Day out to Hereford

Keith Smith · Mar 29, 2016

After months of agonising about which camper to buy we have just returned from Herefeford the proud owners of a new silver T6 Ocean 150 DSG. The weather was dismal driving home but I couldn't get the smile off my face; not sure if it was the auto wipers, integrated hands free (VW called me twice on the journey home to say that lowering springs are now available for the T6 Ocean from their central parts dept) or the DSG gearbox!

I am very grateful to everyone on the forum for their help and advice, and I may have a few questions of my own on the future. Despite the fact Lewis at South Hereford VW spent over 2 hours going through all the controls, I feel I still have a lot to learn. If anyone else is looking for a Cali I couldn't recommend Lewis and SHVW highly enough, they have been great, somewhat unbelievably we only decided to get a Cali a week ago, and now it is parked on the drive with a personal plate and Easter got in the way too!

calikev · Mar 29, 2016

Welcome Keith. Now that's what I call quick work :thumb

Hotel California · Mar 29, 2016

Nice to hear ,
Welcome!

SimonB · Mar 29, 2016

We got our Cali from there last October. Really helpful people who know their stuff. Lewis was excellent and helped me put the bellows bungee on.
I've had a couple of small issues and the after service was equally as good.

Can't recommend them highly enough and having read other people's experiences, I consider we were very fortunate to have gone there.

Nick S · Mar 29, 2016

SimonB said:
We got our Cali from there last October. Really helpful people who know their stuff. Lewis was excellent and helped me put the bellows bungee on.
I've had a couple of small issues and the after service was equally as good.

Can't recommend them highly enough and having read other people's experiences, I consider we were very fortunate to have gone there.

Fully agree Simon. We got ours from South Herford on 1st March and they were first class from the beginning. Couple of minor problems like you sorted out with courtesy and speed.

Welcome to the forum Keith I am sure we are in for a very enjoyable experience. My drive home was accompanied with a smile as big as yours.
We are looking forward to our first night away at the Tewkesbury meet.

GrannyJen · Mar 29, 2016

A lot of people have rated that dealer and how nice it is to read a glowing report instead of the more usual dismal litany of "it's only got three wheels"..... "Really? The other one must be an optional extra"...

Great. Fabulous and wonderful you are on the road and with that cali smile.

WelshGas · Mar 29, 2016

Welcome. Couldn't agree more, SHVW are * * * * *.

5 Stars.

phillme · Mar 29, 2016

Welshgas ... i hope you are saying they are 5 stars !

Maud · Mar 29, 2016

Hi Keith, that's great news - welcome to the club!

It sounds like you had a great experience at South Hereford and have picked up a lovely spec Cali too, and without the months of waiting!

Just one thing (I'm sure this would have been covered in your handover) - have you checked that both front seats swivel as there has been some confusion regarding the 'comfort seats' on the T6 calis.

Once again, congratulations and enjoy your new toy!

Keith Smith · Mar 30, 2016

Thanks very much for the kind welcome; Maud, that was the first thing I checked, having read about the problem on the forum, when we went down to look at the vehicle last week.

Although the purchase went super fast we have been looking a while, last year we hired a conversion which we liked and which our border collie (Molly) liked too. Then we hired a Cali which Molly hated from the off, we had only gone a few hundred yards and she looked as sick as a well...dog! However we liked the Cali and it put us off the conversion. Then we thought we had bought another conversion, which we absolutely fell for, but then that fell through and I was just about to give up ( we even went as far as looking at a caravan) when I discovered this forum and read about other owners having problems with travel sick passengers, of the two and four leg kind, and the solution of fitting lowering springs.

However then we hit a snag, after we had agreed to buy the Cali I discovered that there were no lowering springs available for the T6 Ocean. The T6 has a front axle weight of 1610kg, the current springs are only rated to 1600kg and despite the small shortfall I was told by the service manager that fitting them would void my warranty and so, quite rightly, they would not fit them for me. Today they checked again and there were no springs listed as yet for the T6. So then on my way home today I got a call from VW head office saying the springs (which are rated at 1710kg) are now in stock. So I'm off to the dealer tomorrow to see if they can now find them on the system.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought others may want to know about lowering the new Ocean.

T6 CFO · Mar 30, 2016

Hi and welcome. Probably a good thing that you haven't got the lower springs from the off as it will give you more of a comparison when you do get them done. Will be interesting.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Trailertrash · Apr 2, 2016

Keith Smith said:
After months of agonising about which camper to buy we have just returned from Herefeford the proud owners of a new silver T6 Ocean 150 DSG. The weather was dismal driving home but I couldn't get the smile off my face; not sure if it was the auto wipers, integrated hands free (VW called me twice on the journey home to say that lowering springs are now available for the T6 Ocean from their central parts dept) or the DSG gearbox!

I am very grateful to everyone on the forum for their help and advice, and I may have a few questions of my own on the future. Despite the fact Lewis at South Hereford VW spent over 2 hours going through all the controls, I feel I still have a lot to learn. If anyone else is looking for a Cali I couldn't recommend Lewis and SHVW highly enough, they have been great, somewhat unbelievably we only decided to get a Cali a week ago, and now it is parked on the drive with a personal plate and Easter got in the way too!

Strangely enough I bought my T5 from Lewis two weeks ago. Hope you are as happy. The handover is excellent. If you have any issues he will always get back to you and they have the answers. happy travelling.