A name used by Ferrari and AMG, now comes to…Volkswagen.

If a Kombi or Caravelle is too big for your garage or parking space, the Caddy has always been VW’s smaller, but capable, alternative.

For those families who like the idea of a proper minivan, instead of a crossover, the Caddy is a vehicle without many rivals. VW realises that crossovers are popular and to ensure its van customers remain loyal, it has developed a trickvariant of the new Caddy, that looks – you guessed it – more like a crossover.

The grandly named Caddy PanAmericana is effectively the replacement ofVW’s AllTrack. It follows the same showy design principles with LED lights, roof rails and bit-tone 17-inch alloys that definitely don’t want to see gravel road use.

Strangely, VW has added colour coded plastic cladding to the bumpers, wheel arches and sills. Theoretically, that could lessen stone ship damage and make it better for gravel road use.

Cabin architecture and design upgrades include pinstripe seat covers, metal pedals and PanAmericana badges. Instrumentation is digitized and you interface with the infotainment system via a 10-inch touchscreen.

Powertrains? The familiar 1.5-litre turbopetrol and 2-litre turbodiesels offerings. With the petrol you only get front-wheel-drive and a six-speed manual transmission.

The 2-litre turbodiesel sends torque to all four wheels, via VW’s 4Motion system and uses the proven 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.

As with any van, even a small one, loadability is a big thing. VW says you can load 525kg in the Caddy PanAmericana and it is rated to tow 1.5t.

There you have it. A stylized new range-topping variant of the VW Caddy van, named after an AMG grille. We are sure, Mercedes-Benz doesn’t mind.

The new Volkswagen Caddy is expected to arrive in South Africa in the third quarter of 2021.

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