Volkswagen T5 campervans compared to their rivals

[Music] [Music] [Music] this hillside third shaver is very much the classic VW camper side kitchen pot top roof all the things that you'd normally expect but look at the front and it's a tin plate now that I can save you quite a sum of money by building on a second-hand van of a vehicle that's had a life as a commercial vehicle before it's become a camper and this one's been converted by hillside it's a brand new conversion inside Steve's got fresh fabric brand new fridge cooker etc but obviously with that useful cost-saving let's take a look inside so very much the conventional VW camper this hillside and quite a traditional finish with this wood effect on the furniture but one nice touch is this hinge out section here little storage area for perhaps spices pots of Marmite and that sort of thing on the door fridge is hidden in there too you get a grill as well now that's in addition to the two burner hob with spark ignition you've got on the top there and a sink is included as well in this one piece of stainless steel unit at the back this RI baseet unit is one of the better seat systems used in VW campers well-known seat system and you've got these adjustable headrests so they're quite good for when you're carrying adults in the back of the vehicle bed makes up nice and easily - let's pop those down one handle to release base comes over and then the backrest just simply drops into the place there [Music] moving from the hillside on a second hand base vehicle at twenty nine nine nine five we go to almost the other extreme of the VW camper market this Romo white line is fifty two thousand five hundred pounds but then that does include the fancy wheels DSG automatic gearbox and so on it's a much higher spec vehicle and of course it's a brand new based vehicle to start with now the white line is this new and all white exterior white furniture on the inside is a bit of a limited edition to jazz it up a bit let's take a look and see what the turn that interior looks like now this remote has a sliding seat system with three seatbelts all three-point belts three head restraints two so this turns it into a five seater slightly narrower kitchen unit than some but all with this rather nice white gloss finish soft clothes on the drawers the tambour door hides the low now that does eating is storage a bit whereas some of the other VW campers have to lose stored under the seat so kitchen storage is a bit limited but you have still got your two burner hob no ignition on this one and a separate sink and then of course the familiar little compressor fridge seat slides forward as I said and that greatly increases the versatility of the vehicle when you're carrying young kids perhaps you want them a bit nearer to you and if you've got large loads to carry the mattress section and the back tips up to vertical and gives you a very large boot this wardrobe doors rather neat too rather than hinging out and getting in the way it simply slides down and nothing can get in the way of that mechanism because there's a panel that hides where the the door drops down [Music] now on the Facebook this Bilbo's space looks like another high spec VW camper again it's got a DSG box option on this particular vehicle that's a nice alloy wheels metallic paint color keyed bumpers all the toys but this one is very different to see why let's have a look around the back yeah same top left tailgate but this time we can actually get in through the back of the vehicle and these are your kitchen units not down the side but at the back they're completely removable and where's your fridge where's your cooker well it's all very portable very removable there's your cooker finish with that time for the washing up need below it's in storage as well and there's this removable hanging unit for all sorts of odds and ends in these little pockets very useful bit of storage more storage under the seats and these can make a transverse child's bed here or they can make an extra long single bed because these seats fold down to make single beds now if you have a look through the side door and you see a completely different seating area to your normal Volkswagen individual seats for rear passengers so it's just a four-seater but with the front seats swivel Drowned it's a much more so inviting much more cozy little seating area lots of light coming in through these side windows in the elevating roof - because Bilbo's use their own side hinged elevating roof very different from the other roofs on the market and these seats simply flip over and you've got two really long single beds you can either use this part as part of that single bed or sleep across here for a child you could think of this as the Rolls Royce of VW campers and at 57 thousand pounds you might be somewhat surprised by the price you can buy a California cheaper than that but this is VW's own camper all the others here start life as a van and are converted in the UK into a camper albeit mostly with factory fitted windows and so on these days this one comes from Germany from Volkswagen as you see it here downside is that sliding doors on the German side the continental side so if you're taking kids on the school run you might be letting them out into the middle of the road but look at the good points this lovely aluminium furniture that looks like would have a nice glass lid that rises on a gas strut the top loading fridge is neatly concealed behind another ball store these cupboard doors nice and neat sliding units this seat two slides backwards and forwards and it reclines for a bit of extra comfort you can go on and on about the nice features the control panel above the reveal rear view mirror does all the controls for the heating and the fridge and so on beautifully integrated the roof goes up electrically and you've got the best roof bed you'll ever find in a in a pop-top camper so you really can sleep upstairs as two adults downside as I said is in Christ but you can't buy them cheap but this one's got the 180 bhp buy turbo engine and the automatic gearbox [Music] now a Ford Transit custom might not sound as glamorous as Volkswagen t5 but this latest Ford base vehicle is every bit as good to drive no better to drive than a Volkswagen it's the latest forward bias vehicle in the sort of midsize van and well housed leisure have turned it into the terrier our campervan of the year for 2014 now inside it's quite conventional in terms of Volkswagen camper type layout but let's have a look and see why the Theriot works so well now the thing is with the terrier you're getting