VW T5 California Issues

[Adderley13]

Ok ... Where to start!! Bought a brand new VW California in August (19th) and within 3 months of ownership we have had to take it back to VW commercial on numerous occasions due to the following issues;

1) Reading light not working, replaced under warranty
2) Auxilery heater malfunction - VW stated this was due to under a 1/4 tank of fuel even though we had 3/4 of a tank when the issue arised.
3) Back seat went down as a bed and cable snapped so bed would not turn back to seat, repaired under warranty
4) Awning replaced due to a customer - fully paid for replace job
5) Pop up roof kept dropping whilst up so had work done on hydraulics to resolve this under warranty
6) Arms of pop up roof have caught canvas and have been quoted £805 for a new canvas - I understand this is a common issue

Now my main issue is that we hire this California out and all of the above has happened on separate occasions and therefore the camper has been into VW commercial on 5 occasions and I have been without and therefore unable to hire it out for around 4/5 weeks out of the first 14 weeks of ownership. Have spoken to customer care and they have offered a £200 voucher for the long delay in warranty work (re point number 3 above) as this has so far taken 2 weeks.

Were unhappy as having spoken to the dealership principle he was of the view that having bought a Cali (which may I add we paid £53k for) we should expect a few problems!!

Sorry to go on but just wanted a few opinions on whether this should be considered acceptable or am I right to be pretty angry about this ... What do you think I should do about the situation?

 

[BerndRos]

Well you won't get anywhere re the loss of income from the lack of rentals, that's clear and as you would expect.

Did the majority of defects occur when you OR your customers were using the van. I ask this because it seems to me that paying customers are likely to take less care, simply because they are not used to the van rather than any other reason.

 

[snowy55]

2) could also be due to low leisure battery voltage.
6) easily done (don't ask!) even with a Bellows Bungee available from the forum shop.
£200 voucher. I'm surprised they even offered you that much.
Do they know you hire it out? If they do then I'm surprised they will do any warranty work at all!

 

[Meoncoast]

if you take out number 4 and 6 off your list which appear to be normally ---- often user error then that reduces your issues. We had the bed stuck down which was also a broken cable this was the one for us that took a while to get parts etc, The cali is complex we were out of waranty when the bed stuck down but they paid for most of repair

 

[Adderley13]

Yes I made it clear from the outset that's why we bought the camper to hire out. I understand customers will take less care but the heating (which fortunately happened whilst I was using it), the bed cable & hydraulics were all faults which were clearly not caused by customers and have been repaired under warranty.

I just couldn't imaging buying an expensive car and not having the use of it for 1 month out the first 3 due to issues ... Is this normal?

Also it's not the lack of rentals I'm just annoyed as we paid a fair amount for the van and an insurance policy to cover our customers but I can't even utilise it - one of my customers had to drive around Scotland for 5 days with bed down - I can't continue taking it back to the dealer everytime it comes off hire!!

 

[Slovenia]

6) Just repair the canvas and then replace before selling the car. Otherwise you will have to buy a new one twice a year.
Just of curiosity: Did you own a Cali before buying one for renting?

 

[snowy55]

Joys of hiring.
That's why we don't hire!

 

[calikev]

Do you not take a deposit of your hirers?

 

[Adderley13]

Do you not take a deposit of your hirers?

Yes, my customer will pay for a new canvas & cost isn't the issue here really ... I just don't have the time to keep taking it to and from the van centre and arranging lifts etc. Obviously I haven't been able to hire it recently as its been in for seat to be sorted.

 

[calikev]

Yes i can see your frustration.

 

[Hotel California]

The Cali has it's known common faults and errors , we all know this.
Ad them togheter with the collatteral damage when hireing out you do get to visit the dealer regular it seems....
Guess you got to take the whole picture and wanting to hire out your Cali must bring you enough money to compencate , or else you must reconcider .
It is a fragile verhicle thats needs to be handle with TLC , a minor fault can coast a lot of pounds!
Think every owner on here had at least one of you defaults mentiont above , offcourse there are many more things that easyly can go wrong or broken ( myself did make some stupid errors causing to break things)
Did you get a extended warranty?

 

[Kaydee]

Ok ... Where to start!! Bought a brand new VW California in August (19th) and within 3 months of ownership we have had to take it back to VW commercial on numerous occasions due to the following issues;

1) Reading light not working, replaced under warranty
2) Auxilery heater malfunction - VW stated this was due to under a 1/4 tank of fuel even though we had 3/4 of a tank when the issue arised.
3) Back seat went down as a bed and cable snapped so bed would not turn back to seat, repaired under warranty
4) Awning replaced due to a customer - fully paid for replace job
5) Pop up roof kept dropping whilst up so had work done on hydraulics to resolve this under warranty
6) Arms of pop up roof have caught canvas and have been quoted £805 for a new canvas - I understand this is a common issue

Now my main issue is that we hire this California out and all of the above has happened on separate occasions and therefore the camper has been into VW commercial on 5 occasions and I have been without and therefore unable to hire it out for around 4/5 weeks out of the first 14 weeks of ownership. Have spoken to customer care and they have offered a £200 voucher for the long delay in warranty work (re point number 3 above) as this has so far taken 2 weeks.

