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Advice- Grand California

M

mbenne

Messages
38
Location
Midlands
Vehicle
T6 Ocean 150
Have had a Cali Ocean for a couple of years and seeing a GC in Cornwall recently I've been toying with the idea of upgrading, though I've not discussed it with the other half!. However, this seems to be going against the grain of why we went for the Ocean in the first place i.e. my wife is only just accepting that it drives like a car, it's not taking up much room on the driveway and is accessible to car general car parks. It would seem as though we were venturing into the realms of a motorhome which we were both against in the first place. INMO I wouldn't have an issue driving it but my wife might. On the other side of the coin my Son a Daughter in Law both use our van for summer holidays but as far as I'm aware their existing licences wouldn't be permitted to drive it, unless they took a retest?


Is this something we should be considering?
 
I think from a licence point of view, you'd be fine with a 600, but the 680 is over 3.5tonne and requires C1 on the licence.
 
Have had a Cali Ocean for a couple of years and seeing a GC in Cornwall recently I've been toying with the idea of upgrading, though I've not discussed it with the other half!. However, this seems to be going against the grain of why we went for the Ocean in the first place i.e. my wife is only just accepting that it drives like a car, it's not taking up much room on the driveway and is accessible to car general car parks. It would seem as though we were venturing into the realms of a motorhome which we were both against in the first place. INMO I wouldn't have an issue driving it but my wife might. On the other side of the coin my Son a Daughter in Law both use our van for summer holidays but as far as I'm aware their existing licences wouldn't be permitted to drive it, unless they took a retest?


Is this something we should be considering?
As @Sad has said you can get the 600 in the 3.5t version which is fine for normal licences.
The 680 is a definite no due to it being 3.8t and therefore you need a C1 licence. Anyone who passed there test before Jan 1997 have the C1 as standard, after that date you have to take an additional test.

You can get the 600 rated to 3.8t so Watch out for that.
 
We have two GC 600 on our fleet. Why not rent one and see if it suits?
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Sad
Which GC would you go for? We have a 600 and that is under 3.5tnnes so can be driven on a normal licence.

We changed from a T6.1 Ocean so can do a quick comparison.

Driving wise it’s not a lot different to an ocean, slightly slower & drinks more, happy to sit in the outside lane of the motorway at 90 if that’s your style.

Width is only slightly more than an ocean but with much better mirrors- you can see the rear tyres in the lower mirrors which makes getting close to kerbs without hitting them easy, it shrinks round you & after a few miles it doesn’t feel wide. A high mounted reversing camera means you get a birds eye view of the back end when manoeuvring.

At 6m ours is not much longer than a typical supermarket bay & I don’t hesitate to go into carparks unlike when we had a 8m motor home.

Having said all that, although it is small in motorhome terms it looks massive sitting on the drive at home mainly because of the height.

Noise wise when driving it’s pretty quiet except for persistent squeaks from the rear cupboards when going over bumps.

Seating in the front is better than an ocean with a lot more leg room, seat height adjustment and lumber support that goes up and down as well as in and out.

Sleeping wise even a 600 has a much wider bed than the ocean & a major difference we found is how much quieter a hard roof is at night especially when it’s windy or raining.

Downsides:
Rear seating is awful
Rear aircon/ heating is none existent
No opening windows for rear passengers
No rear speakers

As a vehicle for two adults it works fine, for two + a stroppy teenager it’s challenging because of those downsides.

I would summarise in my view that a GC is a great camper that you could use occasionally for other stuff, an Ocean is a great all rounder that can be used for camping.
 
Which GC would you go for? We have a 600 and that is under 3.5tnnes so can be driven on a normal licence.

We changed from a T6.1 Ocean so can do a quick comparison.

Driving wise it’s not a lot different to an ocean, slightly slower & drinks more, happy to sit in the outside lane of the motorway at 90 if that’s your style.

Width is only slightly more than an ocean but with much better mirrors- you can see the rear tyres in the lower mirrors which makes getting close to kerbs without hitting them easy, it shrinks round you & after a few miles it doesn’t feel wide. A high mounted reversing camera means you get a birds eye view of the back end when manoeuvring.

At 6m ours is not much longer than a typical supermarket bay & I don’t hesitate to go into carparks unlike when we had a 8m motor home.

Having said all that, although it is small in motorhome terms it looks massive sitting on the drive at home mainly because of the height.

