Faults:

While driving in the city of Brisbane making deliveries in it, the clutch completely gave way, going straight to the floor, making the car undrivable. This has happened at just approx. 13,500 km. There was no warning that anything was wrong with the clutch, as one would normally expect. The car had to be subsequently driven to a safer spot - approx 400 metres, and a strong burning smell was at this point noted, but not when the clutch went initially to the floor in the first place.

Upon examination, the clutch was shown to have extensive damage. However, there would surely have been some signs during normal driving that something was wrong with the clutch with this damage. It is the opinion of our mechanic, who examined the clutch independently, that this damage occurred during the 400 metres or so that the vehicle had to be driven to get it to a safer spot. VW Australia and the (QLD) dealership from which we bought it are stonewalling the issue, being extremely arrogant and unhelpful, and only keen to blame us - NO clutch riding took place with the 2 drivers who were driving it. Both drivers have no history whatsoever of clutch riding in their very long driving histories, but this is all VW is saying, placing full blame on us. We have lost income - milk was lost when the vehicle broke down - and deliveries could not be made for a week afterwards, until VW finally decided that we were in fact eligible for a courtesy vehicle - for 5 days.

Also, VW went against its own Customer Charter by refusing to tow the Caddy to our dealership of choice, instead insisting it had to go to the nearest dealership, leaving the driver to fend for himself many miles from home and with milk on board. No recompense is being offered.

General Comments:

Otherwise seemed to be going well.

Faults:

40000km. Driver's door handle is broken. It has so far taken VW 4 weeks to get a handle in from overseas, and I'm still waiting.

Transmission is on its way out, and has been since 20000km. VW assure me every service that it is fine and no fault codes are coming up, but first and second gear are impossible to get into at times, and even with the clutch in, it grinds its own gears.

Other Caddys in our fleet have had their boxes changed under warranty due to faults with them.

The visibility is poor as it is a panel van, and there is no option to put windows in unless you purchase the passenger model.

I found the build quality of the wheels disappointing; they are soft and bend easily, especially if you accidentally run over a Kangaroo; it bent 2 mags. I expect better from a commercial van. They should be tougher. On a similar note, parts aren't cheap; a new bumper, headlight and front guard was $2500.00!

The front doors don't seal properly; there is a lot of wind noise when you are traveling over 100KPH. You can hear the air leaking in through the door seals, but road noise in general is OK.

General Comments:

As a compact van goes, there isn't much choice in Australia. The only other is the Holden Combo, and that looks dated.

The Caddy has been the choice in our company for 7 years. We chose these as they are practical to work out of on a day to day basis.

They haven't come without their faults though. We never keep them past their warranty periods.

If another manufacturer brings a compact van to the market, we will seriously look into it.

The ride is OK, but it's no Audi A4 (which is my personal car). It's to be expected with a commercial vehicle. The seats are rather uncomfortable (I have no idea who designed them, but they need to go back to tech design); there is no lumbar support adjustment (it's fixed) and it seems to be fixed for someone who is over 7 foot tall (I'm 6 foot and it does nothing for my back).

Don't expect luxury with the Caddy. OK, you do have keyless entry, electric windows and dual zone climate air (which I find great in the Audi but pointless in a 2 seated van), but that's where it stops for luxury.

The dashboard is a sea of grey scratchy plastics; you could file dead skin off the soles of your feet.

Cruise control is an option, so is a remotely decent stereo.

Storage is OK. I would prefer a glove box that actually has a lid rather than a gaping hole in the front of the dash. Cup holders are a plenty, with 6 in total. That's 5 more than an Audi A4.