LIGHT VEHICLES NEWSII
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man top yourself, but VW obviously sees it more seriously and has pitched the pricing of the van on a level with the market leaders from Ford, Rover and Vauxhall; for example, our five-speed diesel Caddy retails for £7,779, while the Vauxhall Astramax 560 diesel costs £7,580.
With this in mind, we were keen to see if the VW could match up to its ambitions over a longer term, especially after our road test gave the van a mixed reaction.
There is no doubting that the fibreglass body has plenty of room, and its 2.6m3 of space compares well with the other high-volume CDVs like the Astramax (2.32m3), Citroen C15 (2.67m3) and the Renault Extra (2.6m3); it leaves the old Escort well in the shade.
Turning the pickup into a van is accomplished in the UK by simply adding a Windfoil top. The design allows items up to 2.4m to be carried by using the space above the cab, which has proved useful.
Aerodynamic styling in this area also helps the Caddy's 1.6-litre IDI diesel to keep up with motorway traffic on the up gradients, allbeit with frequent resort to the gearbox.
With just 40kW (54hp) on tap the Caddy has a disadvantage compared with many of its competitors which have larger, torquier engines — although the (cheaper) Extra also makes do with a 1.6-litre unit.
However, despite having to rev the engine quite hard, the Caddy has returned a decent average consumption of 6.91it/ 100km (41mpg) after its initial running-in period, with a 180kg test load in the back.
Being based on the original Golf the Caddy is easy to drive, with good mirrors keeping blind spots to a minimum.
Many who have driven the van are used to cars, but found no difficulty in adapting. They did, however, highlight the lack of acceleration (especially at higher speeds) and the tendency of the body to roll when cornering. With a more capacious Escort van being introduced at the Motor Show later this month, the Caddy certainly has its work cut out attracting new customers. Our experience so far shows it to be a reasonably workmanlike effort, but in the long term we wonder if that will be enough.