T6 Beach ordered

[Amarillo]

We have ordered our California Beach campervan following discussions about options in this forum.

Changes from our original spec:

• DSG instead of 6 speed manual. It was pointed out to us, by Clare's uncle, that if we do a lot of driving, and automatic will be much more comfortable to drive. We test drove both the manual and automatic versions and both agreed that the automatic was worth the extra.
• Delete Composition Media 6.33: the dealer pointed out to us that we were trying to order 2 radios! The Discover Media includes Composition Media 6.33.
• Add Climatronic 3-zone air conditioning: thanks to briwy and WelshGas for their input on this.
• Add USB interfaces: apparently we need these for the App-Connect and Discover Media.

We decided against the parking camera. We felt that the parking sensors would do an adequate job.

The dealer tried to persuade us to upgrade the dashboard to the Ocean dashboard. It would have been an extra £800 or so. Clare certainly preferred the Ocean dashboard, I liked the practicality of the Beach dashboard. We both felt that the extra price could not be justified.

So... The Beach ordered is:

£33,815.00 California Beach 7 speed DSG
£175.00 Grape yellow
£0.00 Kutamo Fabric
£860.00 2 x swivel seats with integrated child seats
£0.00 3 seater bench
£120.00 App connect
£700.00 Discover Media navigation
£200.00 Interior light concept
£50.00 2 USB interfaces
£50.00 USB interface
£170.00 Cruise control
£350.00 Front and rear parking sensors
£275.00 Leather multi-function steering wheel
£330.00 Awning - housing and rail in black
£480.00 Towbar – removable/lockable
£0.00 Without model and engine badges
£605.00 Cliamatronic 3-zone air conditioning
£1,450.00 Programable air parking heater with rc
£0.00 Two remote keys plus rigid key
£220.00 Privacy glass with green insulating glass in cab
£150.00 Sliding window

This comes to a beautifully round £40,000 before discount and VAT. The 14% discount is £5,600, with the van being used an accompanied road demonstrator, or by staff, for up to 3 months before delivery to us. It will not be used as a loan vehicle, and will not be used as a showroom model for people to bounce upon.

Estimated delivery date is December 2016, with a long-stop delivery date of 31 March 2017.

I know some people felt that we could negotiate a 20% discount. However, we are getting exactly the vehicle that we want, and a £5,600 + VAT (£6,720) discount is a very significant sum of money for a van which will probably have 2,000-3,000 miles on the clock and, as a road demonstrator, be maintained in tip-top condition before delivery.

 

[T6 CFO]

Can't comment on your options as I have more knowledge on The Ocean but I like your logic and all sounds good. Generally you will love the DSG and heater is a must. Enjoy


Mike

 

[hirsty]

Sounds like a nice spec, I'd be very happy with that. Thanks for being open about the pricing too, very useful info for those of us still looking - cheers.

 

[Hotel California]

Nice , but ....a years wait.....! Are you sure you can live with this?
I certainly would not even with that 15% discount , buying a car with a years wait think it would be nervewrecking knowing others are using it for three months .
But it's your choise so ....

 

[Teejay]

If you are happy with the deal, then it's no one else's business what other's think you should have got ;-) Happy camping!

 

[Freeley]

Nice , but ....a years wait.....! Are you sure you can live with this?
I certainly would not even with that 15% discount , buying a car with a years wait think it would be nervewrecking knowing others are using it for three months .
But it's your choise so ....

If it's going to be 9 months anyway then an extra 3 months is hardly the end of the world. I'd say he's done well there, gives him extra time for planning!

Sent from my Galaxy S6

 

[CALI FATE]

We have ordered our California Beach campervan following discussions about options in this forum.

Changes from our original spec:

• DSG instead of 6 speed manual. It was pointed out to us, by Clare's uncle, that if we do a lot of driving, and automatic will be much more comfortable to drive. We test drove both the manual and automatic versions and both agreed that the automatic was worth the extra.
• Delete Composition Media 6.33: the dealer pointed out to us that we were trying to order 2 radios! The Discover Media includes Composition Media 6.33.
• Add Climatronic 3-zone air conditioning: thanks to briwy and WelshGas for their input on this.
• Add USB interfaces: apparently we need these for the App-Connect and Discover Media.

We decided against the parking camera. We felt that the parking sensors would do an adequate job.

