The Volkswagen Sharan was a car I had been looking forward to driving for a while.
Having developed a growing affection for Volkswagen's other models over the last few years, the re-launch of their popular big family MPV was an event I awaited eagerly.
Delivered on the most wintry of days, I really thought my options for trying it all out would be limited, but luckily a sufficiently long gap in the atrocious snowy weather gave us the chance to go for a spin... 500 miles of it!
One thing the Sharan does well is eat up those motorway miles. The slow-revving 2-litre diesel and long-legged six speed gearbox makes very light work of cruising long distances. Combining this with the new stop-start technology around town, this big car goes an awfully long way on one tank of fuel, whilst at the same time carrying up to seven people around in comfort. Excellent features like the built-in child seats and the sliding side doors make even the getting in and out as effortless as the drive.
It's quite a soft ride, which is ideal for the sort of motoring it's built for and as a result smooths out most of the UK's unforgiving, potholed roads, making it all very relaxed. There's lots of boot space, even with the rear seats in place, making the ferrying around of hordes of kids a realistic proposition. Their backpacks, schoolwork, lunchboxes, and who knows what else are swallowed up with ease. Even with a folded up buggy dropped in there would be room for loads more clobber.
The cabin and controls are obviously very well thought out and the ergonomics are not far short of spot-on. The steering wheel control of the radio, CDs, MP3 player, iPod, telephone is all within thumb's reach and easily twiddled-with. I was very pleased to see that the system also simultaneously charges the phone/iPod while playing - a feature still sadly missing on some vehicles today.
Over the course of the few days I had the Sharan it took a fair bashing in terms of where and how it was driven and it made light work of some truly dreadful driving conditions. It was collected at the end of the week looking as though it had just completed the Paris - Dakar, but apart from the salt and road grime accumulated it was none the worse for its busy week.
When a car can take a pounding inside and out in the way the Sharan did this week, it is testament to the way it is designed - with the family, kids and normal day-to-day graft in mind. I was really impressed with the way Volkswagen have given an old favourite a revamp and kept the good old 'tough-as-old-boots' approach to their designs. This is a car that would make any hard-working large family grow to love it as each day went by. It is built to last and built to please!
Nigel Crawford
January 2011 | 
The Volvo C30
