2008 Volkswagen Transporter Tiptronic Crewvan 2.5 litre TDI 128 kw 400 nm

Volkswagen Transporter T5 Road Test: 2008, Crewvan, Tiptronic, TDI, 128 kw/400nm

The Volkswagen Transporter T5 Crewvan: a large, versatile, van that comes in a big range of specifications that would meet most needs.

This is my new van and as I had great difficulty in finding any independent information on the internet I decided to post this report, which may assist other purchasers. I took delivery in January 08 and have kept this report up to date since.

This report is quite long, unlike the vacuous cut and paste newspaper and motor magazine reports that gloss over the important minor details.

I make easels and wanted a new work vehicle. It had to be a van, powerful, automatic with plenty of creature comforts. Something I could jump into and deliver a load of the easels, to Sydney, or even Brisbane, without my 58 plus-year-old body (in 2008) dying of aches and pains in the process.

It is the first car I have owned that feels bullet proof, well almost. I know I have state of the art safety around me combined with excellent vision, high driving position and surprisingly good handling. The thing that really swings me is it harks back to the real cars of the 60,s with all the modern features. It actually is fun to drive, you are not totally cosseted and insulated in a capsule remote from the world that you have difficulty seeing out of. You hear the engine, you feel the suspension, and you can see out of it.!!! No tiny side windows, no small windsceen. Power, that flows when you press the accelerator. The motor really growls, in a dieselly sort of way. This van really has character, something lacking in most modern cars, but is it far from perfect. In fact it has some bad flaws, substandard headlights, slippery floor coverings, excessive noise, interior plastics that easily scratch, inaccurate trip computer, poor shock absorbers and a less than perfect driving position, especially if you are tall like me.

It is easy to drive, and takes up no more road space than a Falcon. It is hugely roomy inside. It is a Short Wheel Base MY08, T5 with a 128 kw 400nm diesel, 6 speed Tiptronic gearbox, crewman option, side and curtain airbags, Dynamic Stability Control which includes ABS and traction control. Deluxe seats, reversing sensors, trip computer fog lights and factory alarm. I chose a metallic silver finish with full windows.

It is still an industrial van, with plastic floor mats and plenty of exposed metal and cheap trim in the rear. It does have a second row of seats, which fold twice to leave plenty of room. The Crewvan also has more sound insulation, than a standard Transporter. I also ordered a right hand sliding door and full hubcaps on the wheels. Naturally they did not have this in stock. It was built in Germany and took 16 weeks to get to me, including a hiccup between the boat and the dealer, with a tree grazing the roof during transport.

The first thing you notice about the van is how high you are off the road and the great drivers vision. The seats are comfortable with height and lumbar adjustment, plus adjustable arm rests. The trip computer is a weird red on dark red and not as easy to see as LCD, however with Sunglasses on, the reverse applies! It is noisier than a petrol motor, on acceleration and idle, but surprisingly quiet when cruising. The gearbox is very sweet, shifts are very fast and smooth, plus it also gives engine braking so you do not gain so much speed down hill. You can also manually select and change gears, but to me that is a waste, unless you want to hold a low gear going down hills. You seem to waft along the open road. Road noise is good, a lot less than a 2007 Corolla I hired in 2008. The engine is however intrusively noisy at any speed below 80kph.- I muted that, see below.

The steering takes a bit more turning of the wheel than I am used to, but parking and U turns are very easy. It does not seem to sway a lot for such a tall vehicle when cornering with fully independent suspension. Familiarity takes some time.

This van does fly, there is no such thing as a hill that will slow it down and it can tear away from traffic lights, if you want to. Passing on the open road is very quick. Volkswagen quote 0 to 100 kph in a little over 12 seconds, with a load of 500 kilograms!!

The engine is not common rail but duse pump, which means that each cylinder has its own high-pressure pump. There is a huge particulate filter in the exhaust to catch and burn off any un burnt fuel, smells and particles that diesels are renowned for. No pollution from this beast.

