Living with a van

(with, not in!)

I've always wanted a van. Since before I could drive. I've now reached the age where I'm old enough and ugly enough to do whatever I want and I want to 'realise the dream' and add a van to the domestic fleet. Just because.

I'm a bit of a knowledge monkey, so have done tonnes of research, but there's one thing I don't 'get': do commercial vehicles have a different kind of bhp to cars?

My daily driver, a little 1 Series BMW, has 163bhp. And that feels like 'enough'. It's no racing car, but it'll grab a gap in traffic and hustle along with the crowd.

And then I look at vans. 75bhp. 90bhp. 115bhp.

Chatting to a CV salesman at Citroen whilst looking at a 125bhp LWB Dispatch, he described it as having "too much power". Really? Sales hyperbole aside, the power outputs of vans seem to be a world away from contemporary cars, so how do they actually even move?

So, ye men of van, tell all. Do vans have 'enough' power? Are car drivers spoiled or do you really all need 180+ bhp too?