German auto giant Volkswagen said on Thursday it is recalling nearly 600,000 Caddy vans worldwide owing to a tailgate problem. The recall affects 589,000 small delivery vans built between November 2003 and January 2013, including 284,000 in Germany, VW said in a statement. The problem can cause an open tailgate to snap shut. The news comes just three months after Volkswagen had to recall more than 2.6 million cars, about a third of them in China, to fix various problems, including faults with its headlights on the Tiguan and engine problems in the Amarok models.