Reggae player loves his Caravelle

Geoff Innes owns the kind of vehicle that makes children wave, enthusiasts swoon and hotel porters happy to park on their forecourts.

Does Innes, a carpenter and musician, drive a six-figure Rolls-Royce or Lamborghini? No, his ride is a 35-year-old Volkswagen T3 Caravelle that cost $15,000.

The soft-talking Sydneysider is among a conspicuously growing cult that favours character and cachet over mod-cons. For the same budget as an affordable new car, they opt for smiles-per-mile in a cool, modern classic.

Owners join a genuine community, even if they range from dedicated marque enthusiasts to inadvertent inheritors of a family heirloom.

Innes, a father of five, has had to buy a vehicle to serve as work van, family wagon and “band bus” — he plays trumpet in reggae outfit King Tide — and for the past 15 years, that has been the 1985 Caravelle, in Damuso White over Bamboo Yellow.

Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Innes began playing professionally in the late 1970s, then joined UK funk-soul band Rokotto to spend three years touring the UK and Europe.

In London he met his Australian wife-to-be and in 1987, with two young children, they moved to Sydney.

“I was a tradesman but it was Bicentennial time and I was playing sometimes nine gigs a week,” Innes says. “I probably got a lot of jobs in bands because I owned a van.”

In the early 1990s Innes splurged on a nearnew Volkswagen T4 Transporter. “I’d always fancied a VW and I kept that for 14 years, until I decided I’d like a little more luxury.”

He first searched for a T4 Caravelle —