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Volvo to VW ?

Teejay

Teejay

Messages
1,425
Location
Nonyer
Vehicle
T6 Ocean 204 4Motion
Hi All
Currently looking to maybe change from a Volvo XC60 to a Ocean 204X4 DSG.
I've already been lurking for a little while.

First question how easy would it be to keep my current registration and have it ported to the new one? I read that it's an £80 fee from the DLVA but can it be done across manufacturers?

My wife REALLY wants a camper and this is the only thing that she has suggested that makes sense.
Awful thing is she already has two potential names for it! I may be fighting a loosing battle.

regards
Teejay
 
Hi yes you need to put your current number on retention dvla will issue the Volvo a age related plate probably it's original. Then you use the retention certificate to assign the number to your Cali. I believe it's £80
 
Apply to put the current reg number on to retention.

Once you get the new V5 document for the Ocean (which should only take about 3/4 days after you pick it up) you can then transfer the old personal number onto the Cali instantly.

It takes about 5 mins online now. I had my plate on my T6 within 4 days of picking it up.

Good luck..
 
Hi yes you need to put your current number on retention dvla will issue the Volvo a age related plate probably it's original. Then you use the retention certificate to assign the number to your Cali. I believe it's £80

It is the actual plate it just happens to tally with both our names and easy to remember. Also don't want anyone knowing its a new vehicle as it will have to parked on street.
 
It is the actual plate it just happens to tally with both our names and easy to remember. Also don't want anyone knowing its a new vehicle as it will have to parked on street.
Still not a problem - DVLA will just issue a new plate for the Volvo with the correct year designation.
 
Hi! I'm in a very similar situation! I'm switching from a Volvo XC90 to an Ocean 204 DSG 4MO! The Cali is on order and planned delivery is end of May. Great fun!
I am located in Sweden, and can't help with your registration questions.
 
Hi! I'm in a very similar situation! I'm switching from a Volvo XC90 to an Ocean 204 DSG 4MO! The Cali is on order and planned delivery is end of May. Great fun!
I am located in Sweden, and can't help with your registration questions.

Hi
I must admit I do really like my Volvo and would not hesitate to have another. I believe the registration question has been answered. I may have just found one via the UK licencing people that may work even better.
Hope your new purchase is all you want it to be ;-)
I'm just busy working out what all the options are so I minimise errors if and when we order. Still trying to find out if the LED lights are actually LED and not Xenons. Happy days.
 
The 'LED headlights' are actually Xenon headlights with daytime running lights. I've just parted ways with an Audi A6 Allroad to order a California 204 4Motion DSG as well! In car land, LED headlights means ... uh, LED headlights but apparently VW's marketing people have a different perspective :) Still worth having in my opinion.

(Edit - this is not correct and the headlights are actually full LED, see comments later in the thread).
 
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So now onto step two: Hire

We've organised a hire of a Ocean 204 DSG for several nights to see if it fulfils our needs.
So we'll be staying in one location, Lauder in the borders, moving just seems like to much variance. We need to check both beds and driving it most days to see what its like as a daily driver. The one time when on holiday that I won't be sorry to see some traffic!

So far our most difficult question is what colour ! Candy White, Red, or Mojave Beige.

Onwards and Upwards ;-)

Teejay
 
Just a comment about the LED (daytime running lights) lights. Are you thinking of buying for the look in the daytime of the DRL's or the performance improvement of the xenon?

If you like them just for the look, I notice that they are quite an expensive option. Another option could be to retro-fit the LED DRL's... I notice quite a few T5.1 California's have them in the bumper, and they seem to be shown on the official VW accessories web page now for the T6, but as of yet I've not seen them for sale, but guessing it won't be long before they are. My order (T6 Ocean 204 DSG) has the optional high beam assist, and I intend to fit LED DRL's at some point in the near future to change the visual signature of the van in daytime...

