Goods Vehicles: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

Most multistory carparks have a height restriction which you have to take note of. The majority of goods vehicles should pass but always take note in case you lose more than parking fees. And of course, you will have to pay more if you are driving past an ERP gantry during peak traffic hours.

Goods vehicles are spacious by design, so it’ll swallow up any number of golf bags with ease, although the snob factor won’t be there when you pull up in a Toyota Hiace at the driving range. A goods van is also versatile enough to take, well, goods, plus passengers, with the addition of a foldable sofa in the rear. Hence, you can shift both passengers and goods at will.

Think of it as the original, cheaper, less luxurious MPV, and you have an idea of how far you can go with it.

Diesel is cheaper to buy than petrol, and you’ll feel the effects on your wallet over time. Plus, with all goods vehicles now Euro5-compliant, you’ll be able to benefit from higher performance and longer mileage from your diesel engine as well.

Of course, you may care for your van but few drivers hold their commercial vehicles to the same standard of grooming as passenger cars. Yet, the interiors are just as customisable as any regular passenger car. We’ve seen pimped out, ‘zhng’ to the max goods vans, and there’s no shortage of custom options for the exterior as well.

What this means is that you don’t have to worry about whether someone puts a dent on your door or not. And with the freedom of not having to be precious about your ride, you can really get down to some serious business with it.

And that, surely is one of the greatest goods from driving a goods van. Indeed, I count my time behind the wheel, of my company’s commercial vehicle one of my greatest pleasures of motoring so far.

Sure, the clutch is heavy, the gears grind into place, and the engine is coarse and unrefined, but I also redlined it regularly, put the airconditioner on at full blast, and have broke nearly every plastic part in the cabin.

Yet, no matter what I did to it, that plucky van always turned over the next morning, ready for more. And in so doing, it became that rarest of things to me – a machine that has soul.

And all those 'bad' things I mentioned above? It just made me appreciate my modest hatchback so much more.

Credits: Vince Wong