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Caught up with a mate over the weekend who has recently replaced the Grey 4 motion manual 180bhp BiTurbo California they’ve had as a family for the last 9 years… it’s now for sale at a VW dealership. PN61XXH.
It’s an absolutely top spec van, with every option ticked at the time of manufacture, and no mods since, but from chatting to him suggest anyone considering it has a very detailed inspection undertaken and goes in with their eyes open, hence this post.
It’s low mileage, kept as a third vehicle, but when used has seen been big laden trips from the central UK South Coast, (think down the west coast of Portugal, North Coast 500, Lakes, Anglesey, Cornwall, France), to festivals, and numerous beach trips usually taking the scenic (bouncy!) route. Very often with sea kayaks (Karitek + 2 sea kayaks = 70kg roof load) and bikes (towbar 60kg load). It’s seen plenty of salt water and the payload for these early 4motions is we think sub 500kg.
They’d have kept it for longer except it was using a litre of oil every 1000 miles or so (CFCA engine with a 2014 dated EGR Rev B on a 2011 van!), the underside (+exhaust) was corroding, suspension was sagging, occasionally would grumble going in to 1st & reverse, and clutch could get noisy if stuck in bad traffic.
They don’t know for sure, but believe the previous owner was @KernowLad who posted considerably on this forum during their ownership from 2011 to early 2015. See particularly his post on EGR and ECU, and also the extent of use in the first 3 yrs and c22k miles.
VW sold this vehicle to my mate in early 2015 with none of these issues disclosed, and VW now have the vehicle back. As they are selling it as VW Approved hopefully it has been thoroughly overhauled … take a quick look at the MoT history on Gov.uk … all the corrosion logged for years by a reputable independent VW specialist has miraculously disappeared now a VW main dealer has re-MoT’d it ….
I don’t know anything more than the above from a pub chat so won’t reply to any posts, but hopes this helps the VW California community.
It’s an absolutely top spec van, with every option ticked at the time of manufacture, and no mods since, but from chatting to him suggest anyone considering it has a very detailed inspection undertaken and goes in with their eyes open, hence this post.
It’s low mileage, kept as a third vehicle, but when used has seen been big laden trips from the central UK South Coast, (think down the west coast of Portugal, North Coast 500, Lakes, Anglesey, Cornwall, France), to festivals, and numerous beach trips usually taking the scenic (bouncy!) route. Very often with sea kayaks (Karitek + 2 sea kayaks = 70kg roof load) and bikes (towbar 60kg load). It’s seen plenty of salt water and the payload for these early 4motions is we think sub 500kg.
They’d have kept it for longer except it was using a litre of oil every 1000 miles or so (CFCA engine with a 2014 dated EGR Rev B on a 2011 van!), the underside (+exhaust) was corroding, suspension was sagging, occasionally would grumble going in to 1st & reverse, and clutch could get noisy if stuck in bad traffic.
They don’t know for sure, but believe the previous owner was @KernowLad who posted considerably on this forum during their ownership from 2011 to early 2015. See particularly his post on EGR and ECU, and also the extent of use in the first 3 yrs and c22k miles.
VW sold this vehicle to my mate in early 2015 with none of these issues disclosed, and VW now have the vehicle back. As they are selling it as VW Approved hopefully it has been thoroughly overhauled … take a quick look at the MoT history on Gov.uk … all the corrosion logged for years by a reputable independent VW specialist has miraculously disappeared now a VW main dealer has re-MoT’d it ….
I don’t know anything more than the above from a pub chat so won’t reply to any posts, but hopes this helps the VW California community.
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