the latest Drive the latest equipment and specification in terms of base vehicle but possibly 10 grand cheaper than the equivalent Volkswagen camper and it's not as if the conversion is a stripped out special either you've got this nice high-gloss wood finish fitted grill cavity porta potti familiar compressor fridge and again the sort of combined hob and grill unit with spark ignition that you'd expect but then there's some nice touches as well this rather luxurious leather finish for the seats both cab seats swivel properly so you can really can use the driver's seat on site there's a second table as well and even the roof bed I'm part of the standard equipment at around 42,000 pounds of the vehicle as you see here now the three-person sliding seat system from Rio is pretty familiar stuff in campervan territory but beds can be on the firm side in these sort of vehicles so well housed have actually provided a mattress topper and this one well done well Hills [Music] now the little dial brie from hillside is obviously smaller than a t5 but it is also a lot cheaper and around half the price of some of the top n t5 campers you've seen on this video now the base vehicles are little nests and in the two hundred diesel course and a practical little everyday car if you've got a park it in a supermarket car park or in your garage at home you might actually prefer the size of this over the larger t5 or the terrier and so on now this one's actually there down burry action which has less kitchen more seating being a bed let's go and see how that works now this one again has got an R IVs seat in the back it's a triple seat so three 3-point belts again the height adjustable head restraints for all three rear passengers nice to touch that so a five seater car but a car that you can sleep in a car that you can make a little picnic lunch in the roof gives decent standing room but there's no bed up there just a useful shelf area at the front of the vehicle good practical space when you're on site now slide the front seat forward tip the backrest as far as it'll go here's your little kitchen unit you under a wheel here and it simply swings round so you can sit here you have a little single burner hob with a gas cartridge in there little tiny sink Maps perhaps a sir we'd go to the campsite facilities to do your washing up unless you park by the beach or something but it it is a neat little unit and you've got a separate cool box underneath now the real advantage of the doub reaction over the standard ovary is not just that you get an extra seat belt in the back that you get a much bigger bed a bed that competes with much larger campus slide the seat forward flip over the base drop down the two sections in the back and pretty much the whole vehicle is now obeyed but it is a good size bed now for a lot of people Volkswagen is a name to have on your camper van but what about if you want a more prestigious name Mercedes Benz well Auto sleep I think that their name which has 40 odd years of reputation behind it and the Mercedes badge with it will win them sales in this market so they've launched the wave a different take on the upmarket camper van sector now this one's got the kitchen at the back but it's not a bit like the Bilbo's space let's see why now the bling of the exterior with the chrome bars and chrome mirrors is if you like carried on with these sort of half leather lazyboy type chairs in the back and it's practical as an everyday car because you've got sliding doors on both sides and versatility continues on site because you've got two small tables probably best if you sit one each side rather than share a table I'm very much a two-person can for this this one's got the optional roof bed but we wouldn't recommend it because it reduces already restricted Headroom in the back of the vehicle you've got a sink on one side two burner hob on the other where are the rest of your fitting features and fittings well they're all hidden away grills in there and the cool box actually is in this locked cupboard I'm which slides out draw style so you've got a big portable unit for your fridge cool box in there 12 volt unit and but quite heavy to take carry around now as an alternative Auto sleepers will offer that as storage for a porta potti in which case you get a a rather small fridge unit which will slide between the two front seats and finally we've got the weld house Alfred the what well it's a Toyota Alfred a Japanese people carry imported into the UK at about ten years old and converted by will house later in Huntsville into a brand new camp event now the fact it's on a secondhand base vehicle imported from Japan means that you can drive away in one of these for around 20 grand or just over you get a high spec base vehicle powerful petrol engines and an automatic gearbox so this seems more like driving a luxury car or being a ten-year-old bomb let's see we get inside now from the wood trim on the dashboard to these automotive plastic moldings around all the windows cup holders in there you can tell that this wasn't a commercial van a Bob the Builder vehicle to start with this was an upmarket people carrier when it started its life back in Japan now well house has done a good job of turning it into a little camper you've got this double rear passenger seat with headdress three-point belts and the traditional side kitchen layout tambour doors give quite good practical access into the storage and you've got this upmarket combined hob and sink unit on the top little tiny top loading fridge in there and this one's even got dings or heating by a bastard a nicely finished very much a two-person van you could possibly sleep a child in the roof but probably better seen as a vehicle for two but at this price and with this spec it has to be worthy of your consideration and this is the van that could just change the camp van market the brand new Renault trafic the old Renault trafic was popular this one's much better it's got new twin turbo engine options which are claimed to be very economical its t5 sized but it drives much more like an MPV than a commercial van campers are coming comprar and hillside should have launched theirs by the time you see in this video and there are more on the way beyond that [Music]

Channel: MotorhomeCampervan

Views: 763,802

Rating: 4.5948615 out of 5

Keywords: Volkswagen Transporter T5 (Automobile Generation), Volkswagen (Automobile Make), Campervan (Body Style), motorhome, review, Motorhome TV, Volkswagen Passenger Cars (Automobile Company)

Id: 6fUYKllRfog

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 13 2014