Buying a California out of warranty

[Max-Felix]

Not being in the likely position to warranty the cost of one still within VW's three year warranty should I be worried?

Obviously, like any 'car' forum the topics centre around issues and problems rather than how reliable/faultless a vehicle is but the old Cali does seem to suffer some real QC issues as does the base vehicle. Having said that VW did very well in JD Power 2014 and seemed to come second only to the Ford and the Transit in the vans reliability indexes of recent years.

So, if you have bought one out of warranty or yours has finished it's VW three year cover have you taken out a third party warranty for your Cali?

If so what age is your van and what sort of cost was the warranty?

 

[Californiaman]

Mine is out of warranty and I'm not overly worried. Pick a cared for van, stick £1500 in the bank and go Cali van-ing!

 

[SlidePods]

I wouldn't worry about having no warranty on a California really. the roof system is no great black art to repair I should know lol. to be honest there isn't a great deal that is going to cost you a lot of money if it goes wrong and VW's are generally good quality so you shouldn't have to much major stuff to go wrong all at once (unless your unlucky)

My advice is......
Make sure clutch is okay and that it is engaging gears smoothly as the clutch and DMF are expencive to replace and known to fail.
Avoid older vans (pre late 2007) on the 130hp AXD and 174 AXE engine codes. These were notorious for manifolds failing (symptom - smelling exhaust gasses in cabin) and Water pump failing (symptom - bank balance £1250 lighter).

 

[greenfintry]

I bought used at 20 months old and at end of warranty took out a warranty wise policy.....£1000 for 3 years. £ months later the EGR failed and they paid up the £1000 for replacement part, so quite happy with that! Putting some funds aside is probably the statically smart thing to do, but I am quite happy to do both and aim to keep the van for many years as it is perfect for our current needs

 

[reserves]

Not being in the likely position to warranty the cost of one still within VW's three year warranty should I be worried?

Obviously, like any 'car' forum the topics centre around issues and problems rather than how reliable/faultless a vehicle is but the old Cali does seem to suffer some real QC issues as does the base vehicle. Having said that VW did very well in JD Power 2014 and seemed to come second only to the Ford and the Transit in the vans reliability indexes of recent years.

So, if you have bought one out of warranty or yours has finished it's VW three year cover have you taken out a third party warranty for your Cali?

If so what age is your van and what sort of cost was the warranty?

I wouldn't worry too much personally, as others have said, if you have £1000ish set aside it should see you ok.