People hauling in luxury
Love your car? Well Damien O’carroll loved the VW Multivan so much he had his dinner in it!
Okay, so let’s just start by saying that $89,990 is a thoroughly colossal amount of money to spend on a low-roof, SWB medium van. But looking at it another way, $89,990 is an absolute bargain for a 4WD twin-turbo luxury vehicle that can seat seven people in supreme comfort and that you can also eat dinner in. Yeah, that last part? I actually did it, and it was awesome. The Volkswagen Multivan is based on the more utilitarian Transporter van, but where the Transporter is all about load space and practicality, the Multivan is all about luxury and comfort, particularly the AWD Highline TDI we drive here. The Multivan is available in a lower Comfortline spec – with or without VW’S 4Motion AWD system – and, as such, comes in from a much cheaper $69,990 starting point. While you get the same fantastic 132kw/400nm four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel engine, you miss out on the really good bits. The Highline gets Nappa leather and the (no cost) option of Alcantara upholstery, an upgraded audio system with a touchscreen and voice control, LED headlights, taillights and daytime running lights, fog lights with a cornering function, 12-way power adjustable front seats, an exterior chrome package, gloss black interior highlights, a 32-litre cooling/ warming box, and 18-inch alloy wheels. In the back it gets two rows of seats; the first row is made up of two separate seats that slide and swivel, so that they can face forwards or backwards, while the second row features a three-wide bench that can slide forwards or backwards. On a separate rail slide in the middle the Highline boasts a tricky sliding multifunction table that can do duty as a small side table between the two separate seats or, when all the seats are facing each other, folds out to be a larger round table that all the rear seats can use. This is where dinner was consumed on the run one night, much to the amusement of two young guys parked next to me. On the road the Multivan is pretty much like the Transporter to drive, apart from the fact that the full length windows nicely banish any van-related blind spots you would normally have. The engine is wonderfully strong, using its big 400Nm of torque to effortlessly scamper around town and blitz other – lesser - vans on the open road. Well appointed, well equipped and fantastically comfortable up front, the Multivan is also all of these things at the back as well – where it actually really counts. Superbly comfortable seats cosset, while the huge windows make for an open, airy ride in the back. The remarkable flexibility of the seats and cargo space mean the Multivan can be a spacious, luxurious people hauler, or a slightly more traditional minibus with heaps of luggage space, or pretty much anything in between. At $90K the Multivan is undoubtedly pricey, but in this case, you certainly do get what you pay for.