Were unhappy as having spoken to the dealership principle he was of the view that having bought a Cali (which may I add we paid £53k for) we should expect a few problems!!

Sorry to go on but just wanted a few opinions on whether this should be considered acceptable or am I right to be pretty angry about this ... What do you think I should do about the situation?

To be honest,I have to agree with snowy55,Hire vehicles have a very hard life,simply down to the fact that people ,however nice they seem dont treat other peoples property with the same care they treat their own.The california is a great vehicle but I am sure most owners are well aware of certain things we do,such as check the bellows when bringing the roof down,dont slam shut the cupboards,treat the wardrobe doors with care,and dont pull the roof light around too much,and thats just for starters.I admire anyone who would spend that kind of money on a van then rent it out.I dont even lend ours to family ,to be honest they wouldn't expect to borrow it. ( my daughters are the only exceptions) .I too am surprised that VW are prepared to honour any work at all .If you want to rent out why not just get a nice basic van with " tough as old boots" wooden cabinets and a manual roof.

 

[motacyclist]

If you want to rent out why not just get a nice basic van with " tough as old boots" wooden cabinets and a manual roof

Not necessarily tough as old boots, some of the examples of conversions I've seen have been coming apart in the showroom! Not such a great saving either if you add in the cost of the better spec options the Cali comes with.

 

[sidepod]

My opinion is that the T5/6 Cali is too flimsy. Compared to our T4 Westy which is built like the preverbial brick sh#t house.

I'll buy one, I don't have a problem. I'm mechanically sympathetic but the general public are made up if all sorts. Some morons, some sensible.

You only have to read some of the posts on here to work out that some users really shouldn't be out and about unsupervised.

Perhaps a short training course for your punters highlighting the potential issues and a bigger damage deposit.

I did think about getting another bus to rent out but too many camping trips watching people's behaviour put me off.

S.

 

[Freeley]

Same here @sidepod. We were seriously considering buying one (or two) calis to rent out, but the biggest concern we had was people not looking after them and spending half of the hire season in the garage getting repaired!

Sent from my Galaxy S6

 

[Kaydee]

Not necessarily tough as old boots, some of the examples of conversions I've seen have been coming apart in the showroom! Not such a great saving either if you add in the cost of the better spec options the Cali comes with.

That may be true to an extent ,but,wooden doors are tougher than the plastic sliders on the wardrobes,a manual roof is more reliable than hydraulics and you cant damage the canvas in the same way,the rock and roll bed doesnt rely on cables ,I could go on and on but wont.We buy them for a our personal use and accomodate the weaknesses,the OP rents his out ,and by the sound of it for a third of its life (4 to 5 weeks in the first 14 weeks was quoted) thats a lot of time for a fragile vehicle to be in the hands of possible numpties.if you want to rent out give them something thats harder to bust,and if it does break its easier to fix .A final point ,I can understand speccing the thing up for personnal long term use but not for the rental ,give them the basics they need to cope.I just dont think the van is going to last as long as our personnal vehicles if its being used by strangers a third or more of the time,credit to the OP ,hes a brave man

 

[Borris]

I take my hat off to anyone who rents out their Cali. The income that can be made sounds very tempting but against that the potential problems seem endless. Having said that, I am aware that some that do hire will say that they have never experienced any major issues and that is how it should be. However, despite the potential rewards, for me at least, a Cali represents too big an outlay to place it in the hands of the average bod or bods off the street.

As someone who used this forum before I took delivery to thoroughly read up on all of the various issues that can occur on a California, I have so far still managed to make several potentially serious school boy operating errors. Fortunately no damage has occurred. I would imagine that almost everyone who hires one would not have done this same research and would also not want to spend their holiday reading the manuals either. However good the hand over is it would still not make up for the inevitable clumsy, forgetful or just plain disrespectful punter. I know that a good deposit should cover most if not all damage but the time that it will take to get it repaired may impact on you hire income. Unless you have several vans to hire, customers could end up being let down if the van is no longer available due to damage caused by a previous user or is hired to them with outstanding faults/damage.

I would never consider hiring or lending ours to anyone and especially not family or friends who would provide all the same dis-advantages but with none of the financial compensation should it come back damaged. For me, its far easier to say no!

 

[2into1]

I think it's difficult for one-man bands to compete with the bigger hire boys, however tempting it may seem.

I wouldn't be surprised if companies such as BMVS are able to acquire their hire vehicles at much better discounts than available to 'normal' buyers. In a good year they'll do well on the rental payments, and based on past Cali's residuals, sell their vehicles after 12 months for more than they paid for them.
They won't get that sort of discount just for buying 5 Cali's, but add in the plain Vans and Hatchbacks on their fleets, and you see their buying power.
Even if a Cali spends a week in the workshop under warranty, rather than earning £800, their business model still works. Plus they are not emotionally attached to their 'assets' like the rest of us..

However based on the amount of late model Cali's currently appearing to be sticking on the 2nd hand market, their business model may be interrupted this year with the introduction of the T6. I'm sure normal service will resume.

 

[Martin]

I think he must of just been unlucky, when you are holding on to a security deposit of £750/£1000 people tend to be very careful. We have had a couple of times where we had to deduct for a bit of damage but it is always covered by the customer so have never been out of pocket.