Don’t let the rather uninspired and uninspiring name put you off the Foton View Cargo Van.  For one thing, it’s a better name than some of the oddities that have come out of the Asian market, such as Wingle (from Great Wall), That’s (from Honda), Detroit Fish, Life Dunk (Mitsubishi), Bongo Frendee (Mazda), Marvie (Mazda), Rural Nanny (Geely) and Mini Active Urban Sandal (Mitsubishi) – all of which make “View Cargo Van” look refreshingly sane.  Secondly, it’s a decent… cargo van.  It does exactly what it says on the tin.  If you’re looking for a good tradie van or something that could be converted into a camper, this could be the one for you.

Like all vans, the Foton View comes in basic white that can be used as a canvas for just about any logo.  However, it also comes in black, gold, grey and red – the black and the red look particularly striking, especially alongside the alloy wheels.  The long windows along the sides, plus the sliding door along the left (i.e. passenger or kerb side) are a testament to what this vehicle is designed to do: carry goods and gear.  It’s not set up as a people-mover, as there are only two seats (driver and front passenger), meaning that it’s likely to appeal to small tradespeople, couriers and the like, rather than families with lots of kids or work crews with lots of team members.  The wide windscreen makes for great visibility (hence the name View, we guess), and the sides are nice and clean-looking, just waiting for the signwriters to put your company name on.  The ground clearance is a little on the lower side, but as we all should have learned back in school science class, a lower centre of gravity and keeping the weight makes for better stability.

The Foton View is powered by a no-nonsense Cummins ISF 4-cylinder 2.8-L diesel engine that’s been carefully designed to keep the noise down and to be very easy to maintain – something that’s important to any small business.  The 96-kW direct injection engine produces a pretty good amount of torque (280 Nm) across quite a wide range of revs (1400–3000 rpm), meaning that it should provide the rear wheels with enough oomph to tow your work trailer (in case the load space inside the cargo bay isn’t big enough already!).  The five-speed manual transmission is also built simple and built tough.  Considering the body style (vans are not known for their superb aerodynamics) and the engine size, the official combined fuel consumption figures aren’t too bad: 9.1 L/100 km under test conditions.

Foton Australia is keeping rather coy about the all the features of the Foton View Cargo Van on the official website.  Let’s face it: the most important feature of this commercial vehicle is its load-carrying capacity and sturdy engine.  It’s not about the bells and whistles.  On the safely front, however, it does have driver and front passenger airbags, along with ABS brakes with EBD, along with anti-collision bars and reinforced bumpers front and rear.  The reversing sensors come in handy when backing if you’ve got a long load and can’t quite see as well as you should in the anti-glare rear view mirror or the other electric mirrors.  Just in case things go to custard, an escape hatch has been designed into the roof, along with an emergency hammer (although, if you’re a tradie, you might well have a hammer somewhere inside that massive, massive cargo bay).  Although further details are a bit sketchy, it’s likely that the Foton View also has power windows, an audio system with Aux input and a monochrome digital display panel in the instrument panel.

Foton prides itself on providing commercial vehicles that are built to last, so the other key feature of a Foton View Cargo Van is the warranty: 100,000 kms or 3 years, whichever comes first.

Current model series include:

• Foton View Cargo Van

For any more information on the Foton View, or for that matter any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181. If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quotes requests out to our national network of Foton dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours. Private Fleet – car buying made easy!