You wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at it, but the new Volkswagen Transporter cargo van (also available as the Caravelle people carrier) shares its underpinnings with the Ford Transit.

The VW Transporter has been in production for more than 70 years, as its bloodline can be traced back to the original rear-engine split-window ‘Kombi’ launched in 1950. So, during those seven decades, ...