October 09 After 19 months ownership, and 38,000km covered I believe I made a mistake buying it. It is a geat van, but for the money I have spent , plus the extra money I spent fixing some of the short comings, I could have had a VW Multivan, with much better trim, twin reflector headlights and I assume better soundproofing, better damped suspension plus more things as standard. Note my loads are bulky, not heavy and the people mover, with the seats removed, and tiedown points fitted, would have been a better choice. That said I am happy with the transporter, with exceptions.

Seats are covered in a durable feeling woolen type fabric; I opted for the (expensive) deluxe front seats, which have height adjustment, twin armrests and lumbar support. I found that after about 35 minutes driving in thin summer slacks, the woolen fabric felt coarse through my trousers. I fitted a set of sheepskin covers and the comfort factor rose considerably. You cannot adjust the angle of the base and they seem a little hard. I love the armrests which have angle adjustment built in. I do however find that I would like to pull the telescoping steering wheel a bit closer than it goes, I feel I am long arm driving unless I pull the seat forward then it is knees too close to the dashboard. On long trips the arms get very tired. I would also like to tilt the squab a little, but there is no ability to do so. There is no centre console, you can actually move your left leg around without crushing it against anything, you can walk into the back seat without getting out of the van. You can climb in through the passenger door and easily get into the drivers seat!! I have found this to be a real bonus. Underneath both front seats there is electrical wiring disappearing into the seat, I expect it is for heated seats, which my van does not have, plus the side air bags. After the first trip to Sydney and back I give the seats full marks as my bad back gave no trouble whatsoever. At no time during the trip did I feel in physical discomfort. My opinion of the seats rose considerably after that trip. Nov 09 - The drivers seat is really fabulous, particularly on long trips, my back and bum have never been sore, even after driving for 14 to 15 hours in one day, which I did recently. Pity I cannot say the same thing for the actual driving position, the pedals are too close, the wheel too far away. On that trip I developed very sore shoulder and neck muscles towards the end of the trip.

The front deluxe seats with sheepskin seat covers, I have since replaced these covers with 100% sheepskin, with airbag cutouts.

Fronts seats before fitting of seat covers

The back seat is huge, tons of legroom and plenty wide enough for 3 adults. The van seats 5 and they will never be cramped. The back seat is molded for bottoms and has the seat belts neatly attached. The rear seat is easily folded flat then folds again up against the front seat leaving about 1.8 metres of space in the rear. It can also be fully removed, but it is a 2-person job to carry it and I would not want to try it without 2 sliding doors. To unlock the entire seat from the body you simply press a catch, and it is free. On long trips I this the best place for a power nap, as long as you are empty and have not had to remove the seat. It is easy to climb through from the front to the back and curl up for a 20-minute refresher. I am not sure I would want to sleep there all night though. The first thing that broke on the van was the back seat. One night I offered some friends a ride home, but the seat was folded. I tried to unfold it and lock in place , but it would not lock. I found a plastic fitting on the floor and put it in my pocket. I drove them home anyway, carefully. Next day it was easy to work out the problem, in daylight. Two arms had popped out of their sockets, the plastic fitting was what held one of the arms in place. Unfortunately the fitting disappeared, it must have fallen out of my pocket. I may have knocked the arm loading the van to cause the problem.

Rear seat is very roomy

Rear seat half folded

Rear seat fully folded

Removing the rear seat is very easy, as long as you have a 2 rear door van and 2 people. It weighs 30 kilograms at a guess. It would be a lot more difficult to remove with only one rear door.

The tiptronic gearbox is a 6 speed box. The gearbox also selects the gear appropriate for the engine speed, so that as you slow down, the box changes down. On initial acceleration in normal mode the tachometer seems to hold around 2000 to 2500 revs as gears 1, 2 and 3 are quickly used, from then on changes depend on speed. At 60 you are in 4th, at about 70 in 5th at about 80 in 6th. At 110 kph the motor is only doing 2000 rpm, right on the maximum torque. Gear changes are so fast they are not felt, particularly 1-2-3.

You can also put the gearbox into sport mode where the engine revs out to a bit over 3000 revs on normal gear changes. I have found I prefer not to use sport mode as it seems to hang onto each gear for a fraction too long.

