Stand out from the traffic in Formula Edition Trafic Van

What is it?

WHY not make an impression? If you’re a trade, look smart, professional and different: and you will in this, the Renault Trafic Formula Edition.

It’s a Renault Trafic SL27 dCi 145 but given a jazz up with and all-black finish, Renault racing yellow surrounds on the fog lamps, and stripes down the side.

Oh, and the 17 inch alloy wheels are painted black with yellow Renault inserts.

No wonder there’s the Renault racing theme: the Formula Edition was launched in 2017 at the CV Show to celebrate Renault Pro+ as the official logistics partner of Renault Sport Formula One.

So you can go to work with a racy edge.

You can chose your Trafic Formula Edition in short or long wheelbase standard height versions. In this most powerful Formula Edition, the cost is £25,850 + VAT – dCi 120 and dCi 125 engine options are also available.

Formula Edition: black alloy wheels and side stripe

Why would you want a Renault Trafic Formula Edition?

• Those distinctive looks – it looks very smart in its Pearlescent Black and Yellow Sirius highlights
• And while it celebrates Formula 1, it won’t make you go faster. The standard 147PS 1.6 turbo diesel, though, pulls strongly and smoothly thanks to 340Nm torque, helped by the crisp gear change on the six speed box
• What’s even better, it doesn’t have fuel consumption like a Formula 1 car: Renault quotes 46.3mpg – we achieved 40.6mpg (unladen)
• However, it’s a great to drive van. It’s comfortable, secure and handles ruts and bumps so, so well
• If you need to load pipes or similar up to 3.72m in length then there’s a ‘cat flap’ that extends load length through the bulkhead into the front seat area
  

  Renault Trafic cat flap extends load length

• This van had a second sliding door for the driver’s side for £280 – probably worth it considering how difficult it can be to park these days
• Load area is 5cu m and gross payload is 1077kg
• The interior features a Luxe pack that adds neat interior touches: leather gear knob with chrome cap; satin radio and speaker surrounds; gloss black air vent surrounds with chrome ring; chrome interior door handles.
• Plus there’s a leather steering wheel and air conditioning
• There’s plenty of cubby holes and the Trafic mobile office fold down desk in the middle seat
• Creature comforts include supportive seats and DAB audio – we had R-LINK multimedia system fitted with 7inch touchscreen and excellent TomTom Live navigation (£775)
  

  Load area with ply lining and resin coated floor

What might put you off a Renault Trafic Formula Edition?

• If you don’t like black and yellow….well, you’re probably not reading this review anyway
• Those great black alloys mean you have to stay clear of kerbs – crunched painted alloys will ruin the whole look: and a pit stop to replace them will be costly
• While Renault likes to talk about the usefulness of its office on wheels, some aspects are looking a bit dated….
  

  Renault Trafic phone holder

• …the mobile phone holder is not big enough for some of today’s larger smartphones …
• …and the door pockets are not brilliantly accessible
• Those yellow fog lamp surrounds look less integrated than the smart black grille with yellow highlights

Verdict on the Renault Trafic SL27 dCi 145 Formula Edition

The Renault Trafic is a great to drive van, and the Formula Edition is a smartened up version to give it some street pizzazz.

The engine is sweet and economical, and although the payload isn’t massively impressive, the Trafic will cope with most trade requirements.

There are some items from the options list that we reckon you should really consider: that additional slide door as well as rear parking camera (£250) – surely worth it to increase safety while reversing.

You won’t win any lap records with the Formula Edition: but you will drive a really well sorted van that really looks the part. And take the chequered flag each time you go to work.

What else should you know about the Trafic Formula Edition?

While we were testing the van, some guys came up to us who run a standard Trafic. Their second, actually, so real converts. They were really impressed, and particularly liked the black alloys. So a big thumbs up for those. And they wished they had the driver’s side sliding door, too.

The Formula Edition’s equipment is based on Business+ trim. Along with comprehensive safety and security features, there’s manual air conditioning with a pollen filter, DAB radio, Bluetooth, and USB and a multi-functional trip computer.

The van we tried was plylined and had a resin coated floor – cost £630. There were 16 anchorage points – along with a couple of coat hooks (£12).

The racing line – Formula Editions available on Kangoo, Trafic and Master

Renault Trafic Formula Edition specification