Volkswagen California review

Right, let’s start with the different trim levels, because what you plan to do with your van will probably decide which California you need to buy.

In Germany you can have the Cali in entry-level Beach trim. That’s essentially a six-seat Multivan with a manual pop-top roof and space for two people to sleep. Then you’ve got the Beach Tour which can seat five and adds the folding camping chairs, a single 40Ah leisure battery, the camper control unit touchscreen in the rear and an additional mattress to sleep two more people in the van itself. Prices start at €62,689 for the Beach and €67,824 for the Beach Tour.

The Beach Camper is the first trim level that’ll be offered in the UK. Pricing on our shores hasn’t been announced yet, but the Camper will cost €69,472 in its homeland. It builds on the Beach Tour spec by retaining seating for five but adding a 230-volt power connection and a mini kitchen unit that pulls out of the boot space.

You’ve then got the California Coast. That costs €77,831 in Germany and gets four seats and the full kitchenette unit down the side of the van complete with a fridge. This also adds the second leisure battery and can sleep four people on the two beds.

The California Ocean is the top spec and includes a similar setup to the Coast but adds fancy Mélange Raven recycled seat fabric, heated front seats, an auxiliary heater for cold camping, automatic air con, a roof-mounted storage box inside the boot and LED strip lighting in the kitchenette. Prices start at €84,359 in Germany but expect it to be around £85k in the UK once the final spec has been announced.

Of course there are many options to add on. The lovely two-tone paint is around €3,000, 19-inch wheels are €2,000 (we’d avoid to protect the ride quality), the awning is nearly €1,000 and you can have ‘wood-look’ plastic flooring for €400. You can also have the pop-up roof’s bellows in three different colours: Toffee Brown, Glacier Blue and Basalt Grey.

Of course, that barely scratches the surface and not all options will make it to the UK, so have a look on the configurator once it’s live to see what you could and couldn’t live without. There’s no doubt the California is expensive, but previous versions have always held their value remarkably well, so depreciation shouldn’t be too much of a worry.

Rivals include things like the Mercedes-Benz Marco Polo and Ford Transit Custom Nugget (great name), while Citroen has just announced the new SpaceTourer-based ‘Holidays’ camper. Plus, there’s still a huge campervan conversion industry based around the old T6.1 Transporter if you want something more bespoke.