When you take off slowly it is not so smooth, as revs build and the turbo kicks in so does the acceleration, it is not totally linear, but smooth then a surge. Flatten the accelerator , an annoying second of delay and then it is brimstone and fire, the front tyres chirp, the traction kicks in and off you race, howling diesel and indecent acceleration for such a van. The best way to avoid the surge is a measured prod which leaves you at the front of the pack at the lights. If you are simply maneuvering, say reversing, the idle of the motor takes you along at a comfortable speed, not much accelerator required. In most cars you can push the accelerator and the acceleration curve is linear, however with the Transporter it takes off in an initial rush ( after a little turbo lag) and once it hits third and fourth you and you need to give it a bit more accelerator to maintain the same rate of acceleration.

You can select the gears manually, you pull the lever across to you and to change up you push it towards the dashboard. It will not let you select a gear if the engine revolutions are inappropriate, and it will also change gears for the same reason.

The Engine
The engine is a very powerful in that maximum torque of 400 Newton metres is at about 2000 revs. and a relatively flat profile until close to 4000 revs. Hills mean nothing. Put it in cruise and the speed is held regardless. You are always aware it is a diesel. It clatters away merrily, only when you back off the accelerator or at cruising speed, does is quiet down. It is not that unpleasant and you aware that there is more power than you really need for most situations. It has an extensive engine management display in the dashboard and when you lift the bonnet it appears compact and uncomplicated. I was issued dire warnings about not changing oil myself unless I used the recommended, premium diesel synthetic Castrol oil . It really seems to be a sweet, willing and quite potent if a little noisy, engine.

Starting it is like any petrol motor, you are supposed to wait until the glow plug indicator in the instrument panel goes out, but in reality you hop in, turn the key and it fires instantly.

Combine this sharp engine with the crisp gearbox, plus great gearing and you have a package that really works well. It is raw but cohesive, you know you are driving as you can feel it all working in harmony. It grows on you, as it has character, as long as you do not let the noise get to you!!

The Transporter is Front Wheel Drive. You would not know it under normal circumstances, but if you accelerate going around a corner you can feel it through the steering. That is about the only time. Having traction control and electronic diff lock helps the drive situation enormously and unless you are really silly you should not find problems. You should be able to drive up wet grassy slopes. I must admit I love the traction. After owning a BA Falcon cab chassis, where you could not put the power down on wet roads and steep slopes, it is a delight. The floor is totally flat and there is room for the spare under the rear of the van, both thanks to the front wheel drive.

There is no escaping that this is a diesel. The engine clatters into life; rattles away on idle and sound like a demented sewing machine on acceleration. However at about 80kph it all starts to fade away. At 110kph you cannot hear the engine, tyre noise and wind noise are not too intrusive and the van has entered its element. It eats up the kilometres effortlessly, the tachometer sits on 2000 rpm, and you are almost in van paradise. Around town I am finding the constant diesel noise more than I prefer. I have never found road noise or wind noise to be excessive. The weird thing is that when you are a front seat passenger the engine noise is not so obvious.

10 April 08 New carpets fitted. The carpets were tailored to the floor, and cover front and rear wheel arches plus the exposed metal in the rear up to the window line. They were installed over the existing matting. Custom Covers in Mornington Vic - Trev -0488075483 did a really great job for less than $1000. They look wonderful and there was an immediate reduction in noise, both engine and road. More can be done. It just takes time and money, but I am fussy also. The noise levels are reduced to tolerable, and can be drowned out by the (aftermarket) fabulous sound system - see further down.

New carpet: note how it is 2 tone. The drivers floor is complicated but Custom Covers did a great job. The rear quarter panel is the original VW chipboard with the new speaker. It will be covered next time.

