Price as tested: €68,725
+ Huge space, versatility, classy, comfy, luxurious, quality
– Occasionally harsh ride, price tag, tax, not quick
= One of the world's great all-rounders
You know it’s going to be a good Saturday night when you get to the front of the taxi queue and there’s something nice waiting to whisk you home. Not just another sad, tired old Japanese or European family saloon with 100,00k on the clock and nasty aftermarket seat covers. No, it’s a good Saturday night when your chariot with a yellow roof bar is a nice squidgy old Merc E-Class, or maybe even a big old Lexus LS400 – mellowed by age but still full of creaky, comfy leather and with a ride quality from back before everyone got obsessed with the Nurburgring. Nice.
Well, if you want to have that feeling everyday, then you’ll be needing one of these. A Volkswagen Caravelle in full-on, leather and everything spec. It’s probably the ultimate taxi, the perfect airport run car and in many ways is the best family car you could possibly buy.
It is, of course, basically a mechanically identical VW Transporter T5, but one what’s been upgraded to full tart’s handbag specification. So, up front you get superbly comfy leather seats, a DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox, a touch-screen stereo and split-zone climate. But, as with all great chauffeur’s cars, the best place to be in the Caravelle is in the back. There you will find five more seats – two individual, swiveling Captain’s chairs and a braod bench. All of these are upholstered in the same lovely leather you’ll find up front and the rear bench slides back and forth to allow you to choose between more luggage space or more comfort for your passengers. They also all fold flat and I can tell you from personal experience that you can then get a double divan bed and mattress in the back. And a few bedside lockers. Luxurious, it may be but it hasn’t forgotten its van roots entirely.
Under the bonnet is VW’s venerable 2.0-litre TDI diesel with 140bhp and 340Nm of torque, Which sounds like a lot, but unladen, the Caravelle weighs a not inconsiderable 2,153kg, so while it’s not what you’d call sluggish, neither will you be taking on and beating GTIs at the lights.
No matter, what the Caravelle is about is comfort, and the relaxed and relaxing performance encourages you to drop your hands down to the 8-and-4 driving position (as recommended to professional drivers by Rolls-Royce as it “significantly reduces any chance of perturbing your rear seat passengers”) and go about your business that much more slowly. It will still happily wind its way up to a cruise-controlled 120kmh on the motorway and when it does that, you can really relax (within the bounds of keeping an eye on things, of course). The front of the Caravelle is a wonderfully comfortable place to be, damn near as good as the back.
Obviously when you get to a corner, you’re going to be reminded in no uncertain terms that this is a tall, heavy commercial vehicle and not a sports saloon. It heels over onto the outside wheel, the steering is slow and if you’re asking too many questions of it the ride just gets ridiculously crashy and bumpy. Much better, once again, to slow down and take the relaxed path home.
You will be tempted to stop off though. With the folding centre table in the back, the Caravelle makes an absolutely ideal portable picnic spot, so requests from the back seats for more sandwiches and Taytos are frequent. Other stops can be kept to a reasonable minimum though – Volkswagen quotes 8.2-litres per 100km average fuel consumption and we managed to get mid-nines, so it’s believeable. The fact that it emits 216g/km of Co2 (slightly less than the six-speed manual manages, actually) and isn’t taxed as a commercial vehicle though means you’ll have to pay the full whack of €1,200 Band F tax and with a purchase price hovering around the €68,000 mark, this is not going to be a cheap way to haul your family around.
That said though, this is a truly multi purpose vehicle and in that sense it makes a mockery of other, lesser cars that claim the same mantle. What others mean when they say MPV is that they’ve basically got a lot of seats. What the Caravelle means is that it is truly multi-purpose. Clean it up and, especially in the black paint of our test car, it’s handsome and crisp looking enough to mix it effortlessly in the executive car park. We’ve already alluded to its abilities as a taxi, van, airport tender and picnic spot, but it’s equally adept at being a shopping trolley, school bus, work commuter, and, thanks to the built-in window blinds and my wife’s preference for swimming in the seat, a handy and modesty-preserving beach hut. Just don’t hit the electric side door ‘open’ button on the key fob when she’s half way through getting changed. That was a bit cruel, actually...
Classy, cool and astonishingly useful, it’s hard (price and ride quality apart) to pick many holes in the Caravelle’s performance. Being a Transporter means that it should prove robust and reliable and all the Caravelle trimmings make it feel genuinely luxurious. What more can I say other than that, alongside the Toyota GT86 and Jeep Grand Cherokee, it has found a place in my imaginary Lotto-win garage.
Facts & Figures
Volkswagen Caravelle 2.0 TDI 140bhp DSG Highline
Price as tested: €68,725
Range price: €52,850 to €81,165
Capacity: 1,968cc
Power: 140bhp
Torque: 340Nm
Top speed: 172kmh
0-100kmh: 14.7sec
Economy: 8.2l-100km (34.4mpg)
CO2 emissions: 216g/km
VRT Band: F. €1,200 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 4-star adult, 4-star child, 1-star pedestrian (results for 2008 T5 test)
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