Comin’ for to Caddy me home

We’re not sure when it will get here, but we are quietly confident it will. The Volkswagen Caddy has owned its market segment from when it first arrived, so the fifth generation is surely going to put in an appearance Downunder sometime?

To date over three million have been built, and with the fifthgeneration model, every detail from the ground up is new, as for the first time the best seller is now based on the Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB).

Innovative driver assistance systems enhance safety and make driving easier; networked infotainment and digitalised control systems turn the Caddy into a smartphone on wheels; a new twin dosing technique makes the TDI engines cleaner than ever before.

Add to this, the strikingly sporty makeover to the exterior and the interior has seen significant improvements as well.

The Caddy is an all-rounder, the Swiss Army knife of urban delivery vans and family MPVS.

Volkswagen’s switch to the MQB platform is visible in the new Caddy’s more dynamiclooking proportions. The designers utilised the exciting technical opportunity presented by the MQB platform to create a completely redesigned vehicle body.

All of the models are even better equipped than the corresponding previous one.

Inside, the fifth generation of the all-rounder impresses with new high-tech solutions and appreciably more space. The long version – the Caddy Maxi – now, for example, provides room for up to two Euro pallets, which can optionally be loaded sideways in the middle and back or sideways in the middle and lengthways in the back.

Now also in the new Caddy is Trailer Assist, familiar from the Crafter, for significantly easier reverse manoeuvring. The existing assistance systems in the Caddy have been significantly expanded and updated with new functions.

Like the driver assistance systems, the Caddy’s new four-cylinder engines are also innovative. They are from the next stage of engine evolution, fulfil the 2021 Euro 6 emissions standards and are all fitted with particulate filters.

Also being used for the first time in the TDI units – which have power outputs between 55 kw / 75 PS and 90 kw / 122 PS – is the new twin dosing system.

Using two SCR catalytic converters and hence double Adblue injection, the nitrogen oxide (NOX) emission levels are significantly reduced in comparison to the previous model.

The new drive system technologies have a noticeably positive effect both ecologically and economically: dependent on engine version, the Caddy's projected fuel consumption is up to twelve percent lower than the previous model.