Frankfurt Motor Show 2007 - Highlights
The first-generation Kangoo redefined the car-derived van/multi-van market in Europe ten years ago. It was the first in the sector to have been conceived from the ground up and not simply as a boxy van rear attached to the front of an existing small car design. Since then the sector has developed, notably with the addition of the more lifestyle-orientated Skoda Roomster.
The new second-generation Kangoo announced at Frankfurt this week essentially continues the theme of the original with a friendly design identity and great functionality. Although the van version was not on display at Frankfurt - unlike the Roomster - the Kangoo will be available as a commercial van as well as a passenger car, which underpins its more functionalist approach.
The exterior maintains a similar benign face to its predecessor, which combine very large radius corners on the side windows, door shuts, and silhouette to give an even more rotund and child-like aesthetic than the original. After the poor sales for the similarly soft-formed Modus, this seems an odd direction to choose - we suspect that many, mostly male, van drivers in Europe will not feel comfortable driving a car that looks like it drove off the Teletubbies set...
The functional design of the Kangoo is hard to fault though. At the rear, the parcel shelf can be slid flush with the rear seat backs when tall loads require or it can be placed at one of two different levels in the trunk. The rear seats fold forward in a single action that cantilevers the seat squab into the footwell and there are post-Megane levels of interior stowage. Front and rear passengers benefit from optional roof storage and the roof bars cleverly unclick at one end and swing across the roof to form a full roof rack.
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