26-4-2007 I soundproofed under the dashboard. Firstly I had to remove the plastic lining. VW use a strange six sided screw with fins, but fortunately I had a similar one in my tool kit and discovered there was sound insulation but it is cut out for the clutch, in other places below the gearshift there is also bare metal. Patchy insulation is also in other places under the dash. I attached a bitumen soundproofing to all bare metal. This is 3mm thick and has an adhesive back. Then I stuffed every crevice and under the dash with fibre glass insulation, packed in tightly. Refitting the plastic panels was very difficult as the screws did not sit or hold on the screwdriver end. I also had to use a couple of Phillips #2 screws, which are the most common heads and sit nicely so you can guide them into awkward spots. The van is definitely quieter, particularly in the higher frequency noises the engine makes, not such a sewing machine now. I am very happy. It would not have taken much for VW to get a similar result. It is not as quiet as a Falcon, but I do not think I can do any better as the engine is pretty noisy in itself. I counted 23 small scratches and cuts on my hands, Lots of sharp little things under there. Now the engine is not intrusive at any cruise speeds!!! Hooray!!!!! I do not even need to turn up the wonderful sound system any more to drown out the noise. On my 30,000 kilometres service 7 june 2009, the VW service people ripped the under dash insulation out claiming it was a fire hazard, without my permission. I am not happy about that, as they should have asked first. Fortunately the noise has not jumped a lot so it seems the it was the bare metal that was letting the noise through. I am unhappy as the clear plastic over the instruments subsequently cracked, and I have been unable to confirm with them that they took out that panel to get to the insulation. There will be more to this story.3-5-2008 I pulled out all the panels on the doors and rear quarter and stuffed them with insulation. I did this to allow the air con and heater to work more efficiently as there is nothing between the thin MDF lining and the outside skin of the van. I did not do the roof, I will get the motor trimmer to look at it later as the gap appears to be very thin, say 20 mm and the insulation I was using would have been too difficult to fit. It made another small reduction in road noise. My housemates '06 Forester has more road noise now, than the van.

The standard radio is all appearance and very ordinary, in fact cheap, nasty and obsolete almost does it justice. It is MP3 but only to play MP3 CD’s? Sound is dull and lifeless, not great. It has 4 speakers, two in the dash and two in the bottom of the front doors. In the owners manual you are told how to balance the sound between the doors and the dash, but for the life of me, I could not. Maybe there was only a couple of door speakers as when I replaced the radio and speakers I was only given the nasty door speakers back. It seemed to have good reception range on radio but I have not a clue as to how it sounded with a CD. The knobs and various buttons worked well and it was simple to use. At night all the knobs buttons and dials light up in red outlines. After a trip to Sydney using an Ipod and a transmitter I immediately ordered an aftermarket, Ipod friendly, head unit and speakers.

There is nowhere to place an Ipod that is satisfactory. I was sitting it in the pull out cup holder assembly. This also has a coin drawer (ash tray), which rattles endlessly when it is pulled out. It drove me nuts. The other problem is you have to pull this drawer out to access the cigarette lighter to charge an Ipod or run a Satnav. It is a poor design. I had to juggle between the Satnav and the Ipod as there is only one 12volt outlet in the van. I eventually solved the rattling by taking the coins out of the ashtray and putting them in a little Joeys pouch in the front of the sheepskin car covers.

A Pioneer DEHP5950IB Head unit and premium Clarion 6 inch 2 way speakers, in doors with separate directional tweeters in dash, plus 4 way premium speakers in the rear. This gave me full ipod control, eliminating the need to carry cd,s on long delivery trips. My ipod has thousands of legal songs on it. The sound in the van was great!!!!

The Pioneer was an excellent unit however it was then replaced in 19 Nov 09 by a Clarion CZ509A. The reason was to have bluetooth for the mobile phone.The Clarion runs ipods and USB thumb drives. I immediately noticed an improvement in sound quality, perhaps it is because it better matches the Clarion speakers, or perhaps it is a better unit. It is supposed to have state of the art circuitry to interpret and play MP3 with improved sound quality. The state of Victoria had brought in new regulations on the use of mobile phones in cars, and I belive it is best to comply. Bluetooth is 100% legal, touching phones is totally illegal. The Bluetooth is fantastic, it automatically rings in the car as long as the phone is in your pocket, and the radio switched on, you then just talk. Making a call is almost as easy, you just cycle through the numbers in the radio and press dial. I am 100% happy with the radio speaker combination I have.

It handles pretty well, but you are constantly aware that you are driving a tall commercial vehicle. It corners with little sway. There seems to be constant movement up and down. It follows road indentations rather than ironing them out. It does corner pretty well for such a tall beast. The ride, with the van empty, is just too bouncy. With a load this bounciness is decreased. On long delivery trips when returning empty I found the constant bouncing quite tiring. Maybe I should drive everywhere with 200 kg in the back!! Ha Ha.

