About to dip my toe in

[Chalky]

I've spent the past few days scouring this very helpful and informative site. I decided that I would not join until my mind was definitely made up.

I have the opportunity to purchase a California Beach T5 brand new. In Olympic Blue. The spec can only really be described as SE beach but as that does not actually exist I'll call it the run out model or look what we found in the parts bin lets get rid of it.

Xenons
Night heater
Power latched door
Sliding windows both sides
Tints
Dab radio / rns 510 sat nav
Reverse cam
Front fogs
140 DSG
7 seats
Dimming rear view mirror
Auto wipers
Auto lights
Bluetooth multi function wheel etc
And some other bits,

It's just rolled off the production line, it's expensive, but so are the alternatives. I've just come out of long term relationship with a Discovery 3, and finding an alternative to this vehicle is proving very very difficult. I'm not purchasing a D4 as they are more or less the same vehicle.
The Disco fitted our needs at that specific time however now like many more and after years of camping I think we are ready for the high life. I've been looking at Kombi's but my wife vito'd this over 12 months ago.
Then onto caravelle, had a look at an edition 25 which was silly money, so looked at executive before eventually listening to the voice of reason "my wife" and plumped for something that suited our outdoorsy lifestyle, my MTB'ing, family days out, walking, room for the dog, my sons Rugby and all the other associated festivals, and Cornwall excursions. Alps trips etc.

I've looked at the T6. To be honest if I can live with a D3 for 7 years with the D4 looking nearly exactly the same I'm pretty sure I can do the same with the T5 knowing that the T6 is virtually the same.

It's a well specced T5, one I don't think I'm going to have much of a problem selling in the future.

So hopefully in the not too distant future I'm hoping to be out there meeting some of you good folk on the roads and campsites.

 

[Meoncoast]

Welcome, Do not forget when you are looking at spec the SE has a built in fridge and cooker when we were researching before bying I almost missed this little point. Nice spec Beach.

 

[motacyclist]

Welcome Chalky, chuck in 4motion and you will go almost anywhere the Disco can (check the videos on Youtube) plus you can live in it

 

[larrylamb]

Hi, i am sure you know the difference between the SE and the beach, that spec sounds awesome and will be a fantastic vehicle for your outdoorsy lifestyle. There are many kitchen pod/ fridges you can get if you want a full on camper experience sometimes but for what you like doing it's perfect and a lovely drive too. Buy it, love it and join the club

 

[Chalky]

Hi, yes I'm sure it will be very capable with 4Motion, but for the majority of use it will be fine with the winter tyres that it is coming with.

It also has 3 zone climate, heated seats and Timaru alloy wheels?

Which when the supplying dealer looked into looks like one of the T6 alloys ?
Or am I being mislead on this ?
They are black and silver.

Yes aware of SE - Beach config, which is why I opted for the Beach, it's a 7 seater with the two up individual 2nd row seats and then the X3 bench in the rear.

wish it was Blackberry but I suppose you can't have everything unless you order new then you are into T6 territory again.

 

[Chalky]

Well......... Toes been dipped, in fact submerged !

Picked it up on Saturday from North Wales VW at Llandudno and and drove straight to Betws Y Coed. I hadn't travelled 5 mins before I passed a T5 in coming towards me in the opposite direction who promptly waved, this activity continued all the way home, even getting flashed on the Mtwy from the opposite carriageway.

Stopped en route in a nice lay by and deployed lunch from our cool box fridge that had been pre arranged, spun the seats around and popped out the table, brewed up using the JetBoil and couldn't help but sit there and kick myself !

Should have made this decision a long time ago !

Now we need to make up for lost time, looks like we will be very active over the summer and well into Autumn with the use of the night heater,

Can't seem to stop buying stuff for it, it's just like owning a Land Rover only not quite as expensive.
But much more fun and very user friendly.

 

[Gavinskii]

Sounds great, now get yourself booked into Cali's On The Farm!