In terms of colour, I must admit the beige looks better than it sounds, and although it not to my taste, I think it's nice to choose a colour that is new for the T6 as opposed to a colour that was available to the T5 such as candy white. This in my opinion will make it stand out as new T6 which looking at you post yo might be trying to avoid. Saying that, colour choice is personal and to individual taste, so my advice is to google as many photos as possible of the vans in all the colours you like and spend a little time looking through them, and depending on what wheels, side bars, awning colours and graphics are apply, it can alter the perception of how the vehicle looks. Wheels make the biggest visual change to a vehicles appearance after colour and can radically make a vehicle look more luxurious or sporty. Just compare images of a California in beige with polished 18" rims compared to a candy white van with anthracite sport lines and a bit of lowering to see what I mean!
 
image.jpeg image.jpeg

Mojave Beige with polished 18" rims above, compared to Candy white with black wheels below.... Luxury and sporty ends of the scale?
 
image.jpeg

In fact here is a perfect photo I found that has your three choices! Beige, red and Cand white! Notice the white van has the biggest wheels that make it "sit" nicely compared to the other two.... Also I notice the White van has black B posts that improve the look of the side window graphic in my opinion...
 
Just a comment about the LED (daytime running lights) lights. Are you thinking of buying for the look in the daytime of the DRL's or the performance improvement of the xenon?

If you like them just for the look, I notice that they are quite an expensive option. Another option could be to retro-fit the LED DRL's... I notice quite a few T5.1 California's have them in the bumper, and they seem to be shown on the official VW accessories web page now for the T6, but as of yet I've not seen them for sale, but guessing it won't be long before they are. My order (T6 Ocean 204 DSG) has the optional high beam assist, and I intend to fit LED DRL's at some point in the near future to change the visual signature of the van in daytime...

In terms of colour, I must admit the beige looks better than it sounds, and although it not to my taste, I think it's nice to choose a colour that is new for the T6 as opposed to a colour that was available to the T5 such as candy white. This in my opinion will make it stand out as new T6 which looking at you post yo might be trying to avoid. Saying that, colour choice is personal and to individual taste, so my advice is to google as many photos as possible of the vans in all the colours you like and spend a little time looking through them, and depending on what wheels, side bars, awning colours and graphics are apply, it can alter the perception of how the vehicle looks. Wheels make the biggest visual change to a vehicles appearance after colour and can radically make a vehicle look more luxurious or sporty. Just compare images of a California in beige with polished 18" rims compared to a candy white van with anthracite sport lines and a bit of lowering to see what I mean!


Performance, I go for function before form. The LED lights do look better and perform better so I believe, the DRL design change gives larger indicators at the front which I like.

I don't like retro fitting anything unless it's done at build time, we very rarely change the look once it’s built. Although if we do buy white, we may opt for a few black bits to break up the expanse of white. I also was planning on the high beam assist.

We've seen most of the colours and like many of them but for practicability I would like a brighter vehicle since it doesn't the minor scratches as much. Hire vehicle is Blackberry which is nice but again shows scratches very easily.

I like the beige I see it as a “safe” colour. My wife likes the white and also thinks the money for paint could be spent elsewhere, which I agree with. I have a problem getting past the "white van man" syndrome :sorry, hence some decals to make it less so.

Not even sure what the T5 colours were, we seem to have jumped into this and it’s all a bit of a blur. I see that you have ordered the fancy white, I find it hard to pay for water based paints unless it really wows us. Though we’ve never actually seen the Oryx in the flesh, I’m sure it will be fab. ;)

If the white was selected I may change the wheels but again I find it difficult to part with 500-600 for wheels; when the ones that come with it are fine. I could spend that wheel money on something that makes it safer or more comfy.

I let my wife do colours and combinations if the beige we’d have to get the silver awning but if white we’d get the black. I agree about the wheels they can make a mahoosive difference to the look of the car. My wife struggles with this suggesting what’s wrong with the original.