The dealer tried to persuade us to upgrade the dashboard to the Ocean dashboard. It would have been an extra £800 or so. Clare certainly preferred the Ocean dashboard, I liked the practicality of the Beach dashboard. We both felt that the extra price could not be justified.

So... The Beach ordered is:

£33,815.00 California Beach 7 speed DSG
£175.00 Grape yellow
£0.00 Kutamo Fabric
£860.00 2 x swivel seats with integrated child seats
£0.00 3 seater bench
£120.00 App connect
£700.00 Discover Media navigation
£200.00 Interior light concept
£50.00 2 USB interfaces
£50.00 USB interface
£170.00 Cruise control
£350.00 Front and rear parking sensors
£275.00 Leather multi-function steering wheel
£330.00 Awning - housing and rail in black
£480.00 Towbar – removable/lockable
£0.00 Without model and engine badges
£605.00 Cliamatronic 3-zone air conditioning
£1,450.00 Programable air parking heater with rc
£0.00 Two remote keys plus rigid key
£220.00 Privacy glass with green insulating glass in cab
£150.00 Sliding window

This comes to a beautifully round £40,000 before discount and VAT. The 14% discount is £5,600, with the van being used an accompanied road demonstrator, or by staff, for up to 3 months before delivery to us. It will not be used as a loan vehicle, and will not be used as a showroom model for people to bounce upon.

Estimated delivery date is December 2016, with a long-stop delivery date of 31 March 2017.

I know some people felt that we could negotiate a 20% discount. However, we are getting exactly the vehicle that we want, and a £5,600 + VAT (£6,720) discount is a very significant sum of money for a van which will probably have 2,000-3,000 miles on the clock and, as a road demonstrator, be maintained in tip-top condition before delivery.

Very sensible spec from a fellow mellow yellow beach bum ..... only comment why remove the california badge

 

[Amarillo]

Nice , but ....a years wait.....! Are you sure you can live with this?
I certainly would not even with that 15% discount , buying a car with a years wait think it would be nervewrecking knowing others are using it for three months .
But it's your choise so ....

There is a rationale:

Clare went into hospital in February last year at the end of her pregnancy second trimester. After haemorrhaging several times with various degrees of severity, Jack was delivered by emergency caesarian six weeks before his due date. During Clare's seven week stay in hospital, we needed a dream, and the dream was to take our family away for a year before Ben, now 2 yrs 5 months, started school. We dreamed that we would depart on Clare's birthday, 22 May 2017, returning home before September 2018 when Ben would start reception class.

We never woke from the dream, and the dream became a concept, and, now that the Beach is ordered, the concept has become a plan.

To put is simply, we do not need the Beach before May 2017. The long-stop date of 31 March 2017 is there to make the dealer responsible for any costs associated with the forthcoming changes to Vehicle Excise Duty if the van is delivered after then. As things stand, we expect delivery in December 2016, the dealer should have the van in August or September.

 

[Amarillo]

Very sensible spec from a fellow mellow yellow beach bum ..... only comment why remove the california badge

A good question with a simple answer. I do not feel that "California" is the right name for a campervan with such a rich European heritage: I don't like the name.

 

[hirsty]

... particularly as they don't even import them into the US!

 

[Hotel California]

... particularly as they don't even import them into the US!

The original VW campervan did go a lot to the USofA in the early years

 

[larrylamb]

Sounds fab, living the dream indeed.

 

[calimera]

There is a rationale:

Clare went into hospital in February last year at the end of her pregnancy second trimester. After haemorrhaging several times with various degrees of severity, Jack was delivered by emergency caesarian six weeks before his due date. During Clare's seven week stay in hospital, we needed a dream, and the dream was to take our family away for a year before Ben, now 2 yrs 5 months, started school. We dreamed that we would depart on Clare's birthday, 22 May 2017, returning home before September 2018 when Ben would start reception class.

We never woke from the dream, and the dream became a concept, and, now that the Beach is ordered, the concept has become a plan.

To put is simply, we do not need the Beach before May 2017. The long-stop date of 31 March 2017 is there to make the dealer responsible for any costs associated with the forthcoming changes to Vehicle Excise Duty if the van is delivered after then. As things stand, we expect delivery in December 2016, the dealer should have the van in August or September.

Sounds an excellent plan.
It's so good to dream & plan when things are tough.
Look forward to hearing reports of your family travels next year .

 

[Borris]

An excellent plan.

