Thinking of changing my fab California 4 motion 2011 for a beach only because I need a 5 seater now as got a grandson
Will be so sorry to see it go but no option to have a 5th seat in 4 motion
Anyone changed from Cali to beach and any regrets?
We bought a new T5 4motion SE in late 2015 and then a few months later purchased a seven seat T6 Beach to cart the grand kids around in etc. (We actually wanted a Caravelle but the seven seat Beach was around the same price, much more flexible and holds it's value better). We had them both at the same time and enjoyed them but in different ways. However the SE, which we had intended to use as our private escape capsule, stood around idle for too much of the time waiting for us to find the opportunity to sneak off in it. So we eventually took the pragmatic decision to sell it. It was an amazing vehicle but then so too is the Beach. Do I regret our decision? No, not for a moment.
The Beach proved to be such a useful multi purpose vehicle and is amazingly good at almost every thing you throw at it. Ours was a seven seater so could be used as a people carrier as well as a camper van and general purpose family car. It was used for everything. Since sold and now awaiting delivery of Beach number 2!
Do I miss the SE? I did at first but not any more. To be brutally honest, we never used the water tanks once in the time we owned it, rarely wanted to cook in it, found the sink too small and I disliked the wardrobe design. I found the fridge to be a nuisance as you had to remove everything from the top before getting anything out. Having said all of that I still think it's a brilliant design but not one that suits our personal needs at this time.
With the Beach we could do everything that we could do in the SE and a whole lot more besides.
I would stress the point that these are purely my conclusions and not intended as the start of another round of the old Beach verses SE/Ocean ding dong.
One last thing, do I miss the 4motion?............... No !
That vehicle was an ex demo van so came with that option and a mechanical dif lock as well but I can honestly say it's not something I would have ordered. In fact we never had cause to find out how good it was. Each to their own but it's not something that I personally found to be cost effective.