Remember the days before the Nissan Qashqai transformed the gas-guzzling SUV into something socially acceptable? Back then, families who needed more space and practicality than a hatchback, and for whom an estate car was not enough, bought people carriers.
In fairness, some of them weren’t bad. The Ford C-Max drove like a tall Focus; the Volkswagen Touran was very roomy; sitting in a Citroen C4 Picasso felt like being in a spaceship. But most of them shared the same compromises, such as a van-like driving position, soggy handling and, worst of all, a ‘tank of mum and dad’ image.
When SUVs came along, people could trade some but not all of the practicality boost for an even higher-set and confident driving position, rugged-feeling suspension and a far cooler image. It was a winning trade. Remember the Volkswagen Tiguan TV ad?
People abandoned MPVs in their droves. So much so, car manufacturers stopped launching new ones. Some MPVs even morphed into SUVs – see how the Peugeot 3008 transformed between generations. Renault proclaimed when launching the latest Scenic that it was a ‘make or break’ MPV. It looks broke.
This is notable, for it was Renault that invented the family MPV sector in the mid-1990s. Two decades later, it’s almost entirely faded away, with SUVs taking their place. So what should the MPV owner who wants the most practical, space-efficient car possible, but who doesn’t want to do the automotive equivalent of move into a smaller but more expensive house, buy instead?
Enter the salvation of the MPV sector: the van-based people carrier.
Living in a box
They’ve been around as long as the MPV itself, ever since Citroen put windows and seats in a Berlingo van and created the Multispace, the true ‘multi purpose vehicle’. For years, this was a bit of a French secret, the sort of thing the offspring of 2CV evangelists now drove. Cheap, tough, comfortable and enormously practical, the Berlingo Multispace was a revelation, sold by the bucketload and inspired multiple rivals.
We Brits have always been a bit sniffy about such things. Hey, we would much rather have bigger alloy wheels than better ride comfort. The thought of swapping a Volkswagen Tiguan for a Volkswagen Caddy Life is the automotive equivalent of wearing jeans to a cocktail party.
But for those who don’t care about snobbery, they are exceptional. They are big and square, so interior space is mammoth. The latest generation of vans are virtually as sophisticated as cars; add in car-like comforts and there’s little compromise in terms of interior ambience. They feel unbreakable and somehow give you that van driver’s confidence, which is always worth an inch in any battle over road space.
Sliding doors in the rear are super-flexible, all three rear seats are genuinely cavernous, and the seven-seater ones are actually usable for seven people, too. As for boot space – again, it’s van-like. SUV boots seem piffling by comparison.
How do I know this? Because I’ve spent the past week testing a Volkswagen Caddy Life. The review will be coming soon, but let me tell you, if it was up to the family, it would be getting six stars. They thought it was absolutely brilliant.
Caddy daycare
For friendly family jaunts, it’s magic. Better than any true MPV ever was. This is all thanks to the SUV: people never really wanted to buy MPVs anyway. The SUV is something they do actually desire, and are buying by the bucketload.
And those who simply need the space, or don’t give two hoots for the style snobs, now have something even more perfect for their needs than ever before.
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