I hope this reads OK, I’m not having ago but I’ve been told I have an aggressive tone when using forums. :)

Teejay
 
@Teejay. I was originally thinking candy white for the exact same reason as you that it's 'free' and I would spend money on other comfort options, however I had that "White van man thought too!" Then we were thinking grey or beige, but in the end I wanted the California to look fun and less formal. We saw Onyx on a Cali and realised how much sharper the lines of the vehicle looked and how much brighter it looks compared to candy white. But I agree it's expensive... In the end we went for it as the colour is one of those things you can't really change or add on later unlike an awning or wheels of course. To be honest all the colours look good, VW don't really offer and duff colours so you will be happy what ever you choose. If we all like the same it would be a dull world... One last point I'd make, I have found that the grey tone paints hide the dirt more than dark colours, which do as you say seem to show the scratches a bit more.... Good luck and hope you get a cool van soon!
 
For my wife and I, the colour of the California was probably the toughest decision in the ordered process. In the end, I went for something that would probably stay cleaner for longer and chose Acapulco Blue because it makes me think of going to the beach! It's all so subjective but it helps if you can look at the vans, photos don't do some of the colours justice and when I saw Acapulco Blue on a caddy, I knew it was right for me. My favourite is probably the white(s) with black wheels and graphics, like the German 'edition' models, but I would be constantly cleaning it! The lighter colours have the advantage that scratches & chips are less likely to show.
 
About to take the plunge but I thought I'd update this thread with the stand out parts of the California we hired.

Apologies for the long post more of a blog really.

We removed all their tableware/cutlery from the car loaded our own kitchen and we took off. We were heading into uncertain weather and as it turned out that forecast was correct. I did feel that bad weather would be a better test rather than a perfect 23C with no extremes. We had a range of weather from fab sun, to 2"-3" of snow on day two but all in all I think the solution is going to work well for us.

First thing to check was the grunt of the engine, I don't drive like a loon but I wanted to know that if I need to overtake something I could do it quickly and safely. We had a couple of opportunities to demonstrate its prowess and we were not disappointed. The 204 Ocean has lots of pull (450Nm Torque) so its effortless to overtake.

SATNAV worked pretty well, I found the instructions very clear and never felt like I need to check what was being said or where I was heading visually. We did have some problems with the POI search. Looking for Costco near Loadhead it insisted that we were in London! It's not something we are going to specify due to the cost but the solution seems polished as any other we've tried.

It's the first time that I had ACC on a new car but it was something high on my list of options. I must say that I was mighty impressed. I was using it on A roads and had no problems rolling along at 60mph and then when I came up behind someone it just slowed me down almost imperceptibly. I also found an option in the MFD to change the gearbox setting to ECOMOMY from NORMAL and SPORT. The acceleration is more muted when you either pull out or the car moves out of your path.

Seats are very comfy and nice and hugging, better, dare I say it than my current Volvo! The heated seats start-up incredibly quickly and are toasty in 30sec. Very easy to swivel and only takes seconds once you have the knack. The driving position takes a little getting use to but the view and the all round visibility was very impressive. Combining the amount of glass with the wing mirrors it didn't feel like there was a blind spot in evidence.

As mentioned by others when sitting watching the world go by with the windows down, any rain comes straight down and drips on your arm, wind deflectors may be the solution.

We planned on trying the upper and lower beds but in the end just spent the nights in the upper bunk. Never felt the need to try the lower bunk unless informal camping or bad weather, we'll always be in the top bunk. If we need extra comfort below we will address this as and when. Had no issues with any water ingress in the roof area and the Scottish rain did come down for several hours. Even with snow resting on the sides it didn't show any signs on coming into the sleeping area. We stayed in the same site but travelled around each day. This gave us the opportunity to break camp and make it back again. I thought this might have been a pain but again like the seats very quick once we know what we need to do.

