
Mercedes locked in the W638 Vito's design and patented it in February 1993 — a full three years before the van ever reached a showroom.
Median 99 hp across 58 similar cars
Lead trim: V 200 / Vito 113 (2.0 petrol) · up to 172 hp
Mercedes-Benz Vito / V-Class1996–2003
- 0spots by members
- Unclaimednobody has spotted one yet
- 0sets it belongs to
Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Mercedes-Benz Vito / V-Class yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactMercedes locked in the W638 Vito's design and patented it in February 1993 — a full three years before the van ever reached a showroom.
The first generation Mercedes-Benz Vito was produced between 1996 and 2003 (the infobox gives November 1995 to 2005), also sold as the V-Class and later the Viano, with a front-wheel-drive drivetrain and built in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, with CKD assembly in Alcobendas and production in Ligny-en-Barrois, France. It was powered either by a diesel engine with up to 120 bhp (89 kW; 122 PS) or by a gasoline engine with up to 140 bhp (104 kW; 142 PS). The range of gasoline engines consisted of two older Mercedes units (the 113 and 114) and a Volkswagen 2.8 VR6 engine.
Collectors Spotted in the Mercedes-Benz Vito Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Mercedes-Benz Vito yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
8 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V 200 / Vito 113 (2.0 petrol) | 1996–2003 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 127 hp | 137 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| V 200 CDI / Vito 110 CDI (2.2 diesel) | 1999–2003 | 2.2 L Inline-4 | 101 hp | 184 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| V 220 CDI / Vito 112 CDI (2.2 diesel) | 1999–2003 | 2.2 L Inline-4 | 121 hp | 221 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| V 230 / Vito 114 (2.3 petrol) | 1996–2003 | 2.3 L Inline-4 | 141 hp | 159 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| V 230 TD / Vito 110 D (2.3 turbodiesel) | 1996–1999 | 2.3 L Inline-4 | 97 hp | 170 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| V 280 (2.8 VR6 petrol) | 1997–2003 | 2.8 L V6 | 172 hp | 175 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| Vito 108 CDI (2.2 diesel) | 1999–2003 | 2.2 L Inline-4 | 80 hp | 148 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| Vito 108 D (2.3 diesel) | 1996–1999 | 2.3 L Inline-4 | 78 hp | 112 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
Owning one
An estimate, for the V 200 / Vito 113 (2.0 petrol) trim: fuel on its EPA figure and a dated national price, upkeep on a per-mile average for the kind of car it is.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs




When the W447 V-Class arrived in 2014, Mercedes didn't pitch it as the old Viano's heir — it was built to replace the R-Class, a completely different model line.

A van beat actual SUVs at their own game: the Viano won the SUV category outright at the 19th Rallye Aicha des Gazelles desert rally.

Mercedes locked in the W638 Vito's design and patented it in February 1993 — a full three years before the van ever reached a showroom.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.

Chevy pitched the Astro as the anti-minivan, telling buyers life was too big for one, while it rode on a rear-wheel-drive truck frame.

The IIHS rated the Astro Poor in a 1996 crash test, yet 2001–2004 Astros later had the lowest driver death rate of any US passenger vehicle.

The boxy, unglamorous Astro quietly posted one of the best real-world safety records in America: IIHS found 2001-2004 models had the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle on US roads.

The third-generation Tourneo Connect, released in Europe in October 2021, is a rebadged fourth-generation Volkswagen Caddy, assembled by Volkswagen in Poland.

Ford beat the 25% "chicken tax" by importing the Transit Connect as a passenger van — rear windows and seats included, then stripped out and recycled once it landed in the US.

Ford spent years in federal court over the second-gen Transit Connect: in June 2019 the US won its appeal, and judges ruled the van was cargo-only — ending Ford's workaround for the 'chicken tax.'

GM sold a rebadged Nissan NV200 as the Chevy City Express for four years, then killed it in 2018, citing weak sales and the fact that its parts weren't even compatible with GM's own parts catalog.

Its name is a pun: "S-Cargo" means "Small Cargo" but sounds just like escargot — French for snail, the shape the whole van was built to resemble.