Volkswagen Caddy Maxi Minivan test drive since 2007 Minivan

Test drive VW Caddy Life: Interrupted Flight

Unfortunately, for reasons beyond the control of the editorial office, the Volkswagen Caddy Life test drive was not possible in the intended volume. But I managed to get some impressions.
The reason for the interrupted test on the highway near Moscow flew into the windshield from under the wheel of an oncoming wheel, not even a truck, but just an SUV. What to do these are our roads. The crack was small, but when loading the case, it began to grow with a not very pleasant crackling. Since the experience of catching glass on the face of the face in a similar situation in my driver’s practice was already there, I decided not to risk it. As a result, the test mileage was only a little more than two hundred kilometers, which is clearly not enough for a full assessment.
However, some nuances of Caddy Life behavior were able to feel. I'll write about them.
I’ll make a reservation right away: I am a fan of Volkswagen brand (more precisely, the golf). Therefore, despite the desire for objectivity, I can be addicted.
The first visual impression of Caddy Life was hybrid. To myself, I christened it like a cross between Golf with Crafter. However, the car is not without a certain charm, and the exterior design does not differ from classmates for the worse. Unless the glazed triangle in front of the side glass caused bewilderment. Visibility through him zero, from the point of view of design, it would be enough to make it black. So why spend money on an additional piece of glass and gluing it? Unclear...
Inside, everything is familiar, in Folkswagenovsky. For example, seats, which, despite the urban character of the car, are quite decent side support. The climate control panel was also familiar, equipped with three frankly unmarried, but possessing intelligible control logic, round Werners.
That's just the lighting of the dashboard from the time of my last trips on VW cars has changed. Who is how, and the Germans rejected me from poisonous illumination pleased me. The current white color looks much nicer.
I leave the parking lot with the special thoroughness of the dimensions of the machine and the radius of the turn (the wheelbase is enlarged here), I still do not feel. Obeying a hunch, I turn not to the left, to a dense city stream, but to the right, on relatively quiet streets.
The first turn, albeit not fast, causes an instant feeling of recognition, this is Volkswagen. I will not talk about sports machines and sophisticated Auto Premium. But not one of the mass brands will give such a feeling from driving. It seems to me that I could distinguish folk from another car by the only traveled turn even with my eyes closed.
Putting along the lanes, and enjoying plenty of forgotten sensations, I’m going home (on continuous traffic jams). The next day, traveling out of town.
Even when I agreed on a test drive, an offer to take a car with a diesel engine and with automatic transmission did not cause me delight. I know quite well the domestic diesel fuel and its unfriendly attitude to delicate imported diesel engines. Therefore, I do not complain about the diesel on passenger cars (SUVs and trucks are another matter, you can’t do without them). As for the machine guns, the driving experience makes the right hand on almost all cars with automatic transmission involuntarily twitch to the gear lever with internal words, why are you so digging! I'll do it faster. The only exception is the exception of the car with the variator, since nothing switches there.
However, a trip on loaded, but still giving the opportunity to maneuver in speed (and openly forcing it) Moscow streets on Caddy Life with a TDI engine and a new DSG automatic box (six steps, double clutch) made me change the performance. Not only is the engine, as befits diesel, and the box is fast. Judging by the impressions, they are also well agreed with each other.
Even with the usual operating mode of Caddy Life automatic transmission (not the smallest in mass and not the streamlined car) is very dynamic. The sports regime already makes it possible to frolic slightly.
This is all the more funny that the neighbors of such behavior from a solid family car clearly do not expect. Here is a characteristic example.
I stand at a traffic light in anticipation of green. In the second row. A rather sophisticated compartment slipped quietly to the extreme right (I will not call the brand, so as not to offend anyone). The driver’s thoughts are clear, like his own: further behind the traffic light, the right row is busy for parking, but I will jump out of the nose at this box, and I’ll get it all the others, and then I’ll go in front of the stream ...
It is said, and when switching to a green neighbor, presses on the gas. Of course, this is not like pressing the pedal on the floor, but it starts very, very briskly. But I will not work out from under the nose with a neighbor. Already starting a restructuring, he glances in the rear -view mirror for the sample, and discovers that the box, it turns out, hangs on his tail. No, it does not press (I do not like to risk it without the need to even take a minimum), but it is somehow not too nice to rebuild. Twing back into his row, the neighbor turns on the left turn signal (for the first time he considered it clearly excessive), and I, slightly lifting my leg from the gas pedal, passing it into the second row of the parking area is already close.
This scene took much less time than reading its description, but I gave me pleasure. So the advice to drivers: Do not flatter up the external cavalry of Caddy Life, this working donkey is able to furnish many thoroughbred horses on the road.
The second impression of this machine is associated with the problem of spraying (regular readers of the test drives of a business car club know that from a certain moment we began to pay special attention to this parameter). So, the feeling is such that Caddy Life is not polluted. At all.
 
It seems that the car has a hydrophobic coating, from which dirt simply rolls. On the tracks of Moscow streets and near Moscow, even the rear window (traditionally weak in the pollution of the car area of \u200b\u200bsuch layouts) remains clean enough for viewing for a very long time. So Caddy Life wipers are clearly not overloaded with work.
 
That's perhaps that’s all. Only two impressions, but they seem to be worthy of attention.
Yes, I almost forgot the Germans differently than the French, make a gas tank cork. At the VW Caddy Life, after unlocking the plug lock, the key can be removed from it (and hang the cork on the lid of the gas station). Since in Russia few decides to leave the key to the neck of the tank of the refueling car, a choice appears. Either you risk leaving the gas station without putting a cork in place or forced to roam the gas station at the store, holding this very traffic jamming with gasoline (or diesel fuel). The choice is for you, as said in popular advertising ...
Finally about the price of the issue. This should be done, if only because Volkswagen cars are usually more expensive than classmates. Used in the VW Caddy Life test drive in the Maxi configuration, with a 1.9 TDI engine (105 hp, 250 nm) and a DSG box will cost 1007 thousand rubles. This is about a hundred thousand rubles more than that of competitors. However, for example, it is clear to me what such money is paid for.
By the way, do not forget that Caddy Life is formally not a car, but a car for business. He is in the jurisdiction of Volkswagen commercial cars, which a business car club expresses gratitude for the car provided for a test drive.
 

Source: Business car club