The new Rig

[Silver Caravelle]

Hi all,

I picked up the new Multivan TDI Comfortline Auto this week from Burwin VW, and took it for a long 450Km round trip with the family. It averaged 9 l/100km....which is very good for a yet to be run in vehicle. It is the pearl Black Magic colour and Anthracite colour interior with added optons of window tint, electric folding mirrors and fog lamps. It goes very nicely! Only minor thing I have noticed during the trip is that the front bumper corner insert has popped out very slightly at one end. It will go back to the dealer to be sorted.

I will try and post some pics soon.

PS. Anybody (or know of anybody) interested in my 2000 Caravelle for sale? See For Sale section. I have reduced the price. It's gotta go - all reasonable offers considered.

Regards,

Scott

[BrianJ]

Congratulations,

Can't wait to see your pics.

Brian

[phaeton]

Congratulations,

Can't wait to see your pics.

Brian

x2

Congrats Scott

[Silver Caravelle]

Thanks Guys. I can't wait to get home from work to take it for another fang....just to pick up the milk and bread of course

Cheers,

Scott

[rob64981]

New van sounds very nice!

Can you hold the silver one till next year when we get over to OZ?

Only joking it what i am looking for but dam it for sale to early

Can not wait to see the pics hurry up

Rob

[Silver Caravelle]

New van sounds very nice!

Can you hold the silver one till next year when we get over to OZ?

Only joking it what i am looking for but dam it for sale to early

Can not wait to see the pics hurry up

Rob

Rob,

There is a solution - don't wait until next year, come over now!!

Cheers,

Scott

[rob64981]

Scott,

Got to wait for those at immigration to pull there finger out and stamp my visa

If you read the stories the waiting is getting longer by the day!

Cant wait to get out there....

Rob

[BobD]

Scott,

Mine is the same colour as yours but with gray interior. It has just ticked over 12 months old. It is certainly a great vehicle and I love driving it at every opportunity although we have had plenty of stuff to sort out under warranty.

So far I have had the left sliding door pillar trim fall off, table drink holder fail twice (once after 1 day of use), table top replaced due to bubbling of covering, new oil cooler on back order, oxygen sensor on back order to reset exhaust quality warning light, rain sensing wiper failed twice, rear seat is only moveable by using all my strength on the lever after two goes at freeing it up by the dealer, right sliding door courtesy light switch went missing. They are also at a loss to work out why the engine idles roughly after a 20km run with fuel level below about quarter full.

The other strange behaviour is that the auto will always change down a couple of gears after coasting for a bit, such as going down a steep hill and then up the other side or even followed by a flat section of road. It will then sort itself out and go back to its perfect normal state.

I am getting about 10.5 to 11.5 l/100km, mostly in city / freeway driving. The computer says it is closer to 10.0. The best thing is that I get around 13.5l/100km towing an 18 foot caravan at about 100kph and I reckon it is one of the best tow cars I have owned. With the manual T4 TDI I was getting 7.5l/100km in the same conditions (14 or 15 when towing). We never filled up before 900km on the trip meter but the T5 takes 75l + after about 650km if we are lucky.

[gregozedobe]

..... new oil cooler on back order,

I'd keep checking with them to get it replaced before it fails if you can. No-one needs to go through the dramas I had when mine failed.

[BobD]

I'd keep checking with them to get it replaced before it fails if you can. No-one needs to go hrough the dramas I had when mine failed.

The trouble is that parts from the father land take about 2 months to arrive. The Germans seem to have great trouble despatching anything from their factory, whether it is VW or BMW.

I haven't had any official letter from VW but when I went in to get the O2 sensor checked out I asked about the oil cooler and they discovered that my car was on the list of suspect vehicles. If it wasn't for your post I wouldn't have known anything about the problem. The parts were ordered 3 weeks ago now, as soon as they discovered my car was affected.

A similar thing happened to the previous owner of my Volvo 850 when the transmission cooler failed. The gearbox had to be rebuilt and when I got the car I had to replace all the cooling system hoses as oil softens the rubber and they were all suffering the consequences. I have an external transmission cooler only now on the Volvo, even though I replaced the radiator a couple of years ago so I could have connected it back up to the water cooled oil cooler.

