Good bye!
I'm nosy ...
What were your least loved aspects of owning and using a California ?
What new things are you looking to try out ?
Hi, sorry I missed your reply - only just logged backed in!
For us searching for campsites at a reasonable price with availability that wasn’t hours and hours to drive to and in a pleasant area was becoming a challenge. We often found that we weren’t enjoying many campsites either, too many kids and barking dogs, even midweek when we thought it would be quieter. Having enough space to be comfortable without having to take awnings, running costs were also adding up compared to how much use we were getting out of it. We considered a new van so we didn’t have the repair costs as much but the new van prices have just gone crazy and don’t seem worth it to us for what you get for your money, £70k for a new van is just obscene when you could have picked one up for £54k a few years ago. Many refer the Cali to a Swiss Army knife, which it is and when you use that thing so often it becomes difficult to use. The van was a shuffle all the time, which gets tedious and we were very minimal in our travels with the limited amount of stuff we took with us. It isn’t a 4 season van and using it in the winter was tricky, especially lack of insulation and waking up to the doors frozen shut, condensation build up, and constantly checking the weather for winds and heavy rain. Then there is the list of endless issues on both habitation and mechanical that they are prone to.
Out of the 5 Vw Transporter based camper vans/ motor homes (4 Autosleepers,) we have owned, the Cali has been the most awkward and complex to live with. Although it has been the best one we have had to drive. The camping experience was better in our other vans especially the VW Autosleeper Topaz (similar to a Club Joker) was probably the best one on a long wheel base high top with toilet/washroom and DSG.
We did pop to Wanderhome and looked at a Westfali Club Joker, lovely van, looked heavy especially towards the rear, £82000.00 ish, looked second hand but could of been new, vehicles at this place all look tired. They had a Cali Ocean 2017, roof had collapsed about half way, they also had a Cali beach, roof was all nice and taught, no surprises as to why…
They also had a Sven Hedin in the duck blue grey colour, not impressed. Looked drab and they have used the yellow cream plastics inside to cover panels, we had that type of covering in the Autosleepers and it doesn’t last, they discolour and crack near the fixings due to heat expansion etc…
The build quality seems to be poor on the Westfalias, apologies to those who own them, just our opinion, the pop top roofs look cheap, and the Cali roof looks far better quality and in a different league.
Went to see a Hymer Free S at Loudhams on the Mercedes, again build quality seemed poor, pop roof wobbled side to side when we entered vehicle, Cali roof much better. The rest of the build looked cheap, although it is the cheaper version of the Grand Canyon so no surprises there.
The new Cali Ocean is lovely, we looked at one a few weeks ago at JCT 600 in Hull. You cannot deny that these vehicles are lovely quality and by far the best on the market. I still feel VW haven’t addressed some of the ongoing issues that have plagued these vans since 20 years ago, it does feel to me that the chassis certainly needs an update, whether the new version will be better, or demand for the previous T6 may well increase. The T6 dash in the Ocean was my favourite, lovely quality and nicer than the the 6.1, although the digital dash is also very nice!
As mentioned above, the price of California has risen too much, but to be fair, so has all the other makes and models, so unfair to pick on VW, that said, they have a lot to answer for when reading how some owners on this forum have been treated / fobbed off, when trying to get warranty work completed…. I feel your pain.
We are going to rent Shepherds Huts and cottages for a while and have a break from vans and campsites.
Best regards and thank you for some of the nice comments.
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