California Price Guides

[marshian70]

Hi All
Been looking at VW Campers for months and think I've decided that a genuine Cali is the best approach for long term costs due to strong residuals.
Problem is it means buying one costs a great deal of money! Does anyone know of any free price guides on the net just to get an idea of how much one should be paying based on age, mileage etc.?
Many thanks

 

[snowy55]

I don't know of any such guide, all you can do is trawl Auto Trader, Ebay etc but be careful because there are lots of scammers and converted vans dressed as Californias.

Safest place to buy is a Vw dealership, but of course this entails huge sums of money!

Good luck with your search

 

[Martin]

What ever you do, do not take any notice of Parkers and Glass's as they are totally inaccurate for the Cali. The best thing to do is compare with what is already out there on Auto Trader and on here, we also keep sold vehicles on the website for a short while so you can see prices of what has sold.

If in doubt, post a message on the forum with the spec and price of the one you are interested in.

-

 

[reserves]

As Martin said, post what you are looking for here.

There was also a post a while back suggested how to value a Cali, have a search for valuing your Cali

 

[2into1]

I wrote this post http://www.vwcaliforniaclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8438 a few months back. It may or may not be the one referred to above.

It may be a load of rubbish but I tried it against most of the Cali's coming up for sale at that time (going into winter....they are on the up now) and it worked very well - at least for those that were selling rather than those which have stuck.

There were a few 'knockers' inevitably but they've yet to come up with anything better.

 

[marshian70]

Thank-you T4WFA. Very useful and interesting

 

[reserves]

What spec / year are you after roughly?

 

[marshian70]

Reserves
Budget is max £30k, so trying to work out what I can reasonably get for that. Looks like a pre facelift, around 2008/9. Must be a Cali SE with air con and decent mileage.
Cheers

 

[reserves]

From having researched for a while for £30k you're right in thinking it'll be pre facelift. A post facelift 2010 could be obtained for about £34 upwards at the end of the last summer.

My advice would be to buy sooner rather than later as spring it gets busy! Even better if you can wait till the end of the summer, but then you miss the whole summer so pointless.

The lowest I've seen Cali's at is £25/26k around 2005/06.

In my opinion it's about waiting for a 'nice' one, there's not a lot of choice around those years and arguably a well maintained, well spec'd low mileage 2007 could be considered to be better than a 2009.

Do bear in mind that anything over 6 years old will not have the roof issue covered under warranty, if you don't know what this is then do a search for Roof Corrosion (sounds worse than it is). That's probably going to be a big factor.

Best of luck with your search!

 

[marshian70]

Cheers Reserves
At the risk of turning this into a totally different thread, what it your view on genuine Cali at £25-£30k vs a decent conversion on a newer van?

 

[reserves]

Cheers Reserves
At the risk of turning this into a totally different thread, what it your view on genuine Cali at £25-£30k vs a decent conversion on a newer van?

Don't know much about conversions, however I'd say California every time.

If you're buying at the prices you're talking you're not going to lose much in depreciation, 2003 T4's still sell for over £20k. Conversions will have much greater depreciation.

There are a lot of threads on here about conversions vs California's, but mostly the consensus is California, though it is a California forum!

 

[Kirk]

If you buy a conversion you will be back on here looking for a Cali in less than a year, I promise you this as I have done the same and lost £7k in the process

Conversions have massive depreciation unless you buy one of the big name converters, even then you will still lose loads.

As mentioned above, buy soon as prices will be on the rise again in a few months.

Good luck

 

[AlanC]

Don't rule out an ex hire Cali.

These are high mileage by private owner standards (30K is not unusual after 2 years although low for the VW T5) but are always regularly serviced and looked after. Usually moved on after 2 or 3 years. Your own private mileage will probably be lower, so after 3 years or so it may well be about par for the year.

You could well get a Face Lift van for around 30K at the moment. These need to be sold to fund the new Cali orders due anytime now, so deals can be had.

Our ex hire is probably the highest private 5.1 on the forum at 74K now, admittedly unusually high but partly due to our extended holiday last year. Has only affected the resale value and not our pleasure, and as we don't intend to sell on for around 10 years who cares? We don't!

Alan

 

[marshian70]

thanks alan

 

[Fryers!]

Nice 2009 cali for sale on the forum, good spec, just a touch over £30k
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=8515&p=75638#p75638

 

[marshian70]

I wrote this post http://www.vwcaliforniaclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8438 a few months back. It may or may not be the one referred to above.

It may be a load of rubbish but I tried it against most of the Cali's coming up for sale at that time (going into winter....they are on the up now) and it worked very well - at least for those that were selling rather than those which have stuck.

There were a few 'knockers' inevitably but they've yet to come up with anything better.

Hi T4WFA what would you reckon for a 2010 facelift Cali 140hp with 69k miles, good spec incl sat nav, lane assist, parking sensors etc?
Cheers
Marshian

 

[motacyclist]

Ours is going in against a "new" (pre reg with 15 miles on it) one in the next week. If you wanted ours for £30k we would be getting a little more than the dealer has offered.

It's a 2010 facelift 140SE in silver with 28k miles, FSH in excellent condition; just serviced last November; nearly new tyres etc. Dealer said he "would normally send a van as old as ours out to the trade, but ours is a really nice one so he would take it into stock". (his words)

For info on prices, our "new" one (180 DSG 4motion) is discounted to £50k from £57k. Dealer would only offer £2k discount off an unregistered one which had just arrived.

After reading about the DSG lag on here I'm now having reservations about the auto option!

Good luck in your search.

Colin

 

[marshian70]

Colin yes very interested. Can I have your contact details?

 

[marshian70]

Ours is going in against a "new" (pre reg with 15 miles on it) one in the next week. If you wanted ours for £30k we would be getting a little more than the dealer has offered.

It's a 2010 facelift 140SE in silver with 28k miles, FSH in excellent condition; just serviced last November; nearly new tyres etc. Dealer said he "would normally send a van as old as ours out to the trade, but ours is a really nice one so he would take it into stock". (his words)

For info on prices, our "new" one (180 DSG 4motion) is discounted to £50k from £57k. Dealer would only offer £2k discount off an unregistered one which had just arrived.

After reading about the DSG lag on here I'm now having reservations about the auto option!

Good luck in your search.

Yes very interested if I could have your contact details?

Colin

 

[motacyclist]

Hi Marshian

Please PM for my telephone no.

Colin

 

[marshian70]

Done, thanks

 

[motacyclist]

To Kirk, who sent me a PM on here, unfortunately I can't read it as I'm not authorised to read my own private emails apparently .....

Colin

 

[Kirk]

argh, you are not a vip, that's possibly why

 

[motacyclist]

I did post my email address but I see it's now been removed ... must be against the forum rules I guess.

Colin

 

[Kirk]

Do you have a number ?