Now that we have made more than 40ooo Km by this vehicle and made stay/tour holidays we can give you a complete view of it.
First of all, we will buy it again? Yes, with eyes closed. We would like to recommend it? No, unless we do know the use and habits of the crew asking us information.
In this blog you can have an idea about our trips. We made a full month stay in a camping place with boxes, plants and strollers. We made a weekend with hundreds of kilometers. From Barcelona to Munich in a week. From Munich to Sicily overland in three weeks with a last minute ferry return. A weekend nearby home and travel displacement to find relatives in Italy.
In all these trips we never had insurmountable problems, we never felt the need of some extra accessories or lack of space to stow stuff (on several occasions we have delivered furniture with 3 doors, bicycles and boxes).
We have reduced all the little superfluous things that we still had and finally we can now move free from a thousand objects that, like it or not, we run into everyday.
With this camper holidays have become really a "take and leave" motto, and along the way we find what to visit and people to meet; for us the essence of travel.
We travel in four, two adults and two children. We stop every 2 hours, rarely longer than that. With this frequency we make up to 800km in a day without stress and especially without stressing the children. They like to do one day driving around playgrounds (thanks to France and Germany witch propose a lot of them), they like to eat lunch and dinner in different places and play every 1 hour more or less.
Speed cruise is slightly less than 100 km/h, we could run more but we found that at this speed there is a good balance between timings and consums. On 6 March, with cruise control and van load, we consumed 67liters of diesel from Munich to Chambery via Swiss, an average of 11.5 km/l ... very good when you consider the two big climbs in Swiss after Zurich and before Geneva.
In these two years and a half of use, with regular annual checks (I prefer to make a check every year) we do not face bigs problems. We had only 3 replacements: the engine battery and the sink pump left on without water by the "small one" of about 2 years old.
The engine is new, the van also although it was always been left on the street in the cold German winters. Even if we used for short trips in the mornings (not suitable for diesel engines) and many short daily trips rarely exceed 30 km.
For the moment we are excited. Now we would like to move to Africa, visiting well Spain and Portugal and the French Atlantic coast up to Brittany, so much more Km to grind in different climatic conditions and with quality assistance definitely lower (after seeing work the german mechanics, of course they are not geniuses, but at least the vast majority are strict) in order to test her going the camper in his second life to the 100ooo Km.
We come to the cell interior.
The famous dark paper porthole 'superior' still there in its place. Despite the possibility to move out from its place it's still there. It's not even ripped and this could mean that it was the right solution (but I would have preferred something different) or maybe we were just lucky.
Parquet (I don't know it is fake or not) holds up well for the moment. We have no major signs despite being used to transport internally furniture (160x180x50) and bicycles. The seats have not yet worn or "breakthrough" or memory of bodies. Only the bench has shown signs of "fatigue" this summer after a continuous use daily for a month, including afternoon siestas. A slight depression is now gone but I do not bode well, who knows' in 3 years if I'll have to change it. The interior plastics have proven to be of medium-high quality since they don't have visible scratches to date (and the kids made propers tests). The components has always worked without hesitation (apart from the submersible pump but it was our mistake) .
What would we change?
The cockpit opens through an opening in the new model that takes the entire surface. Gladly we would adopt this solution and ask whether it is possible as a modification.
The table extension presents a small leg that has to be inserted into a slide of the floor, it is too complicated and if it is getf fille up by sand you must first clean it (operations sometimes not easy approaching the dinner time). On the new model it was replaced by a folding table with free leg much more manageable. Take a look.
The inside of the cabinet shows the patient's body. In particular cases of high internal humidity and external low temperature there is the condensation that could wet the dresses inside. Easily solved with a simple double-sided adhesive and a mat anti moisture camping cut to shape.
For the moment nothing else, I think it's fine.
For the record, the new medium cost 56ooo euro, a folly. We at the fair CMT Soccarda we bought one exposed paying 36ooo euro (with 4ooo€ of extra accessories). I think what we paid is the real value. A few months later came out a way to have this camper at the same price we paid if enrolled in a German club, in my opinion a sign that Westfalia have realized the real price of this camper.