Beach options in Australia

[Greg&Mel Australian Cali]

I have read many Beach posts that refer to a very limited range of options in the UK. I guess this is to encourage buyers to upgrade to the more expensive variants. Since we only have the Beach available in Australia, VW encourages us to spend more by giving more options.
I have just been informed by my VW dealer that our Beach is now on a ship and should arrive in Perth in late September. We couldn’t resist the options and VW did very well as a result.
Standard Beach features here include all the usual Cali gear and a few more: comfort mattress for the three seat rear bench, pull out awning, adaptive cruise control, diesel parking heater, tyre pressure monitoring, leisure battery, full size spare wheel, etc.
So to the options we chose….. White and copper bronze two tone paint, TDI450 7 speed DSG, 4Motion, diff lock and hill descent, silver awning.
Electric roof, electric sliding doors, Art velour and heated seats, wood look floor.
LED headlights, front fog lights, high beam light assist.
Digital cockpit, Discover Pro Navigation, 17” Aracaju alloys with black detailing.
After first being told it could take up to two years to get a Cali into Australia when we ordered in February you can imagine how excited we are that it will only take 7 months.
This is our first Kombi, though not our first Campervan (40 years ago before we were married). But I learned to drive in my brothers 1970 Superbug, since then I have owned three Beetles (1963, 1969 - daughter crashed it- 2002 New Beetle Turbo), a 1960 Karman Ghia (wish I still had it , had to go to pay for our daughters education), a Jetta and we still own a TDI Passat, which we will pass to our son. Hard to believe it has taken this long to get a Kombi, and what a Kombi. I am sure it will be worth the 40 year wait!

 

[DUB10]

Hi GJ. You guys are very fortunate to be able to order a 4motion Beach with options that just aren’t specc’able to us in the UK (like 204ps and power roof). We are on our second Ocean 4m and have realised a Beach layout is going to be more use to us, especially when sharing the school run. I’ve asked VW if we can do a private import from Australia but not had a response as yet.

 

[Greg&Mel Australian Cali]

The great thing about the Beach is you can add a rear kitchen when on a trip and remove to store in the garage when at home. No need to carry your kitchen, wardrobes and kitchen sink around the city when commuting. We never cooked inside in our previous van and we will be able to cook at the back or on the table under the awning. Cooking fumes and grease inside - yuk. Full width bed, 5 seats with the option to buy two second hand seats to carry 7 people. Flexible is the word!

 

[WelshGas]

The great thing about the Beach is you can add a rear kitchen when on a trip and remove to store in the garage when at home. No need to carry your kitchen, wardrobes and kitchen sink around the city when commuting. We never cooked inside in our previous van and we will be able to cook at the back or on the table under the awning. Cooking fumes and grease inside - yuk. Full width bed, 5 seats with the option to buy two second hand seats to carry 7 people. Flexible is the word!

I presume you cook outside at home, otherwise all those fumes and grease in your house.

 

[Greg&Mel Australian Cali]

We have a range hood above our stove in our house, we wash out the grease from the filters regularly. The kitchen is also quite large and has a 5 metre high ceiling.

 

[Greg&Mel Australian Cali]

That might have sounded a little snarky, apologies if it did. How you cook in a beach is very limited, of course, as it has no kitchen . The van my wife and I built in 1980 had a stove on a hinge that we swivelled out the sliding door, so we cooked outside. We liked it and a rear kitchen is somewhat similar. You also have the option of putting the gas stove on the table under the awning. When we decided to buy a campervan for our retirement we didn’t want a conversion, we wanted a California and the only option in Australia is the Beach. It just happens to suit us but if a fixed stove inside suits others then that is great.