18 Dec 07
A change was needed. Living in London meant a family-friendly 4x4 was immediately ruled out, for a whole host of practical, rather than political, reasons (all-wheel drive isn't needed that often in urban south London). No, we were after something that majored in space and wouldn't cost the earth at the pumps.
An estate was also ruled out on the grounds of not carrying enough people and lacking the interior flexibility to which we had become accustomed.
Our Eureka moment came when we attended the 60th anniversary event for the VW Camper. The whole weekend we were shuttled around Hanover in a VW Caravelle, the spiritual successor to the iconic original. We were impressed by the space we had to lounge in the rear, the load carrying capacity, the versatility, and the comfort and refinement on offer.
A couple of weeks later, VW phoned up and wondered if we were interested in a van as a long-termer. We most certainly were, so we chose our specification carefully, opting for the 128bhp 2.5-litre diesel that returns 34mpg on the combined cycle, which should make amends for our thirsty S-Max.
We then opted for the base SE model that comes with long list of kit, including ESP, remote locking, 16" alloys, air conditioning in the front and rear, seven seats, two of which swivel.
On top of that we added front and rear parking sensors (£360), rear privacy glass (£235) for when the editor doesn't want to be recognised and a menacing pearl metallic black paint job.
We were pretty pleased with our restraint, until we realised all of this had taken the price to £29,515.
