VW California Ocean
We try the latest and greatest pop-top California, entirely built by VW itself
The latest T6.1 with all the toys
W
Efirst tested a California in its current, built-by-VW, style back in the June 2006 issue. Of course, Volkswagen campers go back much further, with their seven decades of history celebrated in these pages last August and the California brand itself having been on the market for over 30 years. The T4 Cali, however, was a Westfalia design that never officially made it to these shores (although a few can be found here, imported by owners unperturbed by left-hand drive that were seeking the ultimate VW camper of the day).
In 2006, a right-hand drive California (then with the ‘SE’ suffix and based on the firstgeneration T5) was a novelty – a campervan not only marketed by Volkswagen and sold through VW Van Centres but actually built by Volkswagen, with part-finished Transporters being completed on a special camper production line at Limmer in Germany. We described it as having “a unique feel and a truly automotive quality throughout.”
Since then, the California has become a range of campers from Beach, through Coast to the rangetopping Ocean seen here, while the early T5 Transporter has progressed through T5.5 to T6 and now T6.1. It has even been joined by a big brother, the Crafter-based Grand California, and a smaller Caddy-based California has been announced in Germany and may yet be sold in Britain.
Meanwhile, over the last 15 years, while the base vehicle has moved on in line with automotive trends, the basic shell of the Transporter on which it’s based is clearly much the same and the campervan conversion – from the electric elevating roof to the aluminium (no trees harmed here) kitchen unit with glass worktops – has evolved only in detail.
Something that has moved on, of course, is the price. That first California SE that we tested was £41,148 (with a base price of £34,000), while today’s Ocean starts at £65,323 and costs close to £75k as shown here. Of course, the Cali of 2021 has features that we could only dream about a decade and a half ago and demand shows no sign of slowing. In 2019, pre-Covid-related supply issues, Volkswagen sold 1,465 T6 Californias in the UK, making it by far and away the bestselling campervan here, while Europe-wide, Volkswagen had sold over 157,000 Californias in its first three decades. But is the latest model still a market-leader and can it justify that price tag?