The Caddy Maxi Life has attractive fuel economy claims regardless of whether you go for a petrol or diesel model, with official figures ranging from 45.6mpg to 60.1mpg. On paper the lower-powered diesel is the most efficient model, especially when equipped with the standard manual gearbox; in practice you may find you have to work this engine harder than the others, denting its advantage.

Volkswagen can be quite pricey for servicing and maintenance charges, but makes up for this – and its higher asking prices – by suffering lower depreciation than most mainstream brands.

It’s a limited engine range but a relatively clean one, with CO2 emissions from 124 to 138g/km. Every engine fully complies with the latest Euro 6 emissions regulations, which means NOx emissions are also well controlled.

One of the advantages of being based on a van, and the therefore well-proven rather than cutting edge technology, is that reliability should be high, and most existing issues should have already been resolved. Van operators do not like being off the road. The new Caddy Maxi Life is fundamentally similar to the model it replaces, and this was certainly not an especially troublesome model.