The VW Caddy Maxi Life is one of the biggest MPVs out there and probably the best small camper van option out there. If boot size is your primary criterion – you can’t go wrong with a Caddy. The car drives good too. Where it lacks a bit is comfort – it takes after its van origins and offers a more basic interior. But it makes up for it in storage – it really has a lot of compartments all over the place. It’s not the best car to take off the road completely – but you can take it down a good enough mud road without any big problems. A very good car camping / microcamping conversion candidate, unless you are planning to drive through forests and very much offroad – or you prefer a higher-class interior comfort.
The Caddy Maxi is the longest small car we’ve seen – you won’t realize it until you actually see the 3 rows of seats in front of you and then still plenty of trunk space behind them.
Key information
- Car type: MPV/Minivan
- Make: Volkswagen
- Folded seats boot length (cm): 225 (might need to remove the rear seats to achieve that, otherwise still a good 190cm)
- Boot openning height (cm): 126
- Boot width (cm): 155 (2nd row doors) / 117 (trunk)
- avg MPG (US): 31.6
- avg l/100km consumption: 7.4
- EURO NCAP safety rating (2015) 4/5
- ADAC Rating (lower = better) 2.3/5
Caddy NimbleCamper rating: 3.7/5
Caddy PROs
- big above head storage on top of other standard compartments
- it is very spacious – long and tall, easy to sit in even when converted to a camping car at the back – it’s the biggest small car you can find out there if you want size, but not a van
- flat boot door floor (loading area – easier to put a camping box / boot jump in and out)
- easy to maintain, no expensive or hard to get parts
- Volkswagen quality standard & reliability
- good price on models up to 10 years old (they still drive very well at an affordable price + will last for years to come)
- sliding middle doors
- middle seats can be lifted up or removed
- you can fold the middle row of seats and keep the rear ones up – and put your feet up (or use the middle row as a table)
Caddy CONs
- more van-like – lower interior comfort
- louder at higher speeds
- not a 4×4 – ok for some off-road, but not too much
- 3rd row rear seats have to be removed, can’t be folded like in a 7 seater Sharan. On the plus side – the car is so long you might not need to remove them as there’s additional storage space behind the 3rd row of seats
Can you sleep in a VW Caddy?
You bet you can! The Caddy is big and tall and long… and a great (if not the best) candidate for a camping conversion.
The VW Caddy Maxi Life is a very good car for car camping – it’s the second most spacious MPV out there, only beaten in size by the Chrysler Grand Voyager (which scores lower on all other fronts). Its level of comfort is lower compared to a VW Sharan (f.e. no armrest for the driver – although the Comfortline version does have it), but the rest is very similar – like mileage and maintenance costs. It’s also well priced – especially 5-10 years old models that were well kept – to be found at 10,000 – 14,000 GBP. It’s not an offroad car so don’t expect a thrilling offroad ride, yet still, you can take it down a not too steep/rough dirt track or through a meadow.
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Well... this is the end! But not to worry, more coming soon ;)
Well... this is the end! But not to worry, more coming soon ;)