[gregozedobe]

I don't think they are sending out letters about the oil cooler, just replacing them when vans come in for a service or other work. Probably trying to keep a low profile over the whole issue.

You could have had the 2nd oil cooler they put on mine. I am still having trouble believing they were obtuse enough to take the new (good) one off that they put on in march this year, only to replace it with another one that is the exact same part (ie another new, good one). Total waste of time, money and effort.

[TSi2NV]

Hey well done sound really nice

[Silver Caravelle]

Sorry guys. I have just logged on again after a few days.

Bob, sounds like you have had plenty of dramas to date. Hope its gets resolved as soon as possible.

In a little under a week of ownership I have put about 850ks on the clock with a current average consumption of 9.5 litres per 100km. I got plenty of mud on it yesterday, taking to a few dirt roads with a nice smattering of rain

A couple of minor things to date - the front corner bumper insert will need to be replaced! The plastic insert clip is bent with one end of the insert popping out. Burwin VW have ordered a warranty replacement panel, and it will need to be sprayed. One of the arm rests in the middle seats has two little knicks (marks)...but nothing really to worry about. Also the door rubber inserts (storage compartments) appear to have a couple of minor scuffs...but I am being really picky.

One thing I noticed is that when I run my finger along the grooved painted area where right door slides, part of it feels a little rough (i.e. perhaps a lack of clear coating in part). I will raise this with Burwin VW so it is noted, and see what what they say, but it may be best to leave well alone if it involves spraying some extra clear coat and potentially stuffing up the surrounding paint work!

In terms of how it drives, it drives very well. In Drive, it tends to drop into the highest gear at the earliest opportunity as one would expect. But does feel like there is some minor harmonics about 1600 RPM when it coasting along or picking up from this rpm in the higher gears. I think it is the engine torque doing its stuff.

Sorry no photos yet, but will try and take some next weekend and add.

My wife thinks there is less boot space than the Caravelle, but I pointed out that it depends on where the rear seat is positioned.

I have yet to go over it with an absolute fine tooth comb, but apart from the items mentioned above it appears fine. The fog lamps, electric folding mirrors and window tint are nice extras. The window tint was done locally, which is fine as all side windows and rear windows were done and match. Burwin VW indicated that on the Highline models the tint is done at the factory on the rear/rear side windows only and it very difficult to match if you want the front doors done - because of the very dark factory green tint effect.

Cheers Scott

[Silver Caravelle]

Scott,

Mine is the same colour as yours but with gray interior. It has just ticked over 12 months old. It is certainly a great vehicle and I love driving it at every opportunity although we have had plenty of stuff to sort out under warranty.

So far I have had the left sliding door pillar trim fall off, table drink holder fail twice (once after 1 day of use), table top replaced due to bubbling of covering, new oil cooler on back order, oxygen sensor on back order to reset exhaust quality warning light, rain sensing wiper failed twice, rear seat is only moveable by using all my strength on the lever after two goes at freeing it up by the dealer, right sliding door courtesy light switch went missing. They are also at a loss to work out why the engine idles roughly after a 20km run with fuel level below about quarter full.

The other strange behaviour is that the auto will always change down a couple of gears after coasting for a bit, such as going down a steep hill and then up the other side or even followed by a flat section of road. It will then sort itself out and go back to its perfect normal state.

I am getting about 10.5 to 11.5 l/100km, mostly in city / freeway driving. The computer says it is closer to 10.0. The best thing is that I get around 13.5l/100km towing an 18 foot caravan at about 100kph and I reckon it is one of the best tow cars I have owned. With the manual T4 TDI I was getting 7.5l/100km in the same conditions (14 or 15 when towing). We never filled up before 900km on the trip meter but the T5 takes 75l + after about 650km if we are lucky.

Bob, I am not sure if this is the same thing as you are referring to, but mine drops right back through each gear when coasting to a stand still....sort of an engine braking effect?

Regards,

Scott

[Silver Caravelle]

Hi All,

I took some photos of the Multivan, but so far have not been able to compress to the kb limit to attach. Each photo is 140Kb. Any clues?

Scott