Although I personally feel that VW have got an enormous cheek charging an extra £175 for a flat colour. In the absence of any other plausible reason I assume this is because Grape yellow has proved popular and is therefore a nice little earner. I did hear recently that some companies had been at this scam with white paint.

 

[Rhyddin]

Sounds great! Good spec, indeed!

 

[Stoneybroke]

All looks great, braver than me on he grape yellow...
Hve you considered adaptive cruise control? You get the multi function steering wheel included and the ACC works very well, according to all reports, with the dsg... Especially in queues.
A recent Which report slammed App Connect as unreliable and with limited support, and not a recommended upgrade - it's something that you can turn on later (with a paid for code) perhaps when the apps work as described.

 

[Amarillo]

All looks great, braver than me on he grape yellow...
Hve you considered adaptive cruise control? You get the multi function steering wheel included and the ACC works very well, according to all reports, with the dsg... Especially in queues.
A recent Which report slammed App Connect as unreliable and with limited support, and not a recommended upgrade - it's something that you can turn on later (with a paid for code) perhaps when the apps work as described.

Yellow was an easy decision: it is only worth 2 points in motorway snooker, so you only become vulnerable to being pulled over in the unlikely event that a traffic cop playing the game already has amassed 120 points by issuing 30 tickets to 15 consecutive pairs of red and black vehicle drivers.

We considered all options, including adaptive cruise control. Clare has never used the cruise control on our current car, and we could not justify the additional cost.

App connect seemed an obvious choice to make the best use of our expensive media upgrade - but I have to say that I hadn't read anything negative about it. I'll look into it further, but unless I'm convinced that it is a complete waste of money, I won't alter our order.

 

[Stoneybroke]

Yellow was an easy decision: it is only worth 2 points in motorway snooker, so you only become vulnerable to being pulled over in the unlikely event that a traffic cop playing the game already has amassed 120 points by issuing 30 tickets to 15 consecutive pairs of red and black vehicle drivers.

We considered all options, including adaptive cruise control. Clare has never used the cruise control on our current car, and we could not justify the additional cost.

App connect seemed an obvious choice to make the best use of our expensive media upgrade - but I have to say that I hadn't read anything negative about it. I'll look into it further, but unless I'm convinced that it is a complete waste of money, I won't alter our order.

The options are all a bit mind boggling, we went through several changes before ordering, and even then made a couple of late changes. The long lead time means there's opportunity to change things again, so I still have a few 'should I, shouldn't I' moments, but cost is the, like you say, the decider.
Motorway snooker - these days, because of all the cuts, it's the police cars that you get points for spotting...

 

[Stoneybroke]

Just been back to my Which? Article, it was the WiFi hotspot that they slammed, the app connect they were a little more positive on, though hadn't really tested all the iterations.
They rate the adaptive cruise control highly, for convenience and safety.
They are unconvinced by lane assist or blind spot coverage, but recommend parking sensors and camera.
May 2016 Which? Article "Choosing the right car options".

 

[Amarillo]

The options are all a bit mind boggling, we went through several changes before ordering, and even then made a couple of late changes. The long lead time means there's opportunity to change things again, so I still have a few 'should I, shouldn't I' moments, but cost is the, like you say, the decider.
Motorway snooker - these days, because of all the cuts, it's the police cars that you get points for spotting...

I am confident that we have made option choices we can both live with. With two fairly strong-willed people making the decisions, things are always going to be a bit of a compromise. Oddly, the yellow colour was the first choice for both of us, despite the extra cost: we both felt that it was the appropriate colour for our campervan.

 

[Amarillo]

Estimated delivery date is December 2016, with a long-stop delivery date of 31 March 2017.

We have a confirmed build date of Week 41, which by my estimation is the week beginning 10 October.

 

[daveyboydanger]

We have a confirmed build date of Week 41, which by my estimation is the week beginning 10 October.

Great news! By the way we love our grape yellow beach and we love app connect. No problems with it at all.

 

[matt-k918]

Congrats on the order. My only observation would be that the comfort dash is only an £800 (ish) option if you aren't already going for 3 zone climate, since the comfort dash includes the climate, therefore effectively "only" £200 ish extra.

 

[Amarillo]

We have a confirmed build date of Week 41, which by my estimation is the week beginning 10 October.

It seems that earlier I had misunderstood or mis-heard "unconfirmed" as "confirmed".

The unconfirmed build date has now slipped to Week 46.

The cruise control has been upgraded to adaptive cruise control.