VW Caddy Cargo solid panel van that offers Polo-like handling

The VW Caddy Cargo panel van serves as timely reminder that some things, generally well-designed and assembled, can be spoilt by one or two inherent problems.

Take for instance – going back a really long time – the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Palaeontologists tell us this species of dinosaur was the most aggressive of all animals, ever.

Other flesh-eating dinosaurs would kill in order to feed themselves or when their lives and those of their offspring were threatened, but the T-Rex would immediately attack whatever other living being it happened upon.

Weighing in at around 10 000kg, the T-Rex was by no means the largest breed around, but its massive jaws, plus extremely strong back, tail and hind legs made it a hugely effective killing machine.

The experts say it would immediately fight even much bigger creatures, on sight, to the death. They also say this was due to the T-Rex’s environmental movements – it travelled long distances and would always try to forcefully establish its own living habitat wherever it went.

One glaring omission

They are, of course, wrong. Look at a picture of the T-Rex and notice those ridiculous little arms. There is your explanation.

Anything that lives to be 400 years old without being able to scratch its ass even once has the right to be in a perpetual bad mood.

That is my take on the T-Rex’s bad press and I stick by it. We, and palaeontologists throughout the world, have agreed to disagree on the matter.

Which, admittedly rather tenuously, brings us to the VW Caddy Cargo panel van. Generally superbly built for its intended purpose, the vehicle also has one glaring fault that makes it dangerous.

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First, the good stuff. Designed to cater for the needs of inner city businesses with compact stuff to deliver, the Caddy Cargo comes on the same platform that underpins the Golf 8 and current Polo model, sitting on sturdy 16-inch steel wheels in 205/60 R16 tyres.

Thankfully, it also boasts a full-size spare wheel, instead of the puny, impractical, plain dumb “space-saver” rims many manufacturers foist upon buyers.

Powering the VW Caddy Cargo

It is powered by Volkswagen’s tried and proven 1 598 cc normally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engine that produces 81 kW of power at 5 800 rpm and 152 Nm of torque between 3 850 and 4 100 rpm. The grunt goes to the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox.

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Naturally, the vehicle’s intended owners will be primarily interested in its load capacity, which is impressive at 3 100-litres.

But, here is our first gripe – the test vehicle that showed up at The Citizen Motoring’s loading bay was painted pristine white – something that will be short-lived in a working delivery vehicle. Surely it should come with a rubberised loading bay as standard?

The Caddy’s cockpit is very car-like, with most of the stuff found in Polos and Golfs. The cloth-covered seats are comfortable and the vehicle comes fitted with air-conditioning, an intuitive 6.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, two USB-C connectors, plus an electronic parking brake and multi-function steering wheel.

Active safety features include ABS brakes with traction control, stability control, hill-start holder, LED daytime running lights, a tyre deflation detection system, rain-sensor windscreen wipers, rear and front parking sensors plus a rear-view camera. Should you still shunt it, there are airbags for both front occupants.

Offers car-like handling

The VW Caddy Cargo was never meant to be a high performance vehicle, but it feels lively, while the six-speed gearbox works very well with the engine’s offerings. Volkswagen claims a 0 to 100 km/h figure of 12 seconds plus a top speed of 178 km/h and we have no reason to doubt their figures.

The handling is very much like that of a Polo, ie superb. The steering is direct with great feedback, while the vehicle feels planted, grippy and confidence-inspiring.

Of course, we never drove the Caddy with a full load, which may or may not make a difference. Which brings us to our biggest gripe.

The VW Caddy comes without rear side-windows, making lane-changing or coming out of parking spaces a bit of a lottery, due to blind spots in the rear.

We made no specific effort to drive the Caddy economically, and figured an overall fuel consumption figure of 8.3 litres per 100 km was acceptable.

The Volkswagen Caddy Cargo 1.6 panel van will set you back R413 000, which price includes an unlimited warranty distance, plus a three-year/60 000 km service plan. Service intervals are 15 000 km.