Noise wise when driving it’s pretty quiet except for persistent squeaks from the rear cupboards when going over bumps.

Seating in the front is better than an ocean with a lot more leg room, seat height adjustment and lumber support that goes up and down as well as in and out.

Sleeping wise even a 600 has a much wider bed than the ocean & a major difference we found is how much quieter a hard roof is at night especially when it’s windy or raining.

Downsides:
Rear seating is awful
Rear aircon/ heating is none existent
No opening windows for rear passengers
No rear speakers

As a vehicle for two adults it works fine, for two + a stroppy teenager it’s challenging because of those downsides.

I would summarise in my view that a GC is a great camper that you could use occasionally for other stuff, an Ocean is a great all rounder that can be used for camping.
Nicely unbiased round up.
 
Would agree with much of above although some items are definitely subjective.

This is my 4th motorhome and they all have rattles in different places, but once you pin them down it's quite as a mouse. In the GC my only rattle was the fly screen door, which once fixed makes the van very quiet imho.

Rear seat is quite hard but my daughter has zero issues with it and has never mentioned it.

Height to me is the major difference. A few times I've had to re-route in Europe because of low barriers and of course many car parks you can't get in to.

Once on major roads she's a real pleasure to drive :)
 
Hello,

We had a T6 Ocean for about 4 years. We drove about 40 000 km during these years. During this time we had 2x issues which were sorted by the VW dealer quickly and efficiently.

The reason for the change was that I started really to get problems sleeping downstairs and my wife started to get problems to climb up (old age caught up with us). There were a few other issues which than made us decide to get a bigger camper.

The idea to change started in June 2021, in a time that there were no campervans in Ireland available at all. And we all know delivery can take up to 18 months (depending on the manufacturer, model, and configuration).

We didn't like to wait that long and my wife came up with the idea to visit our VW dealer to see if they have a Grand California.
We went there and had a good look at the GC 600 (at the time there was only one 680 available in Ireland but with left hand drive, which I didn't want). But my wife much more preferred the GC600. It might be high, but not as long as the GC 680.

We quickly decided to get our GC 600 with standard configuration, but plus solar panel and LED lights. On the 07/07/2021 we already collected the camper.

We had significant technical problems (I put up many posts about this), but kept going and now we are very happy with the camper. Only a few weeks ago we came back from our trip through Europe which was brilliant.

@mbenne I think a change only makes sense when you feel ready for it. There are pros and cons for everything and of course the GC 600 has cons i.e. the height (which is a problem), the length is ok, but if possible I check the place where I want to go if it is ok for the GC. It is a big vehicle.

Have I said that, as mentioned before, it still drives wonderfully and I love to drive it on short errands or on long trips. Even after a year I still can't get my head around that where ever we go we have everything with us (bed, kitchen, shower, toilet), that is what my wife and I love with the GC. And yes we use everything the shower, toilet and kitchen. Sleeping is brilliant and so much more comfortable.

Driving license wise we have no problem, because it has 3.5 t, but with extras which my wife would like to add the 3.5 t might not be enough. To bring it to 3.88t would be better, but I don't fancy the restrictions that come with it.

The best might be to hire a GC for a few days and see how do you feel moving around in it, how the camping setup fits your needs and how practical it is for you and your family (parking, driving license).

Enjoy the decision finding journey.

Happy Grand California,
Eberhard
 
Hi
Just to add my ha’pennys worth. We have the 680 and love it. There is just the two of us and we are touring western France and northern Spain this summer. So far we have been away for 10 weeks with 6 more to go. We have used campsites, aires and wild camped over this time. The van is comfortable, easy to drive, great storage, an all round pleasure

We would definitely recommend
 
Would agree with much of above although some items are definitely subjective.

This is my 4th motorhome and they all have rattles in different places, but once you pin them down it's quite as a mouse. In the GC my only rattle was the fly screen door, which once fixed makes the van very quiet imho.

Rear seat is quite hard but my daughter has zero issues with it and has never mentioned it.

Height to me is the major difference. A few times I've had to re-route in Europe because of low barriers and of course many car parks you can't get in to.

Once on major roads she's a real pleasure to drive :)
Hi, just curious, how did you fix the fly screen rattle? It sounds like we have one too.
 
Hi, just curious, how did you fix the fly screen rattle? It sounds like we have one too.
Are you sure its not the toilet door rattling when you are underway. That’s a common sauce of rattling via the magnetic latch and keep.
 
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