It has been three weeks since I received the keys to my beautiful Volkswagen California Ocean. Due to my busy ‘working-life’ during these first weeks, I’ve only used ‘her’ as a daily car (it’s a ‘her’, because I named her ‘Cali’; also the voice-control now reacts when I say ‘hello Cali’). Where my previous hybrid car drove very well, this Cali surpasses it in terms of handling. By now I have already driven more than a thousand kilometres with her. A small part of these were so-called private kilometres. Mainly to visit family and friends and to do some shopping. The largest part was due to commuting. Although I usually work from home these days (one of the few positive left-overs from Corona), I still regularly go to my current client’s office in Amsterdam. Some three hundred kilometres back and forth every time. A distance that is bridged in the Cali in a very relaxed way. Not in the last place because you sit high up (which also makes getting into the care very easy), so that you look out over almost all the other cars. And therefore, you can easily anticipate what is happening in front of you. But for sure also the supporting features help with this relaxed feeling. The adaptive cruise control and the so-called ‘lane assist’ do almost all the work. The Cali is even capable of following the bends in the road, so I can let the steering wheel slide through my hands without having to steer myself. In one word: fantastic! All I must do is to pay attention to the road and to ensure that I do not to fall asleep due to the relaxed driving. What a pleasure it is! I have to be careful that this doesn’t start to sound like a commercial for Volkswagen. Yet I haven’t even mentioned the beautiful finish, the elegant digital dashboard with the extensive and useful features and the wonderful seats. In short, just because of the handling and its looks, this Cali is already a very good investment. And the true ‘camping’ still has to start.

Over the past few weeks, I have used my limited spare time to figure out how the broad variety of features and functionalities work. Of course, I already knew that there was an almost endless list of possibilities. Nevertheless, only now do I discover all that is possible with this Cali. Fortunately, the manual is in most cases self-explanatory and the menu structure of both displays is very intuitive. Still, I needed every free minute during the past few weeks to get the hang of everything. To be honest, there were also several things that were not described entirely clearly in either the manual or on the displays. This fortunately quickly became clear in consultation with the Camper Center and by browsing the internet. Without intending to be exhaustive, below are two of these ambiguities that struck me as being difficult:

• The Cali has a so-called ‘parking heater’, which allows it to get – and stay – pleasantly warm in the interior. When you study the manual, it seems as if this heater only works for 180 minutes. If you still want to use the heater after this limited time, the Cali must first be moved. On cold days and nights, these three hours are absolutely not sufficient. It turns out that on the small camper display you can switch on the so-called ‘continuous heating’ mode. This ensures that – as long as you are connected to shore power or have petrol in the tank – you have no restriction in the use of the heating. It was a bit of a search to find this, but it works perfectly well!

• The other topic is related to the alarm. To protect the Cali, it has an ‘interior alarm’ that is activated when you park somewhere with the engine switched off. Very useful! However, when you ‘camp’ in the Cali with closed doors, you don’t want the alarm to go off with every movement you make. Imagine, you are somewhere on a campsite and every now and then that alarm starts to sound. I guarantee you, that you will soon no longer be best friends with your fellow campsite residents. Here it turns out that there are two ways to prevent the alarm from going off: either you switch it off manually on the dashboard display. Or you don’t close the doors with the car lock, but with the button in the door on the driver’s side. Both work out, but at least to me this was not obvious. You just have to know…

If the above two topics might sound like something negative, then let me immediately correct this thought: it’s the contrary, figuring out these peculiarities is actually part of the fun of getting to know the Cali.

Like said, during the first weeks I did not yet have the time to use the Cali for its other purpose, being for ‘camping’. This weekend, this is finally going to change.

It’s Friday afternoon, a beautiful spring day in the Netherlands. I am about to step into the Cali and hit the road for my first camping experience with her. The mountain bike is solidly attached on the back of the bike carrier, the clothes and towels are stored in the bag and the fridge is filled (of course including a bottle of my favourite ‘Pas si Vite’ wine). In case I have forgotten something, I will buy it on the way. I had considered all kinds of camping destinations for this first time. In the end I made up my mind, I’ll visit the same campsite as where I stayed when I rented the T6.1 some 6 months ago. Perhaps partly for ‘nostalgic reasons’, who knows. The most important reason however, is to compare the experience which I previously had with the T6.1, with my new Cali. And the best way to do this, is if the environment is identical. I’m very curious how this will work out!

Around 13:00h, I install myself at my assigned camping spot. I hardly have the chance to step out. Within the hour, I’ve already talked with various people who are drawn by my Cali like by a magnet. With only very positive comments and the ‘ooohhhhs & aaaahhhs’ associated with it. Over the next days I start to understand that wherever I come, I need to schedule extra time for people to have a look at – and talk about – this beautiful new camper van. In all honesty, this puts a very big smile on my face!

I can be brief about my first three days of camping: a great experience! Having rented a T6.1 before, I of course knew what to expect. These expectations however have been more than exceeded. The new T7 feels even more spacious than the T6.1. With the separate seats in the back (which are comfortable) it provides a good living space. At first, I thought I would miss the ‘folding table’ of the T6.1. But the small table fitted in the T7 works fine (I used it in the mornings as a breakfast table, and as a laptop table in the afternoon for doing my e-mail and for writing stories). And as far as storage space is concerned, I don’t miss anything. I read in the various forums on internet that the storage options in this new model are far more limited than in the outgoing T6.1. To be honest, I didn’t notice much of this. For sure, the T6.1 has the ‘extra wide’ drawer under the rear bench, which can fit a lot. In my rented T6.1, for example, the charging cables and the foldable water tank were stored here. But I noticed that they fit perfectly in other places in the new model. Instead, it is ideal that I can fold the rear seats when I travel alone, something that was not possible with the T6.1. Or I can even remove these back seats, to have more space to store things. On the same internet forum, I also read that the heater system would not be able to properly heat-up the cabinet. I now know that this is not the case. In no time it is twenty degrees in the Cali, whilst it is only 5 degrees outside, wonderfully pleasant.

In short, my first experiences are very positive: both as a car for daily use, and as a camper. I’m also positively surprised about the petrol consumption when I’m not driving in the electric mode. Combined driving in cities and on the highway (with a maximum speed of 100 km/h), it consumes only 6 liters per 100 km (approx. 1:17). I did not expect this, as it only has a 1,5 liter engine pulling a weight of approx. 2.600 kg. Not bad! And also the ‘electric driving range’ (75 km with a maximum 80% charged battery) is at/above my expectation.

All in all, I’m very happy that I did not wait until my retirement in buying my Cali. I’m looking forward to many short & longer trips, let the fun continue…