Golf Club

A new Caddy joins VW's MQB platform family and gains a sharper stroke, but less powerful engines and lack of auto option are concerns

- Braam Peens

Price: R601 100 Engine: 2,0-litre, 4-cyl, turbodiesel Transmission: 6-speed manual Power: 81 kW@ 2 750 r/min Torque: 300 N.m @ 1 500 r/min 0–100 km/h: 12,8 seconds Top speed: 180 km/h Fuel consumption: 5,5 L/100km CO2 emissions: N/A g/km Rivals: Opel Combo, Fiat Dobló

vastly improved ride and mechanical refinement lack of auto transmission limits its appeal+

If ever there were any lingering doubts over the coincidence of an existential umbilical connection between Volkswagen's Golf and the Caddy, you need wonder no more.

Contrary to the incidental occupational association under a clubs-and-balls umbrella, it has nothing to do with golf; and everything to do with the Golf. Which one? That'll be the new Golf 8. And the organ recipient in question is the new, fifth-generation Caddy.

Plucking its people mover away from its commercial roots, for its latest generation, VW has hauled the Caddy coach on to its famed MQB (Modularer Querbaukasten) platform, initiated in 2012 to advance production efficiencies of all of the group's front-driven, transverse-engined passenger vehicles in a modular fashion across dozens of body styles spanning its arsenal of brands.

Various changes were brought to the SA-spec replacement range. The previous 1,0-litre, three-cylinder turbopetrol engine has been superseded by a new 1,6-litre four-cylinder producing 81 kW and 152 N.m, available in the Caddy, Caddy Kombi (SWB) and Caddy Cargo (SWB) models.