You don’t have to be a surfer dude, with flowing blond locks and a bronzed six-pack, to appreciate the charms of a Volkswagen camper van. Which is just as well, as my salt-and-pepper close crop and bulging waistline would, in that case, count me out. Also, the grassy campsite of a nerdy history festival in the UK is about as far as you can get from the Pacific coast, both figuratively and geographically, so this is a test of the latest VW California well and truly out of its supposed comfort zone.
It’s also a genuinely new California. Previously, the California was based on the Transporter van, which hadn’t actually changed all that much over the years, and so was only able to offer incremental improvements or updates. This time around, the California has been basically designed on a clean sheet, as it’s now based on the car-like platform of the VW Multivan, a roomy seven-seat MPV that’s low-key one of our very favourite cars of the moment.
That will sound like heresy to some previous VW California owners. The idea that the camper is now based on a car (technically), and not a hard-working commercial van, will feel like a downgrade. The tl;dr is that it’s emphatically not, but there are some things you’ll have to get used to.
The basic recipe is the same: the rear of the California takes the basic body of the Multivan and installs along the left-hand wall a kitchenette and some cupboards, while the two rear seats (and this is strictly a four-seater, unless you buy the most basic version available) fold down to allow you to fold out a futon-style double bed which lies on top of the seat backs.
Once safely parked up, you can press a button that raises the pop-up roof, a cantilevered tent-style structure that allows you to either stand up inside (once you’ve pushed the spring-loaded “ceiling” upwards) or that (pulling the inner roof section back down again) makes for an even comfier double bed (the mattress is slightly softer and deeper than the downstairs one).
It’s just hugely versatile, and more so than the old California thanks to the 3,124mm wheelbase, which is actually longer than that of the previous model, and you can definitely feel that with a little more standing-up space once the bed has been folded out and the front seats swivelled around to form an ersatz lounge (made easier by the fact that this Multivan California has an electronic parking brake – the long lever of the old Cali’s mechanical handbrake got in the way).
However, there are differences which will be less appreciated. For the first time ever, the California now has two rear-side sliding doors (electrically operated in our top-spec Ocean test car), which is handy for daily driving, but which means that the kitchen section has been truncated, so you lose a gas ring on the hob (down from two to one) and there’s less cupboard space. Not so much of a problem on my solo outing, but it means you’ll have to pack carefully if you’re going away four-up.
Equally, there’s no built-in table any more. Instead, you have to unclip the folding picnic table from its home under the bed and use that instead. Which is fine, but not as convenient as things used to be. The built-in fridge is also smaller than before. Then again, there are other benefits. You can now decide on which side of the car you want your fold-out awning, or indeed pay extra to have one on each side.
All of the camping controls – from the exceptionally good built-in central heating system, which works off either the travel battery or a campsite electric hookup, to monitoring the water levels in the freshwater system, to working out how level the ground you’re parked on is – are now in a handy touchscreen panel built into the right-hand side rear door pillar.
There’s also now a better separation between the fresh water tank filler (which has its own funnel, tucked in to a cupboard) and the diesel filler – and yes, people have made that mistake with the previous Cali.
Diesel? Yup, this particular car was running VW’s familiar 2.0-litre TDI diesel with a standard seven-speed DSG automatic gearbox, which seems a bit old-school, but there are two salient points about that.
One, there is also a plug-in hybrid version, with a decent electric-only range. And two, this diesel was exceptionally economical, returning 6.8 litres per 100km over more than 1,700km of driving, which is around 3.0 litres per 100km better than the old Transporter-based Cali would do.
It’s definitely more refined to drive, too. True, the cupboards in the back seem to rattle over bumps no matter what you do to try to combat the noise, and the stereo could do with an upgrade to cope with the tyre roar and wind noise at motorway speeds, but overall, the California is very comfortable, and very easy to drive.
It feels a touch intimidatingly big at first, but you soon learn that it’s actually not so big, and that the combination of light controls and a good reversing camera soon removes any worries. The only downside is that it can take a while to pick up speed – a 12.4-second 0-100km/h time is no one’s idea of brisk.
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As ever, with a California, there’s one potential tripwire, and that’s the price tag. The most basic California, in Beach spec, starts at €72,995, and this top-spec Ocean model is a gulp-inducing €92,495. However, there’s something of a California get-out clause, which is that these campers really just don’t depreciate. If you buy one now and keep it in good condition, you’ll probably get incredibly close to what you paid for it in the second-hand market. Owning a California is closer to renting, really – you’re just paying for what you use.
Equally, to put the price in context, where else are you going to find a two-bed apartment, designed by a German architect, for under €100,000?
Lowdown: Volkswagen California Ocean
Power: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine with 150hp and 360Nm of torque driving the front wheels through a seven-speed automatic gearbox.
0-100km/h: 12.6 secs.
Emissions (motor tax): 180-182g/km (€102).
Fuel consumption: 6.6l/100km (WLTP).
Price: €92,495 as tested. Beach model from €72,995.
