The third generation of Mercedes Vito van. That makes this something of a baby in the commercial vehicle world – nameplates like the Ford Transit and VW Transporter have been around decades longer.

But you didn’t expect the inventor of the motor car to neglect the mid-sized van world, did you? That’s just what rivals were hoping. But the Vito has become a stalwart of the Benz workhorse range, sitting between the smaller Citan and gigantic Sprinter as the Goldilocks-sized offering. And even then, there are three sizes of Vito to choose from…

Don’t be confused by the likes of the Mercedes V-Class and the Marco Polo. They look the same as the Vito on the outside, but indoors, they’re totally different, with car-like dashboards and either minibus seating or the full home-from-home campervan experience. The Vito is a big empty box, designed to carry huge wads of stuff – up to 1,369kg of cargo capacity, in fact.

Just how big a box? That’s up to you. Like a Mercedes S-Class, the Vito demands you choose a length of vehicle. There’s the standard ‘L1’, a longer ‘L2’ with a stretched rear overhang, and then the ‘L3’ which has a longer wheelbase and threatens to put Boeing 747 air freight out of business. There’s no high-roof model, because Mercedes reasons if you need more space than the L3, you’ll just upgrade to a Sprinter.