With the new Multivan, Volkswagen is taking a surprising step by introducing an old-fashioned, self-contained passenger bus again. That actually makes the car an MPV, so we have to look for the predecessors of this car on two tracks.
As a car journalist you must be able to ‘interpret’ a car like no other, as it is called. So you have to be able to place it in the worldwide car range, especially in relation to direct predecessors and the competition. That was once dead simple, but in recent years, with all kinds of crossovers and other intermediate forms, it is no longer so easy.
With the new Volkswagen Multivan, however, we were really speechless this week. It seems so simple: there was already a Multivan, there is a new Multivan, done. However, that is by no means the case, because the Multivan has always been the luxury passenger car brother of the Transporter. The new Multivan appears to be on the MQB passenger car platform and, according to Volkswagen, will always remain a passenger bus. So there will be no Transporter with this carriage, claims Wolfsburg. If that promise is fulfilled, Volkswagen has developed a unique model especially for the rather small niche market of the passenger bus.
That in itself is unique, but in addition the new Multivan is referred to as ‘T7’ and thus fits into the chronology of the Transporter series. The car was also developed by Volkswagen’s commercial vehicle branch and, with its relatively narrow and high body, it actually looks like a van and not like an MPV.
All in all, the Multivan introduction raises more questions than it answers. When asked, Volkswagen itself does not know how to make the situation clearer than it is. However, the brand has taken remarkable steps before, so maybe we should just accept that the Germans see this as a smart strategy and probably know it better than we do.
Sharan
As a unique passenger bus, the new Multivan is both a successor to the Sharan and to previous editions of the passenger car version of the Transporter. Let’s start with the Sharan. That car appeared on the market in 1995, well after MPV pioneers Voyager and Espace and also after the quartet Peugeot 806, Citroën Evasion, Fiat Ulysse and Lancia Zeta. So Volkswagen first looked out of the woods and then came up with a fairly modern all-rounder for that time. The brand did not do this alone, because in addition to being a Seat, this car was also marketed as a Ford Galaxy. That is a nice bridge to the present, because in 2021 Ford and Volkswagen again have a warm relationship. Even when it comes to company cars, Besides. A remarkable feature of the Sharan, Alhambra and Galaxy was that the cars did not have sliding doors, where most competitors did. The new Multivan does have them and is a real Transporter in that respect.
That collaboration with Ford continued throughout the first generation of the Sharan, even when a facelift of the three models significantly increased the difference between the three. The Sharan was allocated a second generation from 2010, but then Ford went its own way with the Galaxy/S-Max duo. The second Sharan is still in the showroom in Germany, among others, but died a quiet death with us a while ago. Logical, because that also applies to the large MPV as a genre.
Multivan
The history of the Multivan, as the (luxury) passenger version of the Volkswagen Transporter is called today, naturally goes back to the T1 and its legendary Samba variations. However, we are happy to take those cars with us again when Volkswagen finally comes up with the long-awaited retro bus. For now it is more relevant to start with the first Transporter with the engine in the nose: the T4. Volkswagen made the distinction early on between the panel van with the name ‘Transporter’, the simple passenger version under the same name (Transporter Kombi) and the more luxurious variant, which at the time of the T4, depending on the version, was also known as Caravelle. . However, the name Multivan was already used at that time. At the time of the T4, people also started to make a strong distinction between the Caravelle/Multivan and the normal Transporter, especially when the luxury variant got a VR6 engine in the mid-nineties. This forced the development of a longer and immediately more rounded nose, which would only appear on simpler Transporters later.
With every Transporter that followed, there was also a Multivan. Volkswagen more often followed the path it had taken before: the more luxurious and more expensive Multivan was the first to be renewed, followed at an appropriate distance by the Transporter. After the last update round, the Transporter is called the ‘6.1’, to indicate that it is the modified T6. Now there is also a T7, but according to Volkswagen, the Transporter will remain the T6.1 until further notice. We will see …
Outer dimensions
| data | Sharan 1996 | Sharan 2015 | Caravelle (T4) | Multivan T6.1 | Multivan T7 |
| Length | 4.62 m | 4.85 m | 4.71 m | 4.90 m | 4.97 m |
| Wheelbase | 2.84 m | 2.92 m | 2.92 m | 3.00 m | 3.12 m |
| Width | 1.81 m | 1.90 m | 1.84 m | 1.90 m | 1.94 m |
| Height | 1.73 m | 1.74 m | 1.94 m | 1.97 m | 1.90 m |
In a vain attempt to interpret the new Multivan, we have also placed it next to a few important predecessors when it comes to dimensions. The new car is bigger than both generations of the Sharan in every way. It’s even wider and longer than the Multivans that came before it and surpasses them in wheelbase as well. Only the height lags a bit behind these ‘real’ buses. Incidentally, all three models from the T-series are also available in a long version. With the T5 it was 5.11 meters long, with the T6.1 5.30 and with the T7 … 5.17. So even shorter.