Having to haul a rather sizeable amount of our books and automobilia to France, we decided to choose the VW Maxi Caddy for the job, also to see how well modern small vans perform. To tell you right here, this VW truly amazed us. It offers formidable transport, to say the least.

Hans Knol ten Bensel

Our test car came with the 102 HP 2 liter diesel unit, well proven and to be found in many models and brands within the VW group. A five speed manual is coupled to this efficient, lively and smooth engine. Further no thrills and frills, airco and a Pioneer radio was what we could enjoy in our Caddy.

The interior and dashboard is a symphony of black and grey, with only the very nice looking, timelessly classic circular instruments for revs and speed standing out. Spartan you would say? Well, the sporting lightweight version of the Porsche 911 has hardly more… So why complain?

The seats strike an outstanding balance between firmness and comfort, and an excellent seating position is soon found.

As said, we used the Maxi Caddy to haul automobilia to France, and we greatly appreciated the voluminous load space, the excellent accessibility through both lateral and rear doors. The rear wheel arches are not obtrusive either.

Excellent behavior under load.

We were of course anxious to experience how the car behaves under these heavier load conditions, and we were very pleased to see that the Maxi Caddy loses nothing of its surefooted, precise handling and stability. This VW proved to be a restful and totally comfortable long range cruiser. The very willing engine develops impressive pulling power and torque, so even long motorway hills are mastered effortlessly without even having to change down. The engine is reasonably quiet, increasingly when operating temperature is fully reached and one senses clearly that this engine is designed and built to work under power, and yes, it takes high speed driving very well in its stride.

Road noise is reasonable, taking into account that this is essentially a utility van.

Long distance driving was also enchanted by the excellent Pioneer radio, which had good sensitivity and was able to treat us to our favored France Culture station completely disturbance free throughout the trip, also in the mountainous midi…

Frugality is of course at the rendez-vous, with a consumption below six liters/100 km achievable quite easily, even under full load… The manufacturer quotes 5,4 liters/100  km as an average figure. Average CO2 emissions are 121 g/km.

Conclusion

The roominess, performance, comfort and roadworthiness of the latest Caddy model generation truly amazed us. Its build quality and frugality is also nothing short of impressive.

It offers very comfortable transport, combining this with excellent long distance cruising abilities, with suspension and seating comfort to match, and combining this with an outstanding load capacity…

Hans Knol ten Bensel