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What do you do if you are in the market for a pickup, but you don’t want something capable of launching a Saturn V from its bed? Face it, modern pickups have grown in size to the point of absurdity, where you could run down an entire herd of elk and not notice until you smell venison coming through the AC vents. They’re expensive, too; an F-150 can be optioned up to $68,000. If this price point and the ability to exceed your bag limit just during your drive to your favorite hunting grounds turns you off, you may want to instead search for a classic truck, something both smaller and less liable to make roadkill or fail the moose test.
It may be a stretch to call it a truck, or even a ute, but why not consider something like a VW Caddy? While the name may imply it’s no good for hauling anything more than a bedful of clubs around a golf resort, it nevertheless has a bed, which is all that matters to some “truck” owners—like people who buy the unibody-built Honda Ridgeline, which is really just a Honda Odyssey underneath. Either way, a VW Caddy makes some sense as either a work truck for a contractor on a tight budget or a lifestyle vehicle for either Jalopnik editors or residents of Austin, TX.
One such Caddy has popped up on Bring A Trailer, equipped with a VW 1.6 liter turbodiesel engine—one that predates the TDi designation, which excludes it from the recent Dieselgate fiasco. The vehicle being sold has under 87,000 miles, Rabbit GTi wheels, and a fiberglass camper shell, for when you decide to take it on a camping trip to Moab. While a front wheel drive truck-ute-whatever may not be ideal, especially if the bed has been filled drywall or sacks of potatoes, this Caddy looks to be in good enough condition to survive whatever life under its next owner throws at it.
