VW Grand California - Complicated Relationship

MackymcMacky · Jan 16, 2024

Hi all,

Life long dream to own a high quality camper and we loved our GC. We've had some amazing trips in Ireland with our two small girls. That said - we're now back at the dealership investigating more issues and we don't even have the van a year.

Panel - Non responsive / temperamental - can't rely on it in winter now.
Wifi - No power to unit
Leisure battery - not charging / holding charge.

We already had the awning repaired.

Really surprised as I would have thought a brand new VW would work with no issues so I'm struggling to keep my levels of joy up!

Has anyone any experience with handing back a van and asking for a new one? We already paid for extra warranty as it seems we'll spend a lot of time getting it fixed.

Corradobrit · Jan 16, 2024

You might want to have a word with @Eber123, or check out his posts. He's in your neck of the woods and went through a similar batch of early repairs on his GC which were documented in his posts. It seems it's not that unusual and he got his problems resolved. Once fixed the van should be solid.

MackymcMacky · Jan 17, 2024

Thanks @Corradobrit - I'll have a look. Appreciate the message!

Carryon Cali Camping · Jan 17, 2024

Don’t be too down hearted, to be honest your issues do not seem to serious. Your leisure battery/control panel may be related. We recently had to have a software update as the leisure battery was always showing 100% charged on the panel, so the alternator didn’t think it needed to charge it when driving, now resolved.
We have previously had a couple of expensive larger Motorhomes and had a lot more issues with them than our GC.
I think you’ll struggle to be handed a new GC in exchange for your old one, especially as your issues listed seem more than doable to resolve By VW. Keep on bugging VW and hope all is resolved soon.

ThomasHJ · Jan 17, 2024

Would like to add that yeah, it is really disappointing that when you realise a (very expensive) life long dream, the thing seems flimsy and 'breaks down half of the time'. Which takes time, trouble, and most of all stress. So it's completely understandable that you're struggeling to enjoy it. But don't let it spoil what will surely be a great vehicle, bringing many more great memories, once VW fix the problems. Hope your problems will all be solved quickly and you'll get to enjoy it!

MackymcMacky · Jan 17, 2024

Thanks all! That's the tough part - absolutely love the thing when it's working and it fits our car park space outside the door so it always ready to go! Appreciate the steer that the issues are fixable. Hopefully we get it back without too much drama and we can get back to adventures!

Californication69 · Jan 17, 2024

It’s best to find them all now, while under warranty and get them right. After that, you should have a good 10 years worth of wear..

Moonlight Motel · Jan 17, 2024

MackymcMacky said:
Thanks all! That's the tough part - absolutely love the thing when it's working and it fits our car park space outside the door so it always ready to go! Appreciate the steer that the issues are fixable. Hopefully we get it back without too much drama and we can get back to adventures!

Keep the faith!! From a fellow Dub, we have a GC680 and love it We have had ours since early 2021 and go away for 16 - 18 weeks each year. We have had some small niggles with the van but nothing major and have not brought the van back to our dealer at all. The only major issue was we had the roof windows fixed as part of a recall when we left the van in for a service in Santiago de Compstella last year. The van is great and worth the effort!!!
John

MackymcMacky · Jan 18, 2024

Moonlight Motel said:
Keep the faith!! From a fellow Dub, we have a GC680 and love it We have had ours since early 2021 and go away for 16 - 18 weeks each year. We have had some small niggles with the van but nothing major and have not brought the van back to our dealer at all. The only major issue was we had the roof windows fixed as part of a recall when we left the van in for a service in Santiago de Compstella last year. The van is great and worth the effort!!!
John

Cheers John - appreciate the message. We've had some incredible trips but nothing that long yet. Panel not working over December meant we didn't risk it in case heat wasn't working. Once that's sorted we'll be back on the road! We've two young kids that are mad about it and missing it!

