which multivan, auto or 4 motion etc

[shogun2]

Around town I get 10.5 l/100km in the manual 4Motion. This appears to drop dramatically on long trips - somewhere around 8-9l/100Kms. (Adelaide/Alice Springs/Adelaide about six weeks ago).
The only ideosyncrasies I currently have is the dash has started squeeking, and the sat nav software is not up to date. (Eurovox went bust, and there is no update for my van. There are also roads and one complete suburb not even documented!) Hopefully this will be fixed within a month, as I have been told that VWG have a replacement under test.
Everything else is working OK, and I still love driving it!

[BobD]

Wanderia,

Not sure why you would want to replace the fantastic VW seats in a Multvan with after market seats.

I was looking at Territories before I decided on my Multivan. However, I couldn't buy it without a diesel after being so impressed with the T4 TDI I had since 2004. I paid out my Novated Lease early to get the Multivan when the right deal came up.

When I got mine in June, I started looking at the 9 seater Kombi. However, with the discount I got on the Multivan that wasn't available for the Kombi at the time, they were almost the same price. I decided that I would forgoe 2 seats for the refinement, comfort, quietness and extra power of the 128kW Multivan Comfortline.

I am not sorry I did, although the extra seats would be handy, especially with 6 children. The good thing is that 4 of the "children" now have their own cars so there is usually an alternative available and seven seats are usually enough.

I drove the Multivan to work on Friday, a 20km each way drive through heavy traffic to the Perth CBD but with some 100kph sections as well. It averaged 9.5l/100km according to the trip computer. Since then with my wife driving today, it has jumped up to its usual 10.5l/100km. Maybe she is the lead foot that causes my car to use more fuel than I would like!!

[wandaria]

Iwon't replace the seats but you can have after marekt seats fully Australian compliant fitted between the the middle row 2 single seats and or between the driver and passenger seats, naturally enough, they will oly be childrens seats, don't worry I won't get rid of the good vw seats.

Bob if your thinking about you can get extra seats put in.

I too am thinking about paying out the multivan early on the lease

Its amazing at time how the women seem to drive with less fuel economy.

Bob if you don't mind me asking, what sort of deal did you get on the multivan, I will be buying the comfortline and probably the 4 motion, not sure what extras I will get but I want a towball and stuff which I am not prepared to pay vw their exhoribant price so it will be a salary sacrifice after market fitting.

Interestd to know because in the last couple of months the recomended retails dropped 3 grand on the multivans and like always good to know their bottom type price when you go wading into the market. I remember looking at a suburaabout 5 years ago and anyway to cut a long story short their was one particualr subaru dealer that had a tendency to cut the other subaru dealers short so one nearby subaru dealer (amongst numerous others) who did not like the other dealer advised me of the absolute break even cost on the car after all kickbacks etc and it was about 3 grand less than the best price I could get through fleet leasing, Anyway the wife changed her mind the last minute and we did not get the subaru, but I do believe that I would have got the car cheap becasue he wanted rid of them.

I am happy for everyone to make their profit, but not when they lie to you about it. But anyway thats another matter.

I tried all sorts of ways not to be able to justify the extra price of the VW, but in the end I have justified the price because I reckon its worth it.

[shogun2]

Hi Wandaria,
I too have a situation that when I get back from a business trip I find that the average fuel consumption on the diesels has jumped about 20% from where it is when I drive. I figured it out the other day - the other half regularly drives our Honda Civic. The Civic requires much higher revs to get anywhere compared to the diesels, so she drives the diesels with the same revs as the Civic. Nothing I say can get her to change ...

[BobD]

Hi Wandaria,
I too have a situation that when I get back from a business trip I find that the average fuel consumption on the diesels has jumped about 20% from where it is when I drive. I figured it out the other day - the other half regularly drives our Honda Civic. The Civic requires much higher revs to get anywhere compared to the diesels, so she drives the diesels with the same revs as the Civic. Nothing I say can get her to change ...

You are right. You need to keep the gears as high as possible on diesels to get best economy. One of the reasons I was happy to get an auto was to help my wife who was not that good at changing gears with the 5 speed manual on the T4. However, she now has great trouble operating the climate control A/C and it is always wrong when I get in the car to drive it!!

I tell her to leave it on Auto and not touch it but she insists on trying to switch the fan off because it is too noisy or something else that she thinks she can fix. The only time you can even hear the fan at all is when it switches to high for a couple of minutes when the car is either very cold or very hot. Anyway, she is happy doing whatever it is she does while she is driving.

[BobD]

[QUOTE=wandaria;81231].

Bob if you don't mind me asking, what sort of deal did you get on the multivan, I will be buying the comfortline and probably the 4 motion, not sure what extras I will get but I want a towball and stuff which I am not prepared to pay vw their exhoribant price so it will be a salary sacrifice after market fitting.

[QUOTE]

Wandaria,

My dealer arranged for a Haymen Reese towbar that I paid for myself rather than including it in the deal. It has 2500kg capacity and cost around $540. The only problem is that the recommended receiver is very low, way too low for my caravan, and I got the supplier to swap it for a higher one. They did this at no cost for me but said I was the only T5 owner to query the towbar height and they have supplied lots to other people.

The deal I got was free on road costs (rego and stamp duty). Stamp duty is pretty high in WA, around $3000 for the Multivan if my memory is correct. I got them to give me an equivalent discount on the price instead, which reduced the luxury car tax to almost zero. They did this for me although they don't usually do it. It also works better for the Novated Lease / salary sacrifice paper work.

[Seano]

Wandaria, if you play on dirt I can guarantee that your fuel economy will suffer......not spectacularily mind you but enough to be noticed. The T4 syncro tends to chew an extra 10% per 100km when doing open dirt roads despite the adjustment in driving style for safety reasons....

[shogun2]

Wandaria,

My dealer arranged for a Haymen Reese towbar that I paid for myself rather than including it in the deal. It has 2500kg capacity and cost around $540. The only problem is that the recommended receiver is very low, way too low for my caravan, and I got the supplier to swap it for a higher one. They did this at no cost for me but said I was the only T5 owner to query the towbar height and they have supplied lots to other people.

Just be careful doing this if you have the reverse parking sensors. I've been quoted the $1,400 to retrofit a removable tow hitch to my T5. They justify the high cost as they need to modify the CAN buss to turn the sensors off when the standard tow hitch is fitted.

[BobD]

Just be careful doing this if you have the reverse parking sensors. I've been quoted the $1,400 to retrofit a removable tow hitch to my T5. They justify the high cost as they need to modify the CAN buss to turn the sensors off when the standard tow hitch is fitted.

Who needs the VW automatic system? All you do is push the button on the dash to turn the sensors off when you reverse with a trailer. No big deal at all. Otherwise it beeps continuously. I wouldn't pay extra money for this when the fix is so simple for the few times you actually reverse with a trailer.

I don't know how they have wired things up though as they probably know nothing about the CANBUS system. It all seems to work OK though.

[Tornado T5]

Just be careful doing this if you have the reverse parking sensors. I've been quoted the $1,400 to retrofit a removable tow hitch to my T5. They justify the high cost as they need to modify the CAN buss to turn the sensors off when the standard tow hitch is fitted.

Mine is a HR manufactured and dealer fitted option with the rear protection bar and the supposed extra wiring loom to de-activate the factory fitted reversing senors when reversing with a trailer and guess what?...beep, beep beep...I have a sneaking suspicion they fitted the hitch without the correct wiring loom, only problem so far and minor at that, the dealer will look at it as I think I'll do a mid-point oil change service at 7500km.