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Enjoying the California
Well after owning it for a while, though as yet no serious camping, I can say that the T5 California really impresses, myself and others. Compared to my old LHD T4 California it's obvious that VW have kept with the basic Westfalia design but taken it to a new level of chic. It's bright and light inside, more hi-tech & high quality (such as formed aluminium cupboards with wood veneer finish, electric roof, dual leisure batteries, opaque glass benchtops). Will it prove to be as reliable as the Westfalias ? Time will tell. Westfalia have been making campers since about the 1950s and probably account for a very large percentage of all the campers in the world. Already a common earth fault has emerged in the T5 California where the leisure battery earth termination was placed under the fridge thus allowing condensation onto 2 dissimilar metals. On the plus side the fault info is passed through the VW dealer network and its fix is available to any VW mechanic in the world. The extra weight of a motorised roof gives a feeling of top-heaviness of the T5 Cali compared to the T4. Certainly the T4 'felt' better in corners. This could be just an impression as the T5 sports the 174HP engine vs 102HP in my old T4.
Planning to bring the car to Australia next year continues. An Engineer in Oz assures me that since the car has whole of vehicle Euro approval it should be relatively straight-forward to adapt it for Australian compliance (recognising that a personal import does not require full ADR compliance). I am also aware of a Brit who is planning to bring his California at the end of next year so I will have someone to steal parts from...just kidding. All parts should be available through VW Australia, even if they need to be shipped (I had no problems getting parts for my T4 California in the UK even though it was not sold there). Most importantly, all the mechanicals are standard T5.
Lastly, this T5 California comes with a single 5th seat which is removable. From what I can discern it is essentially the same single seat that is available in other T5s. I would be very interested to see any photos of such a seat in Australia to see how the child restraint is fitted.
Well after owning it for a while, though as yet no serious camping, I can say that the T5 California really impresses, myself and others. Compared to my old LHD T4 California it's obvious that VW have kept with the basic Westfalia design but taken it to a new level of chic. It's bright and light inside, more hi-tech & high quality (such as formed aluminium cupboards with wood veneer finish, electric roof, dual leisure batteries, opaque glass benchtops). Will it prove to be as reliable as the Westfalias ? Time will tell. Westfalia have been making campers since about the 1950s and probably account for a very large percentage of all the campers in the world. Already a common earth fault has emerged in the T5 California where the leisure battery earth termination was placed under the fridge thus allowing condensation onto 2 dissimilar metals. On the plus side the fault info is passed through the VW dealer network and its fix is available to any VW mechanic in the world. The extra weight of a motorised roof gives a feeling of top-heaviness of the T5 Cali compared to the T4. Certainly the T4 'felt' better in corners. This could be just an impression as the T5 sports the 174HP engine vs 102HP in my old T4.
Planning to bring the car to Australia next year continues. An Engineer in Oz assures me that since the car has whole of vehicle Euro approval it should be relatively straight-forward to adapt it for Australian compliance (recognising that a personal import does not require full ADR compliance). I am also aware of a Brit who is planning to bring his California at the end of next year so I will have someone to steal parts from...just kidding. All parts should be available through VW Australia, even if they need to be shipped (I had no problems getting parts for my T4 California in the UK even though it was not sold there). Most importantly, all the mechanicals are standard T5.
Lastly, this T5 California comes with a single 5th seat which is removable. From what I can discern it is essentially the same single seat that is available in other T5s. I would be very interested to see any photos of such a seat in Australia to see how the child restraint is fitted.
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