Anyway to wrap this waffle up. It was a very successful outing, very impressed with the versatility, we even made sure that we could get under the Edinburgh park and ride at Sherrifhall. So we are almost ready to get the order in, just finalising a few options and deciding whether to travel to Guy or stay local.

In my short time here I'm picking up lots of information here and suggestions and some ingenious solutions.

Once we head to Europe, not having driven there before, I'm sure that I'll be asking for all you help in the future, and I'll hopefully be sharing the journey with the few that may be interested.
 
@Teejay. I was originally thinking candy white for the exact same reason as you that it's 'free' and I would spend money on other comfort options, however I had that "White van man thought too!"

I may have seen the solution to the white van man syndrome in the MY2017. It's called the chrome pack, if that gives the chrome on all four faces plus the black B Pillar it might tick all the boxes
 
I may have seen the solution to the white van man syndrome in the MY2017. It's called the chrome pack, if that gives the chrome on all four faces plus the black B Pillar it might tick all the boxes
Ordered the chrome pack back in March. Dealer took some persuading when I explained that the main but not only reason was to get the black B Pillar
 
@Teejay1. Agree. Chrome pack which includes black B posts, extra chrome on body side and grill reduces the white man van effect as my previous photos show. As its now on the 17 my option list, it would be a good option to order if you go for white. I'm going to try and get this pack as an order post delivery of my van and fit myself. It can be ordered later I'm told.

By the way I was contacted today about a onyx white 204 DSG California ocean that available at a dealer in UK. Bit of background.... A few weeks ago I phoned around most dealerships in UK because my original factory order was becoming later and later, so I was looking for an ex demo or dealer Order to buy that would better suit my timing aspirations. In the end I've found a great van which suits my needs so Im sorted now, so this van was not of interest to me, plus it had the dreaded comfort non swivel seats. However, judging by your blog, this might be a suitable van for you and you avoid the wait! The dealer that had the van was Listers of Worcester by the way. Apart from non swivel seats it had a great spec... Cascavels, leather and Alcantara, sat nav, awning, privacy glass, parking, rear camera. ACC MFSW Dynaudio and heated front screen, LED headlights, Lights and vision. So great spec. If you didn't need swivel seats could be good van. I'm sure there is a way to convert those seats to swivel... I've seen a few threads on the subject. Anyway good luck, and great blog/info.
 
Thought I'd update my own thread with a conclusion.
As of 23rd September (wk37) California is now built and on it's way, should be here mid - late Oct.

Spec is as follows:
Ocean 204 4Motion DSG
Candy white
Cascavel black wheels
App Connect
Composition Media Radio with 6.33" touch screen
ACC + MFSW
F&R Parking with Camera
LED upgrade
Lights and Vision
HD Roll Bars
Diff Lock
Black Awning
Chrome Package
Heated Screen

Few others options added to but these are the main ones I'd guess.
 
IMG_3009.JPG IMG_3030.JPG IMG_3018.JPG Wow TJ. Great specification. The chrome pack will look good. In the end I just bought the extra chrome bar for lower air intakes and fitted this myself. It just clips in place so dead easy to do. I also wrapped my B pillars using the kit available on line. Quite easy to do on a nice warm day with no wind/dust. But the biggest difference to my Cali is the new 20" alloys I've fitted. They are 9J rims with 275/35R20 tyres. They fit perfectly the wheelarches and sit nicely in terms of width. I've not noticed and reduction in ride quality contrary to what I've read. My van is lowered also.
 
Looking pretty swanky, Love the wheels but once it's bought I never change, so get it done when new. I saw another T5 with 20" and they do really suit.

That looks like a VERY expensive reg. Is the vintage look "legal", I cannot be bothered getting pulled over.
I have a reg in mind that is available for £250(cheap skate ;))
 
Sorry to disappoint but the plate was a bit of fun! I bought it at a classic car show to stick in my garage in the hope that "1 DAY" I'd get a nice VW California... it's just stuck in for the photos :(
 

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