I’m a happy little camper
THE obvious first question you must ask when buying a car is: what do I need it for? If the answer to that question is: ‘‘I need it to turn into a tent so I can live outdoors all summer’’, then you need look no further than the Volkswagen Caddy Beach.
Based on the Caddy van, it is a minicamper that comes with a comfortable double bed, a table and chairs, and a tent attachment that clips to the back of the car to protect you from wind and rain. That’s the theory anyway.
The week I drove it started out well, but I hadn’t got time to take a day off. By the time I actually did have a day to spare, the weather had turned beyond inclement. Attaching the tent very likely would have facilitated take-off, with a watery touchdown in the Irish Sea.
It was a shame, because I really was looking forward to it, especially since the car comes with ingenious storage pouches, air vents that allow you sleep in safety overnight, and curtains for the windows to maintain privacy.
It also packs a fair bit of poke for something that looks, from the rear anyway, not unlike an American hearse.
It comes with a 2.0-litre diesel engine that delivers 150hp, and that’s more than enough to make it feel more lively and engaging than you have any reason to predict.
Nor does it feel clunky to drive. It’s not lithe but it’s not dull either, and I had a lot of fun in it.
Because of the bed in the back, though, it is a two-seater, so ironically it’s not suitable for those who might like it most, namely families that actually want to spend time on the beach.
The VW California camper is much more suitable for families but also not far off twice the price. The Caddy Beach costs €40,660, but with optional extras, my test car checked in at €48,004. That’s a lot of money for what effectively is a toy, but it nevertheless would be a lot better as an option for Electric Picnic than a tent alone.
You can remove the bed, incidentally, but it looked a bit fiddly to me. Standard spec on my test car included 16-inch alloy wheels, rear park distance control, rear tinted windows, climatronic air conditioning, hill hold control, cruise control, magnetic torches and the folding mattress.
The extras included bigger 17-inch wheels, Bi-Xenon LED daytime running headlamps, navigation system, roof rails, heated seats, and app connect. Like I say, it’s definitely a frivolous buy, but I really liked it.
A week later, I was driving an altogether more practical Volkswagen, this time the 1.6-litre 115hp Golf TDI Estate in Highline trim, which somehow achieves the almost impossible: it’s as good to drive as its standard hatchback sibling.
The estate feels perfectly balanced, and can be pushed into corners just as aggressively as the hatch. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that of all the estates I’ve driven in the past year, it’s the one in which you’re most likely to for- get you’re driving an estate at all.
It also has a brilliant eight-inch infotainment touchscreen with a display clarity far better than what you find in many rival cars. It really is beautiful, and very easy to use, with minimal distraction from the road. I was surprised to find the car came with a five-speed manual transmission, and I never quite got the hang of the ratios. Sixspeed really should be standard.
The car feels roomy, with good leg and headroom for the rear seat passengers and a sizeable boot.
Standard spec here includes front foglights and cornering lamp, front sports seats, adaptive cruise control, automatic headlamp activation, heated folding door mirrors, LED daytime running lights, dualzone climate control, sports suspension, driver fatigue detection, electronic stability programme, park distance control front and rear, and anodised silver roof rails. My test car also had a few extras – the satnav, high-beam assist, rear-view camera, metallic paint and 18-inch wheels, and the total price was €33,408. I’d have one in a heartbeat.
All in all, I enjoyed the two Volkswagens. Clearly, the estate is by far the more practical, and the Caddy Beach the sort of car you’d like to hire or borrow for a road trip rather than buy. That said, if you were a retired couple and you had the time to just up sticks when the sun shone and head off to the West, it would make an awful lot of sense. Certainly, that was one day when it was raining and I went to the beach anyway, stretched out on the bed and read a book for an hour. The feeling of being detached from the world was wonderful. It’s very easy to see the appeal.