Volkswagen’s Caddy may be based on a panel van, but it doesn’t feel like one. Yet, it’s for a slightly different audience from the usual MPV buyer

SINGAPORE — One thing comes to mind when you ponder the Volkswagen Caddy and its price: There’s a reason property agents like to point out high ceilings. It doesn’t do you any actual good unless you’re taller than the average NBA player, and it certainly doesn’t make a flat bigger than it is, but a high ceiling sure adds to the illusion of space.

And that is the first thing you notice as you clamber aboard the new Caddy. It feels huge inside, with a cabin that’s bright and feels airy. And there’s certainly plenty of headroom, almost enough for you to grow an extra head on top of your current one.

But put an NBA player in the back, and it’s not like he would have room to stretch his legs like someone sitting in Raffles Class on an SQ flight. That’s because the Caddy, high ceiling or not, isn’t a huge car. (The Caddy Maxi, which is 47cm longer, is a different matter.)

To put the Caddy into context, it’s 7cm longer than VW’s Sportsvan. Within that footprint it has three rows of seats, so one way to think of it is as Volkswagen’s smallest seven-seater, slotting into the lineup below the new Touran.

READ MORE > Everything you need to know about the Singapore Touran line-up

Yet, a more useful way to approach the Caddy is to think of it as a commercial vehicle (a panel van, to be precise) that has been spruced up with rear seating, car features and a fairly plush interior.

That last point means it hides its van origins well. Some of the cabin plastics are harder and more shiny than you’d expect to find in a VW, but the majority of it wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Golf.

It also comes with six airbags and a driver fatigue detection system, stuff you don’t find in many passenger cars, let alone commercial vehicles.

Under the bonnet you’ll find a 1.4-litre turbo and a twin-clutch seven-speed auto, both of which conspire to move the Caddy along pretty smartly. Though there’s not much at the top of the rev counter, the mid-range acceleration packs a nice punch and you’ll have no trouble keeping up with traffic or merging into a fast-moving line of cars.

The TSI/DSG combo makes for fuel-sipping performance, too. The claimed average is 5.8L/100km, and though it isn’t easy to achieve in the real world, you’ll still find the Caddy a fairly frugal car.

With panel van underpinnings, there’s no way the Caddy is going to ride or handle like a Golf, but it’s still surprisingly refined. If you peek under the rear you’ll see leaf springs (the kind lorries and pickup trucks use), yet the back of the VW doesn’t hop over bumps or jostle the loose change out of occupants’ pockets.

It’s quieter inside than you would have expected, too, and for some reason it has an extraordinarily powerful air-con system for a VW, certainly the coldest we’ve tried. That might be there to make up for a lack of a/c vents in the very back of the car.

As for the way it drives, though it lacks the sorted of planted sharpness needed to make you want to throw it around, the Caddy is easy to handle and park. Seeing out of it is no problem, either, so if you’re intimidated by the thought of hustling a van-based car around, you needn’t be.

Where its roots do show is in the way the rear seats are configured. A car-based Multi Purpose Vehicle tends to have seats that can fold down to create a flat loading floor (see the Touran).

The Caddy’s platform, on the other hand, is more old-school MPV: the middle row chairs fold in half and tilt up, while the rearmost bench has to be lifted from the car altogether. You can remove the chairs in Row 2 as well, but it’s sweaty work.

Still, you get the impression that the target customer for a Caddy is the sort of outdoorsy, lifestyle-conscious person who not only doesn’t mind a bit of sweat, but looks forward to it.

Family men have the Touran to buy, and the Caddy is more for avid mountain bikers, antique collectors, wind-surfers or what-have-you.

That being so, our advice is to check out the Maxi model if you’re shopping for a Caddy. It costs just $5,000 more but offers a meaningful amount of extra real estate. Its ceiling is just as high, too.

NEED TO KNOW Volkswagen Caddy 1.4TSI
Engine 1,395cc, 16V, inline 4, turbocharged
Power 125hp at 5,000 – 6,000rpm
Torque 220Nm at 1,500 – 3,500rpm
Gearbox 7-speed dual clutch
Top Speed 183km/h
0-100km/h 10.9 seconds
Fuel efficiency 5.8L/100km
CO2 133g/km
Price $123,400 (COE inclusive)
Availability Now

READ MORE
We drove the commercial vehicle version of the last Caddy Maxi two years ago. Even that was easy to handle…