MackymcMacky · Jan 18, 2024

Californication69 said:
It’s best to find them all now, while under warranty and get them right. After that, you should have a good 10 years worth of wear..

Great to hear. Hopefully we get the van back soon and back on the road. Cheers!

Asgard · Jan 19, 2024

Agree with most other posters; it's worth hanging in there. We've had our GC 600 for 2 years and 25000 miles of joy travelling across UK, Ireland and Europe. Never let us down on the road and is really great to drive even on long haul stints. Survived the coldest night in UK last year (-17C) in a campsite in Braemar when all around us were freezing up, with battery and engine problems but we were fine and cosy throughout the 3 nights.
Only issues for us have been the step (replaced under warranty), the sink tap (replaced under warranty) and 2 overhead locker catches replaced them ourselves. Initially we had an issue with the heating switching off during the night seems fixed by a software update.
We are currently awaiting delivery of a GC 680 next month, will be sorry to say goodbye to the awesome 600 just need a wee bit more space and a bed running lengthwise.
Hope all goes well with your niggles.

gleneagles · Jan 19, 2024

MackymcMacky said:
Hi all,

Life long dream to own a high quality camper and we loved our GC. We've had some amazing trips in Ireland with our two small girls. That said - we're now back at the dealership investigating more issues and we don't even have the van a year.

Panel - Non responsive / temperamental - can't rely on it in winter now.
Wifi - No power to unit
Leisure battery - not charging / holding charge.

We already had the awning repaired.

Really surprised as I would have thought a brand new VW would work with no issues so I'm struggling to keep my levels of joy up!

Has anyone any experience with handing back a van and asking for a new one? We already paid for extra warranty as it seems we'll spend a lot of time getting it fixed.

I bought a GC 600 last year and had some battery problems towards Christmas. The vehicle went to the VW Commercial dealer in Maidenhead, they quickly got to the bottom of the problem and replaced both batteries and found a faulty diesel injector, all replaced under warranty and within days. They also rectified some software problems. Better service that some seem to have received according to what Ii have read on these pages.

MackymcMacky · Jan 24, 2024

gleneagles said:
I bought a GC 600 last year and had some battery problems towards Christmas. The vehicle went to the VW Commercial dealer in Maidenhead, they quickly got to the bottom of the problem and replaced both batteries and found a faulty diesel injector, all replaced under warranty and within days. They also rectified some software problems. Better service that some seem to have received according to what Ii have read on these pages.

Thanks @gleneagles - I heard this morning that there had been a number of software updates (originally they suggested it needing parts so glad to avoid that!) - hopefully back on the road now in the next few days! Good to know about the battery - that only started acting up recently. I tried to charge the van off the house mains but maybe the voltage wasn't right.

MackymcMacky · Jan 24, 2024

Asgard said:
Agree with most other posters; it's worth hanging in there. We've had our GC 600 for 2 years and 25000 miles of joy travelling across UK, Ireland and Europe. Never let us down on the road and is really great to drive even on long haul stints. Survived the coldest night in UK last year (-17C) in a campsite in Braemar when all around us were freezing up, with battery and engine problems but we were fine and cosy throughout the 3 nights.
Only issues for us have been the step (replaced under warranty), the sink tap (replaced under warranty) and 2 overhead locker catches replaced them ourselves. Initially we had an issue with the heating switching off during the night seems fixed by a software update.
We are currently awaiting delivery of a GC 680 next month, will be sorry to say goodbye to the awesome 600 just need a wee bit more space and a bed running lengthwise.
Hope all goes well with your niggles.

Impressed with braving -17C and super to hear how reliable you have found the van. We haven't left Ireland yet but have plans to do Nordics and Europe. We did notice the heating switching off at night but I just kept popping it back - we just had some software updates done apparently so that might have fixed itself too. Getting the van back this week so hopefully it's back in business. Our 600 just about fits in our drive so we'll need a bigger garden and less kids before we get the 680! Good luck with it when it arrives. Lovely machine.