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2018 Volkswagen T6 Transporter California first drive review

We tasted the #vanlife in a high-tech hippie bus that VW won't sell in America

Chris Chin  Update May 10, 2018

The van is not dead yet. You wouldn’t be able to tell in the United States, where the market continues to flood with crossover SUVs and trucks thanks to cheap gas. For Europeans however, the van is as much a part of their culture as gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks are to ours. And after spending a weekend camping out in the latest and greatest version of Volkswagen’s legendary T6 Transporter van, I’ve never wanted a van so badly in my life.

Volkswagen’s van tradition dates back almost 70 years to the original “Type 2,” VW’s first-ever Transporter model, also known as the “Kombi,” “Microbus,” or just, the “bus.” When introduced in 1950, American motorists judged vehicles more by the weight of their chrome than their utility, so it wasn’t until the 1960s that the Type 2 really caught on in American culture. It became a symbol for the single largest contemporary countercultural phenomena in history: the hippie movement.

In 1988, the company introduced a specific “California” model, bundling its most beloved amenities in a package aimed at camper van lovers. To celebrate its 30^th anniversary, VW invited a bunch of journalists to live out (glamp out?) the Volkswagen van life in some of SoCal’s most iconic areas.

Unfortunately, you can’t get one. But, if you had to ask, your most basic Transporter “California” starts at around $51,000 with current exchange rates between the Euro. All of the examples used for testing however encroach $80,000, fully loaded with the current conversions.

Interior and tech

Volkswagen continued selling the Transporter up through its fourth-generation (T4) model of the mid 1990s, which we got as the Eurovan. Sadly, VW ceased sales in the U.S. once it was replaced by the T5, after losing significant market share to the equally as iconic, more affordable, more powerful, and better to drive, Dodge Caravan in the 1980s.

The two have since parted ways as direct competitors, with Chrysler’s minivans evolving more into a family vehicle, while the California continues house duty as a dedicated camper van with everything you can imagine, including the kitchen sink. There’s a refrigerator and freezer, an integrated water and micro-waste system for said kitchen sink, a gas-burning stovetop, and enough storage to literally live out of the thing.

The iconic “pop-top” where two adults can sleep lives on in more modern form: It’s now powered and controlled by a rotary-knob mounted where you’d normally find sunroof controls. A nearby LCD manages the on-board heater (fueled by the main tank), and displays the status of the massive onboard battery, water system, and sewage.

The interior is so incredibly well thought out, it gets me all giddy as a modern-day example of the renowned German attention to detail. Not an inch of space is wasted. Both front seats pivot to face the interior, so anyone can sit around the integrated mini-table that slides out from behind the main rear bench. Said bench folds flat to sleep two more people, technically making room for up to four adults inside this thing – though it might get a little warm and cozy.

Having spent two nights sleeping under the stars in the T6 California, it was comfortable enough to give me one of the most memorably peaceful sleeps that I could recall.