Welcome anothercamper
I guess your asking the million Dollar question, why own a Cali vs an other vehicle, quite simply it is a personal choice for many owners, many of who have arrived a the choice of a Cali having owned many other camping vehicles.
I have owned a T5 caravelle, it was an excellent vehicle. I tried to sleep in it once, no comfort matress, no multiflex board, it was just me and Mrs P.
Without the multiflex board the bed isn’t a bed it’s a bench seat that reclines, the bench is not sufficiently long enough to lay out without your legs dangling off the end.
The lack of black out blinds was not a major problem as I used internal silver screens to black out the whole van, not ideal from space / storage point of view, but doable all the same.
My experience was a one night only affair, I would not repeat due to the extremely poor nights sleep both Mrs P and myself had, mainly due to the discomfort of the bench seat and lack of leg / head support due to the lack of multiflex and comfort matress.
The inability to stand in the Velle was restrictive for camping, but not impossible if you don’t mind being bent over when In the van.
There was no lesuire battery or 240v hook up in the Velle, so it would have been difficult to run a fridge for more than a day, without external hook up, without fully flattening the starter battery.
I have also owned a Combi which we used for tent camping,
One of the biggest single hurdles to Cali ownership, when looking outside in, is the initial outlay and justification of the additional outlay vs other vehicles.
I own a T6 Beach, 7 seats, much as Borris , very high spec DSG 150, we are a family of four, the Beach is a Daily Driver.
There are a lot of nuances between the beach and velle.
As WG said the costs of the differences between a CaliB and Velle would account for a lot of the difference in price, but there is also an element of “scene tax” to consider, this works both ways for the Cali, high initial cost, but very very good residuals.
Being a family of four a velle would not work for us, for camping, we put two up top and two down, the ability to be able to pop the roof, stand up and move around freely and with the perception of a large space does make for a better camping environment when in the van, particularly in inclement weather.
I doubt I would consider using a Velle, for camping, other than very very occasionally, and then no more than a single night, but it is possible if you want to do that, Although I have seen people sleeping in Combis also ! Which would give you an even cheaper daily driver albeit less comfort than the velle ?
It all comes down to how and when you will use your van and what your happy with.
Im not going to try to persuade you either way, other than to say, the Beach is the best VW Transporter based van I have owned, including a T2 Devon. Would I buy another Beach, definitely.