August 09 I had enough with the bouncy ride,( It to me is a Occupational Safety and Health issue) and ordered a set of Bilstein shock absorbers to be fitted by Pedders Suspension Frankston Branch. They certainly removed the bounce. Now it is firm on the road, the secondary bounce when you go over bumps and dips has gone. This cost me $1050, but why could not VW fit decent shock absorbers in the first place? Pedders said they do a lot of Transporters, and Vito's, that are no better, and Sprinters for that matter. So it seems to be something that the Germans have not come to grips with. I also checked the tire pressures and according to my gauge they were 50 psi all round, pumped up at the last service. I deflated them to 38 psi. I will never carry a load close to 1 tonne, so rock hard tires are not necessary. Now it rides like a car, and does not crash through bumps. I then drove 4000km in 5 days, see box below. I would never have been able to complete that drive in that time with the old shockers.

My son advised me that his Front Wheel Drive, 2008 Ford Transit does not bounce when empty. He owns 2 Transits.

I ordered a drivers side-sliding door. The standard T5 only has one sliding door on the passenger’s side. I use the right hand side door just about every time I take the van out or collect something. Way easier to toss small things in behind the driver onto the rear seat, rather than go to the rear or the passenger’s side. The two heavy front doors open wide, you have to take care not to hit neighboring cars. It is pretty easy to open past the detents. The rear hatch door opens easily and high. I am 1920mm tall and it is way over my head. Suits me but there is a grab handle for shorter people. The door locks are dead locks!!

Something you cannot do with normal transporters, look through and load through two side doors.

I cannot imagine this van without a drivers side sliding door. If it is only to open the door to throw a jacket or parcel onto the back seat, or let one of my dogs jump in (one prefers to enter that door rather than the drivers door). Trying to load easels only through the rear and passenger side door, and to pack them so they nest properly, then tie them down, would be a real pain. You can easily reach the drivers side tie down point which I use every time. Volkswagen should make 2 sliding doors standard in a vehicle that costs as much as this one does.

The van has central locking from the key, but to open any other door than the drivers, you have to press the button twice. The keys are micro chipped and if you lose them you must get a new one from a Volkswagen dealer coded to your van, otherwise you cannot start the car. The keys are the flick knife type, in that the blade folds into the body and the locking buttons are on the body. You get 2 keys and I ordered a third key for $35, but it is just a simple blade type, the sort of thing you can take to the beach and get wet. I keep it in my wallet. If you use it to open the van you need to put it into the ignition within 30 seconds otherwise the optional alarm goes berserk. My old BA had an illuminated ignition keyhole and the VW does not, in the dark you have to feel around and duck your head to find the ignition keyhole. Just about every other control lights up and it is a strange, unforgivable omission.

The first thing I noticed was that I was going faster than I thought I was!! It just gets there quickly and un fussed and just wants to keep going. I had to reassess my driving a little and concentrate on the speeds I was doing. Here the cruise control is a godsend and I find I am constantly driving with cruise rather than the accelerator. Without the cruise, I still find at times I am doing more speed than I expected. This van simply does not struggle to reach any speed, it just gets there with out any strain, you do not have to wait for it to happen. I do enjoy driving it as you have incredible vision. You seem to tower over everything else on the road, except semi trailers. 4 wheel drives, no problem, you can see over them! The windscreen and side windows are tall and give panoramic vision. I ordered full windows, as I really do like to see everything when I drive and hate blind spots. The brakes are excellent. It is a comfort to know that you will have to do something incredibly stupid to get handling problems. On wet roads, it is wonderful, no tyre spin, the wipers do a great job as does the demisting system. The exterior mirrors are also heated, and if covered in dew, clear within a kilometre of starting up.

