Toyota, PSA Team Up For Some Euro Van Action

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Toyota and PSA announced Tuesday that they would continue to build a van for European markets for light commercial and passenger duty and unveiled their newest Toyota Proace/Peugeot Traveller/Citroen SpaceTourer eggs.

The three vans, which look virtually identical short of their shades and faces, are all produced at PSA’s factory in Valenciennes, France.

While the Toyota version looks like one of those samurai crabs, it’ll likely never set foot in the U.S. and that’s a shame — commercial vans are the new hot thing for automakers, you know?

According to our own Tim Cain, Ford sold more than 5,800 Transit Connect vans in October alone — good enough for third place among all commercial vans. Toyota could horn in on some of that fun by bringing over a Proace to challenge Ford, Nissan, Ram and Chevrolet for the mid-size commercial market.

Toyota and PSA began the van partnership in 2012 and the new models will reportedly continue the alliance past 2020.

Toyota’s version of the van is powered by either a 1.6- or 2-liter diesel engine and mated to a five- or six-speed manual transmission and oh my hell we’re never going to see that in the States ever are we?

I hope Toyota gets my letter because the Proace is probably the only shot we have at getting a French-built car in the U.S. any time soon — or at least one that you can drive on the highway.


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • JohnTaurus JohnTaurus on Dec 03, 2015

    For a Toyota, it doesnt look half bad (lower bunper seems a bit fussy). Id take it over a Sienna for sure!

    • DeadWeight DeadWeight on Dec 03, 2015

      Yes, and you'd also take a 2004 Ford Taurus, the car with the lowest wholesale value period (many in good working condition are sold for scrap price/value), over ANY Toyota, too, which tells anyone anything they need to know about your complete absence of common sense & even sanity.

  • C P C P on Dec 26, 2015

    After reading the comments, I'm more interested in the Ford TC than I already was. No sense in hand wringing over what isn't here. Liked the TC when I fist saw it. Would make a decent camper.

  • TheEndlessEnigma These cars were bought and hooned. This is a bomb waiting to go off in an owner's driveway.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Thankfully I don't have to deal with GDI issues in my Frontier. These cleaners should do well for me if I win.
  • Theflyersfan Serious answer time...Honda used to stand for excellence in auto engineering. Their first main claim to fame was the CVCC (we don't need a catalytic converter!) engine and it sent from there. Their suspensions, their VTEC engines, slick manual transmissions, even a stowing minivan seat, all theirs. But I think they've been coasting a bit lately. Yes, the Civic Type-R has a powerful small engine, but the Honda of old would have found a way to get more revs out of it and make it feel like an i-VTEC engine of old instead of any old turbo engine that can be found in a multitude of performance small cars. Their 1.5L turbo-4...well...have they ever figured out the oil dilution problems? Very un-Honda-like. Paint issues that still linger. Cheaper feeling interior trim. All things that fly in the face of what Honda once was. The only thing that they seem to have kept have been the sales staff that treat you with utter contempt for daring to walk into their inner sanctum and wanting a deal on something that isn't a bare-bones CR-V. So Honda, beat the rest of your Japanese and Korean rivals, and plug-in hybridize everything. If you want a relatively (in an engineering way) easy way to get ahead of the curve, raise the CAFE score, and have a major point to advertise, and be able to sell to those who can't plug in easily, sell them on something that will get, for example, 35% better mileage, plug in when you get a chance, and drives like a Honda. Bring back some of the engineering skills that Honda once stood for. And then start introducing a portfolio of EVs once people are more comfortable with the idea of plugging in. People seeing that they can easily use an EV for their daily errands with the gas engine never starting will eventually sell them on a future EV because that range anxiety will be lessened. The all EV leap is still a bridge too far, especially as recent sales numbers have shown. Baby steps. That's how you win people over.
  • Theflyersfan If this saves (or delays) an expensive carbon brushing off of the valves down the road, I'll take a case. I understand that can be a very expensive bit of scheduled maintenance.
  • Zipper69 A Mini should have 2 doors and 4 cylinders and tires the size of dinner plates.All else is puffery.
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