VW vans

[V8Granite]

Last month I had a Ford Transit custom, it was quick enough, quiet enough at speed, had Apple car play and did over 40mpg. It even handled surprisingly well and had some steering feel so you could play silly buggers with it.

I now have a New VW Transporter.

No climate so just AC, if you point it at the screen it stays clear but you get warm, if you point it at yourself the screen starts to go slightly cloudy. So you have to turn the heated screen on all the time.
The parking sensors are audible even when the handbrake is up and you are out of gear. So if you are parked and have the ignition on you have to manually turn the parking sensors off each time.
It’s a 5 speed and can’t hold 60mph on the Kidderminster road up the hill, my Defender can do that. I think it is about 90hp on a brand new van, madness.
Adaptive cruise is lovely if you are on low traffic roads. Even on the closest setting it slows down far too much when someone pulls infront of you and then once they are gone takes about 3 seconds till it starts to accelerate again. Which is a lifetime on the motorway.
The screen randomly stops working and crashes. Also nearly on the dot after 10 minutes it gives a load of interference like you have a bad signal. It happens with radio, CarPlay or on a phone call on Bluetooth.
The touchscreen is horrid, it is so sensitive and the ride so bad that inevitably you just use it as little as possible.
When it has stopped using the parking sensors it doesn’t return the volume of the radio, phone all to the previous volume, despite adjusting it in the settings multiple times. All other volumes have stayed set.
The stereo sound is garbage.
The brakes are hugely over-servoed.
The glovebox had no space and it only has USB C connections.
The quality is lower than the transit on the interior.
It has a cup holder which impedes your vision, as in it would be an MOT failure.
It hasn’t got enough tie down points in the back unlike the transit which had loads.
The roof is smooth so you can’t use the holes in the frame to help lash stuff down like the transit had.
I dared go near an overgrown hedge so it emergency stopped on me.
It decided a lorry was dangerous in the rain and brakes hard, but didn’t fully stop luckily.

Apart from the horrible Tomy My First Touchscreen touchscreen in the Transit it’s leagues ahead of this thing.

Mumble grumble.

Dave!

[John]

Aren’t VW going into partnership with Ford for the next generation of Transporter? Could be an improvement going by your description. Not sure what the VW fanboys will think though.

[V8Granite]

I hope not as the sharing could go both ways

Dave!

[jamcg]

I hope not as the sharing could go both ways

Dave!

Depends, if you look at past efforts with the mk1 galaxy/vw sharan then that bodes well. Vw designed the chassis and had the suspension set up similar to a van, Ford tried it, said it was shit and took full control of the project

[drcarlos]

I hope not as the sharing could go both ways

Dave!

Depends, if you look at past efforts with the mk1 galaxy/vw sharan then that bodes well. Vw designed the chassis and had the suspension set up similar to a van, Ford tried it, said it was shit and took full control of the project

or it could go Full Cherry Europe

[V8Granite]

Another couple of things….

You can only move the cruise control up or down in 5mph steps. It takes a few goes to get it to the exact speed you want (for safe soeeding) as even if the Speedo shows an accurate 79mph it will seemingly choose 74 or 80, not the speed you want.

Plus volume needs multiple presses, if you hold the button to go up quickly it takes about 5 seconds to notice you want more than a single press.

Dave!

[Rich B]

Another couple of things….

You can only move the cruise control up or down in 5mph steps. It takes a few goes to get it to the exact speed you want (for safe soeeding) as even if the Speedo shows an accurate 79mph it will seemingly choose 74 or 80, not the speed you want.


Dave!

are you sure you've just NRTFM?

My golf has a rocker to go up and down in 5s, then the main two buttons go up in singles.

[McSwede]

I hope not as the sharing could go both ways

Dave!

Depends, if you look at past efforts with the mk1 galaxy/vw sharan then that bodes well. Vw designed the chassis and had the suspension set up similar to a van, Ford tried it, said it was shit and took full control of the project

At work we had a couple of new Mk1 Galaxy's back in the day. They were great.

[McSwede]

On the latest Collecting Cars podcast John McGuinness talks briefly about having a VW transporter. Harris says "so you're one of those guys driving around in a £60k £40k van?"

[jamcg]

I hope not as the sharing could go both ways

Dave!

Depends, if you look at past efforts with the mk1 galaxy/vw sharan then that bodes well. Vw designed the chassis and had the suspension set up similar to a van, Ford tried it, said it was shit and took full control of the project

or it could go Full Cherry Europe

It’s Ford/VW not a Vauxhall/GM/Daewoo mash up/rebranding exercise

[Ascender]

Apart from the usb-c, the rest of it sounds like an absolute nightmare. I have wondered what these vans are like as they're incredibly popular for camper conversions at the moment and I think they look great, but sounds like it might all be predicated on the image and heritage of VW rather than how good the base van actually is.

[Gwaredd]

It's all about the image. The Merc Vitos are a decade ahead of the VW and Ford vans though. No comparison.

[jamcg]

Apart from the usb-c, the rest of it sounds like an absolute nightmare. I have wondered what these vans are like as they're incredibly popular for camper conversions at the moment and I think they look great, but sounds like it might all be predicated on the image and heritage of VW rather than how good the base van actually is.

Aka VW tax

As someone who uses a van I have the opinion a van is a tool. They’re designed to get hammered, dented, scratched etc which mine does but everyone with one of the vw’s treats them with kid gloves.

[nuttinnew]

It sounds like the spec "from only £xxxxxx" that nobody actually gets
This reminds me I've a Transit for the spotted thread.

[V8Granite]

Another couple of things….

You can only move the cruise control up or down in 5mph steps. It takes a few goes to get it to the exact speed you want (for safe soeeding) as even if the Speedo shows an accurate 79mph it will seemingly choose 74 or 80, not the speed you want.


Dave!

are you sure you've just NRTFM?

My golf has a rocker to go up and down in 5s, then the main two buttons go up in singles.

I just double checked on the drive back from Manc and it’s definitely only up and down in 5 mph increments. The other rocker switch just changed the trip on the info screen by the dials.

Dave!

[Rich B]

Another couple of things….

You can only move the cruise control up or down in 5mph steps. It takes a few goes to get it to the exact speed you want (for safe soeeding) as even if the Speedo shows an accurate 79mph it will seemingly choose 74 or 80, not the speed you want.


Dave!

are you sure you've just NRTFM?

My golf has a rocker to go up and down in 5s, then the main two buttons go up in singles.

I just double checked on the drive back from Manc and it’s definitely only up and down in 5 mph increments. The other rocker switch just changed the trip on the info screen by the dials.

Dave!

Odd. Mine has the (brilliant) adaptive cruise - do transporters have that?

Mine works like this:

[Jimexpl]

Some brands do a single press for a 5kmh/5mph increment or a long press to get to the desired speed.
I can’t believe the the VW only does it in large increments.
RTFM.

And yes, the VW tax is very real, but the other ‘premium’ alternative used to rust very quickly (Merc), and they have good residual values because everyone wants a VW.

If you just look at the purchase price anything like for like is generally better.

[simon_g]

Yep, I'm used to mk7 Golfs doing it on res/set. I think most newer VWs use short/long presses of the +/- for the different increments though.

[V8Granite]

I’ll play about with it tomorrow but when I press set it just sets your speed wherever you are, but seems to miss the mark 9 times out of 10.

Maybe adaptive cruise would be better if this thing had more power.

Dave!

[16vCento]

My V60 is the same.

It only does it in 5mph increments for the speed limiter, but 1mph increments for the cruise control.

It's very frustrating.