Fiat Scudo is a smaller brother to the big Ducato van, the latter now in its seventh year on our local market. It seems a surprise that it as taken the Italian marque to long to introduce another van. This is probably because it has been concentrating hard on passenger cars over the last few years. Whatever the reason, Scudo is here to scud along Aussie roads, so we have just spent a week test driving one.

Fiat has entered our local market cautiously by selecting only a limited number of Scudo models from the large range on offer in Europe. Our imports, at least for the time being, have a standard-height roof and a long-wheelbase body. It has a six cubic metre load space and can carry up to 1200 kg. Access is easy from all angles, with rear barn doors and twin sliding side doors.

The dimensions of the Scudo's rear compartment are 2584 mm in length, 1600 mm in width with a height of 1440 mm. There's 1245 millimetres between the wheel arches. Load volume comes in at a neat six cubic metres.

Occupants are carried in a single driving seat and a double front passenger seat, all cloth-covered. Each seat has a separate headrest and is equipped with lap-sash safety belts.

We found the driver’s seat during our road test to be comfortable and easy to adjust to the desires of our three test drivers. The left-front passenger seat is likewise a pleasant place to travel. The width of the centre seat is fine, but it’s rather cluttered at knee level by gear lever. As a short- to medium-term method of travelling it works well enough.

The instrument layout is excellent, with large easy-to-read dials on the speedo and tacho. Electric front windows and power-adjustable door mirrors make life easier as do central door locking and air conditioning. Given that its primary purpose is as a working vehicle there are plenty of handy storage areas inside the Scudo's cabin, including a refrigerated glove box. There are large drink holders in the door pockets. Drink holder are installed in front of the air outlets at each end of the dashboard and these can be also be used to keep drinks at a better temperature.

There are stowage areas above the windscreen for work books, directories and the like.

Safety is important and the Fiat van has a fixed, full-width steel bulkhead immediately behind the cabin. Other safety features include twin front airbags and ABS brakes with EBD.

We found the Scudo to have more interior noise than anticipated with quite a racket bouncing around in the back on rough Aussie backroads. Adding a load dampens the sound to some extent, but if it was our van and we were travelling empty a fair bit of the time we would have to have some sort of sound insulation installed.

Fiat Scudo is powered by a modern 2.0-litre turbo-diesel developing 88 kW, that’s 120 horsepower in European terms. Hence the engine’s tag of 120 Multijet. It’s a modern common-rail unit and is intercooled for greater efficiency. Peak torque doesn’t look great on paper, just 300 Nm at 2000 rpm. But these numbers don’t tell the full story and the engine has a good spread of pulling power over the rev range normally used.

The engine is mated to a six speed manual gearbox, there's no option of an automatic transmission at this time. The engine has a surprising amount of get up and go for its size and had no trouble in climbing hills or overtaking smartly.

Though this is obviously designed to be a hard-working van when you look at its boxy rear end, from the windscreen forwards Fiat's Scudo has the sort of styling of which owners can be proud. The bonnet is almost car-like in its height and the headlights have a fair bit of Italian flair in their style. Looks are a useful sales feature as even business owners want to have a vehicle in which they enjoy working.

Fiat Scudo comes to Australia with a recommended retail price of $36,990, plus on-road costs.