It’s the go-to family vehicle

HIGHWAY CRUISING: CADDY IS A COMPELLING OPTION IF YOU’RE IN THE MARKET

A VW relationship is one which repays your investment with interest.

Investments, so the experts say, are long-term commitments. The longer you leave your money, the more it grows. That, strangely enough, also holds true for cars – because the sooner you get rid of them, the more your lose in terms of depreciation.

That particular lesson is being learned the hard way by people across the country as they are forced to sell the expensive cars they bought to show off, only to find that in the Covid-19 emergency, they can’t keep up repayments, never mind running costs.

If, however, you buy a car to hang on to for a while, then it really does become an investment. Choose the right one at the start and it will give you years of service – and save you upgrade costs at least a few times during its life.

That’s why one of the best investments I’ve ever made was a car – and a Volkswagen at that. For the princely sum of R33 600 (including General Sales Tax), I took delivery of a Jetta in March 1989. It was a special edition, “Wolfsburg” model with after-market air-conditioning … an unheard of luxury in family cars in those days.

I sold it 25 years later, after it had travelled more than 340 000km across South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. It stopped unexpectedly only once – when an electrical cable came off somewhere under the bonnet. I sorted that, with a pair of long-nose pliers, in less than a minute. Other than that – nothing in terms of breakdown or repair costs.

The money I would have spent on getting other cars went towards our house and towards the kids’ education (and their entertainment, of course). And the Jetta was, until I acquired a Subaru Forester in 2004 (still got that, by the way) the go-to family car.

If I close my eyes I can still feel the chill of those early mornings, the smell of the egg and bacon sarmies in the Tupperware box (for the first pit stop, after two hours), as we wheeled out on the deserted city streets and hit the N1, N3 or N4 as the holiday beckoned.

Today, if I were in the same position, I would be in another VW product – its Caddy. It’s not a sedan like the Jetta but, being derived from the company’s highly successful panel van range, has plenty of that most important commodity for families – space.

The boot is huge, there is good legroom for the rear-seat passengers and, like all VWs, the aircon is fantastic. (In my Jetta it was adequate, but a second Jetta we owned had the factory-fitted item and it was, honestly, one of the best aircon systems I’ve yet experienced in any car.)

Earlier this year, we returned a long-term diesel Caddy All Track, which had taken our team on various long trips around the country and was universally liked by all. One of the most common comments by testers was that they were surprised at how good it was, because they expected it to feel like a commercial vehicle, whereas it is really car-like.

Following that, we spent a week with the petrol version in Trendline spec, which currently retails at R371 000. That’s not cheap, but nothing is these days. And, for a family, there are few cars on the market which are as versatile.

The three-cylinder, 1.0 litre motor might not sound like much but, thanks to a turbo, it pushes out 85kW (10 more than my Jetta) and that’s more than enough for highway cruising and town driving.

However, like many small capacity turbopetrol engines, it requires quite a bit of revving to get going… and therefore your fuel consumption is not as promised in the ads.

But, overall, the Caddy is a compelling option if you’re in the market for a family car. But hang on to it. Because, trust me, a VW relationship is one which only grows deeper with time. And it’s one which repays your investment with interest.

Choose the right car and it will give you years of service