For The VW Caddy Maxi Life is big, well made and surprisingly good to drive. It seats seven fairly easily.
Against Proper MPVs offer more flexible seating, and the Caddy doesn't make up for it with a budget pricetag. The safety kit is disappointing, too.
What Car? says
This is a van-based MPV that can't totally hide its roots. The VW Caddy Maxi Life not that practical or versatile and, considering what it is, it's too expensive.
What Car? readers say
No reader reviews foundThere are 2 Volkswagen Caddy Maxi Life versions available
Buyer's notes
Target Price team says:
VW Caddy Maxi Life is a seven-seat MPV brazen about its origins; it looks like a van with windows, and only comes with diesel engines.
Sure enough, the Caddy is big inside, and it will seat seven, but its seating system is more fiddly than regular MPVs’; you won’t enjoy taking out the third row of seats to increase boot space, for example, because it weighs five stone.
Two diesel engines are available, a 138bhp 2.0-litre unit and a 1.9-litre motor with 103bhp. We’d opt for the 1.9, since it’s considerably cheaper and comes with VW’s DSG twin-clutch gearbox.
As you might expect in an MPV with commercial-vehicle origins, both units are pretty noisy; there’s road noise, too, but the Caddy Maxi Life is capable of relatively swift and refined progress.
It’s more difficult to excuse the Caddy’s high price and relatively short list of safety kit, though; we’d look long and hard at VW’s bespoke MPV, the Touran, before talking Caddy prices with our local dealer.
Caddy Maxi Life rivals
Caddy Maxi Life used rivals
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Our pick of the range
Volkswagen Caddy Maxi Life MPV 2.0 TDI DPF 5dr
The market has moved on since this was the only sort of vehicle with seven seats. Try VW’s Touran – or the Ford S-Max – before you consider paying the (high) price for this.
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