philrich99
- Messages
- 36
- Location
- New Forest
We’re now into our 3rd month of ownership and have clocked up over 3000 miles mainly due to our grand tour of Scotland which took about 3 weeks altogether. The California was certainly put through its paces and performed very well. The first night in Scotland was a bit scary though on the shores of Loch Lomond. We had to get up in the middle of the night to take down the drive-away awning which had partly collapsed in the driving wind and rain. We were a bit worried about the roof as well, but thought it might do more damage to lower it in such conditions. We had a Cali topper on which I think protected it from the worst of it.
We even met another member of the forum in an almost identical California on the ferry to Lewis (hi Jim!), we got parked up right behind it, so bit of a surprise for him too.
The only concern we have at the moment is how much longer the dial on the control panel is going to last. I see from other comments on the forum that they are liable to give up the ghost fairly frequently. I think we’ll need to get it sorted before our next big trip down to Greece.
We bought the van through Drive the Deal and collected it in early March. All seemed to be well until we discovered on the drive home that we didn’t have a reversing camera or sensors. We thought they were included in the “Travel Pack” which was part of the list of options we had included in the DtD order on the website. It turns out that the travel pack described in the July 2013 brochure and as used by DtD wasn’t correct and should be as described in the Jan 2014 brochure. We ordered the van in October & neither DtD nor the dealer told us of the brochure error, so we don’t know how we could have been expected to be aware of this. We ended up having to pay a local company £350 to fit a camera, which we are very happy with. We haven’t bothered with the sensors.
We had included a flashlight in the spec, which wasn’t in the van when we picked it up. The dealer, after saying that it probably been stolen at the docks, promised to order one but after a couple of reminders we finally received a Ring Cyba-lite Lightstar 275 (£30 on Amazon) in the post today, which seems to be a decent torch, but is it the one VW supply? For £60 we were expecting something a bit more integral to the van, & this one isn’t even magnetic. The internal windscreen blackout blind wasn’t included either; although the 2 side window screens were (we spent the first night away with a blanket as a makeshift screen!). The dealer insists it was there, so it looks like we’ll have to go direct to VW to try to get one.
Overall though, we’re chuffed to bits with Stan the Van and can’t wait for our next trip.
Phil & Myra
We even met another member of the forum in an almost identical California on the ferry to Lewis (hi Jim!), we got parked up right behind it, so bit of a surprise for him too.
The only concern we have at the moment is how much longer the dial on the control panel is going to last. I see from other comments on the forum that they are liable to give up the ghost fairly frequently. I think we’ll need to get it sorted before our next big trip down to Greece.
We bought the van through Drive the Deal and collected it in early March. All seemed to be well until we discovered on the drive home that we didn’t have a reversing camera or sensors. We thought they were included in the “Travel Pack” which was part of the list of options we had included in the DtD order on the website. It turns out that the travel pack described in the July 2013 brochure and as used by DtD wasn’t correct and should be as described in the Jan 2014 brochure. We ordered the van in October & neither DtD nor the dealer told us of the brochure error, so we don’t know how we could have been expected to be aware of this. We ended up having to pay a local company £350 to fit a camera, which we are very happy with. We haven’t bothered with the sensors.
We had included a flashlight in the spec, which wasn’t in the van when we picked it up. The dealer, after saying that it probably been stolen at the docks, promised to order one but after a couple of reminders we finally received a Ring Cyba-lite Lightstar 275 (£30 on Amazon) in the post today, which seems to be a decent torch, but is it the one VW supply? For £60 we were expecting something a bit more integral to the van, & this one isn’t even magnetic. The internal windscreen blackout blind wasn’t included either; although the 2 side window screens were (we spent the first night away with a blanket as a makeshift screen!). The dealer insists it was there, so it looks like we’ll have to go direct to VW to try to get one.
Overall though, we’re chuffed to bits with Stan the Van and can’t wait for our next trip.
Phil & Myra
