough space for all of our kit, long-distance comfort and connectivity to keep in touch with the office
Mileage 4252 Price £48,720 (inc. VAT) Best Price £48,720 (inc. VAT) Price as tested £51,102 (inc. VAT) Official economy 36.7mpg Test economy 37.0mpg
20 August 2025 – Green fingers
I’ll let you into a secret. When I’m not photographing cars, I rather like a spot of gardening. The trouble is that, living in London flat, the opportunities to deploy my green fingers are few and far between.
Fortunately, I know a good number of people with a bit more space than I have, and ever since they found out I was running a van as my company car, they’ve been inviting me over to help them out in the garden and take the resulting waste to my local recycling centre.
Most recently, me and my Dad went to help a friend of his who had post-stroke mobility issues, and who needed a tree removing from his garden.
On a bright sunny morning, we rolled up looking like an extremely low budget version of Ground Force, and got to work. And after a few hours of sweat, swearing and builder’s tea, we had the tree down and the logs cut up and ready to take to the tip.
We filled a couple of heavy duty gardener’s bags with debris and loaded them into the VW Transporter’s waiting load bay. I was grateful for the length of the Transporter’s rear end, despite my van being the short-wheelbase variant, because there was still enough room to stack two of the one-metre bags behind the other. I was also grateful for the fact that the rear doors can open a full 180-degrees, since this meant we didn’t have to scramble too hard to get the bags in place. And even with the bags inside, I could use the Transporter’s side door to manoeuvre them into final position.
With our cargo on board, we set off to the recycling centre, and it’s to the Transporter’s credit that I didn’t notice much of a drop in performance. The 2.0-litre diesel engine pulled strongly, but I have noticed that when it’s loaded down, the Transporter isn’t the quietest van out there – I often find myself reaching for the stereo’s volume control when I’m travelling on the motorway or the cargo bay is full.
With the garden waste dropped off, I thought that me and the Transporter would be released from duty, but my Dad had one last job in store – a large antique desk which needed moving from a storage unit into his house. Despite being a huge desk, it looked positively tiny in the Transporter’s load bay.
With that job completed, I drove the Transporter home via the local garden centre, to buy a window box I could tend to from my flat. And I’ll have great fun doing that until the next friend calls with something to move.
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