► New VW Multivan Camper variant
► Comes ready to convert with pop-up roof
► Still not exactly a budget bargain
Like this? Get more CAR delivered to your browser! Click here to add CAR Magazine as a preferred source on Google.
Volkswagen has launched a stripped-out version of the long-wheelbase Multivan MPV as a base vehicle for campervan conversions. Called the Multivan Camper, it’s a curious move at first thought, given you’re still looking at upwards of £50k once the VAT is added. But it aligns with the firm’s decision to switch its own California campervan range to the Multivan platform in 2024.
The result is an opportunity for independent campervan converters to once again beat VW at its own game. By offering Volkswagen California alternatives that are either more bespoke or lower-priced.
To ‘avoid wastage’ and reduce cost, VW is selling the Multivan Camper with a trimmed but otherwise empty rear cabin that also does without any floor covering. Instead of the seven individual seats usually fitted inside there are now just two, for the driver and front passenger.
However, these now both swivel, so they can face the rear and form the start of a lounge area when you’re parked. What’s more, you get a factory installed manual pop-up roof with the correct headlining – saving a significant faff in the conversion process.
As with all Multivans, there are twin sliding rear side doors and a tailgate as standard. Factory options are limited to heated front seats, three-zone climate control, satellite navigation and a choice of alloy wheels.
The cheaper 148bhp 2.0-litre TDI model – with front-wheel drive and DSG transmission – is £43,900 before VAT, £52,680 with tax added.
You can also opt for a 237bhp eHybrid – with 4Motion four-wheel drive and DSG – for £50,725/£60,870 without/with VAT.
For reference, the cheapest factory California is £64,417 including VAT. But that does only get you the basic Beach variant with the slide-out kitchen fitted at the rear. Fully integrated Californias with the interior kitchen and fridge start at £71,725 for the Coast variant. A range-topping Ocean costs from £79,213.
So while the Multivan Camper base isn’t exactly supercheap, there is still potentially a bit of wiggle room – as well as the opportunity to kit- and layout the cabin and sleeping arrangements exactly as you see fit.
You’ll have to be prepared to pass second-stage type approval, though, as the Multivan Camper is supplied with ‘incomplete M1 homologation’, requiring the conversion to be complete before it can be registered.
Volkswagen has a long history of building California campervans that have traditionally been based on the Transporter van. This has always allowed others to copy its lead, and build their own, usually lower cost, campers using a basic commercial vehicle as the starting point.
This has unquestionably helped build the cult of the Transporter, as even today you get buy a cheap (ish) secondhand example and do your own conversion, and people will nod approvingly. There is extensive aftermarket support to facilitate this.
But the latest VW Transporter (which costs from £32,965/£39,478 without/with VAT) is actually a mildly altered version of the Ford Transit Custom. Volkswagen has moved its own California production onto the Multivan, which despite being a dedicated MPV and based on the extensively proven MQB car platform is still built by VW Commercial Vehicles.
The introduction of the Multivan Camper is no doubt intended to encourage professional converters and keen, well-heeled amateurs to make the same switch. Pulling them away from basing future conversions on the fundamentally Ford Transporter range.
It’ll be interesting to see if this works.
Ford also sells its own campervan, based on the Transit Custom, called the Nugget. Read more about the best factory-built campervans on CAR.
CJ is a former Associate Editor of CAR, and now runs parent company Bauer Media’s Digital Automotive Hub – the in-house team that provides much of the online content for CAR and sister site Parkers.co.uk as well as helping out with CAR magazine. He’s been writing about cars professionally (if that's the right word) for nearly two decades, though attempts to hide this fact with an extensive moisturising routine.
By CJ Hubbard
Head of the Bauer Digital Automotive Hub and former Associate Editor of CAR. Road tester, organiser, reporter and professional enthusiast, putting the driver first