SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.
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Pics by Motorpress
Posted: May 8, 2021
The numbers
Price: R1 166 600
Engine: 1968 cc, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 146 kW between 3800 and 4000 rpm
Torque: 450 Nm between 1400 and 2400 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 10.3 seconds
Maximum speed: 198 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 10.3 l/100 km
Tank: 80 litres
Payload: 885 kg
Maximum towing capacity, unbraked / braked: 750 / 2500 kg
Ground clearance: 178 mm
Turning circle: 11.9 metres
Fit into garage? 5006 x 1904 x 1950 mm
Standard tyres: 235/55R17 Bridgestone Turanza ER300
Spare: Full size, on alloy rim
Warranty: 3 years / 120 000 km
Maintenance: 5 years / 60 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals
This vehicle is not for everyone. It looks and feels as big as a double-storey maisonette although it’s actually 350 mm shorter than a dual-cab Ford Ranger and 298 mm less long than an eight-seat Transporter crew bus; just not your usual, daily school run, seven-seat family car.
Volkswagen bills its new Transporter range, of which this is one of a pair of luxury versions, as Generation 6.1. That’s because it’s a minor facelift of Gen-6 with a gentle body stretch, plus-102 mm in this instance, and some new kit.
Such as:
• Trailer Assist, a trailer manoeuvring system that guides newbies through the minefield of steering left, in order to nudge the trailer right, when reversing,
• Parking assistance and park distance control,
• Radar based side protection that utilises ten sensors (five at each end) to warn you when getting too close to walls, plants and whatever else. It’s also the “eyes” of the parking assistant and for blind spot monitoring,
• Crosswind Assistance that counter-steers on your behalf when crossing high, open bridges with gales howling down the valley or when twenty-wheelers try to blow you off the highway (just examples),
• Discover Pro entertainment and navigation system with 9.2-inch touchscreen, wired and wireless App-Connect and USB (iPod, iPad and iPhone capable),
• Comfort mobile phone interface with inductive charging feature and
• Digital cockpit with choice of virtual instrument displays.
Appearance-wise we find restyled headlights and a deeper grille, with chromed cross bars, flowing into a redesigned bumper while the rear end remains essentially the same. Six new wheel styles, half a dozen new colours and seven two-tone colour combinations round off the exterior updates. The cockpit features a reworked gearshift tower, new vents and new instruments.
Not that anyone pays attention to such boring details, the two-litre diesel was upgraded, adding 14 kilowatts of power and 50 Nm of torque, to trim a full second off the zero to 100 km/h sprint time and add 7 km/h to its top speed.
The luxury sub-range has been reduced from five; three Caravelles and two California models, to just one of each - California Coast and Caravelle Highline – both with 4Motion all-wheel drive and seven-speed DSG transmission.
Setting Caravelle apart from mere family busses, although there’s nothing to stop anyone buying one for domestic use, are certain interior appointments. Full Nappa leather upholstery, electrical adjusters for both front chairs, four sets of ISOfix mountings with top tethers, almost endless fore-and-aft adjustments for second and third row seats and “conference” facilities with reversible second row chairs and refreshment stand, move this vehicle into the realm of mobile business lounge, luxury tour bus or…
What does one do with all those baby chair anchors? A really upmarket nursery shuttle with seating for a ride-along nanny or two, or the last resort for families with wee quads, perhaps? It’s priced fairly closely to Brand M’s V-Class and similarly equipped, although that one has a bigger “picnic” table. But the VW offers six tiedown rings for securing odd loads.
Sort-of speaking of which; third row seats, that slide through a really long range, don’t lend themselves to accommodating a conventional cargo cover, so VW added three compartments with clip-off lids beneath the common seat cushion. “Your Leica cameras and binoculars shall remain safely concealed, Geehrte Damen und Herren.”
To sidestep shooting myself in the foot with the tour bus suggestion, I tried the Caravelle along a dirt road of the severity one might find in a typical, upmarket game reserve. It behaved impeccably. Of course.
So: Mobile business lounge, luxury tour bus or (tongue in cheek) the ultimate baby carrier? VW’s Caravelle could be one or all of these. The buyers are out there. I just haven’t identified them all yet.
Test unit from VWSA press fleet
We drove the T6.0 version in 2016
This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.
I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.
If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8