A switch on the dashboard controls the headlamps. I ordered fog lamps as they are a great supplement for low beam lights, as they stay on to illuminate the immediate road when on high beam and are very valuable in actual fog. The transporter's lights are average on low beam, but very ordinary on high. I immediately replaced the globes with Phillips blue lamps, which are supposed to give 80% more light, well it is more like 25% but it is still better. The omission of the ability to adjust low beam angle for loads is mystifying when the European vans have it and there is a switch blank for that function. Even the cheap KIA Pregio had that feature as standard. On high beam the lights seem to shoot a little high, have a very wide spread and lack penetration, even with the new globes. I was used to the headlamps on a BA Falcon and the VW high beam quality is not even close to the Ford. Take note VW this is simply not good enough for country driving in Australia. Low beam is OK having adequate light and a wide spread, but could be brighter.The fog lamps are as good as useless as supplementary lights, as they only seem to light the road a few metres in front of the van.

A person who read this report suggested I should fit the headlamps out of a Multivan, which have twin reflectors. He said they are much better and cost him $650 for his Transporter at the local VW dealer. I checked with my dealer, he quoted over $1000, Multivan headlights are $400 each and there would be some extra work in fitting them. It to me is a disgrace that VW actually have decent headlamps in their parts bin and do not fit them to transporters, after all transporters are supposed to be a premium van. I am actually fed up with spending money on things that VW should have got right in the first place and would prefer to spend no more money on headlamps. I also note that the new model out early 2010 has dual headlamps, better late than never I suppose.

August 09 I went to Autobarn, wanting to try to get some driving lights fitted for an upcoming delivery trip to Queensland and they suggested I change the Phillips blue lamps for Phillips yellow ones,(in a red packet) which have better penetration. They are supposed to go 25% further. It was more like they changed the angle to lift distance a bit. They cost about $40 per globe and were marginally brighter. I then wound down the headlamps so they were shooting a bit lower, easy to do with an allan key. These globes seem to perform better in the wet too, but on high beam they are still not good enough. There is plenty of spread but not enough penetration. A second set of lamps is the only way to solve the problem.

One night driving along Eastlink Freeway I decided to pace other cars just so I could judge how bright their headlamps were on low beam compared to the VW. Just about every newish car illuminated the road better than my headlamps!! I am talking here about the patch in front of my car which was visibly brightened by my neighbors headlamps. I feel it is a telling, valid test.
Cruise Control.

The cruise is on the end of the indicator stalk, on the left of the steering wheel. It has 2 little toggle switches at the end that are easy to operate with a fingertip. Press the bottom of the toggle and the cruise is engaged at the speed you are traveling at, hold it down and there is a smooth decrease in speed until you release it. Pressing the top toggle increases speed smoothly when the cruise is engaged. If cruise is not engaged, pressing it resets to the previous setting.
A switch on top, switches cruise on and it stays that way regardless of the ignition, you do not have to turn cruise on every time you start the engine. You use the same switch to turn it permanently off. To turn it temporarily off you flick the switch on the top of the lever, which is not so easy. Overall it is a very good system, perhaps the best I have used, with the exception of temporarily turning it off, as it is a easier to press the brake pedal.

Cruise control lever is actually very good to use. The gearshift positions are on the wrong side of the gear shift and you cannot read the markings from the drivers seat, the gear positions are repeated on the instrument panel but are hard to read.

There is an awful lot of volume to cool down. It is a pretty basic system of dialing in the coolest setting, pressing the air conditioner button and dialing in one of 4 fan speeds. Highest speed is incredibly noisy, particularly when recycling the air inside the van. Using the system on full blast makes you feel there could be bigger vents for the air to exit. It certainly is cold enough, but the volume it has to cool hampers the performance. You cannot feel any effect on the diesel motor when it is on. The rear seat passengers also have their own little vents, with the ducting running through the front doors. On idle, the trip computer shows that the air-conditioning uses 0.3 litres per hour of diesel. The vents can be closed individually and adjusted for angle. I have tinted the windows to try to reduce radiant heat. The Air conditioner struggles in really hot conditions, over 40 degrees C. It also cannot cool down the van if it is really hot inside, say it has been left in the sun on a hot day. After a 50km trip the only thing that is cool is the air actually hitting you.

The heater is ordinary, it takes an inordinately long time to gain full efficiency. The VW throws out some heat after 5 km and about 13km to get hot, when the temperature gauge reaches normal operating temperature in cold weather, and this is a real negative. When the outside temperature is 7 degrees Celsius or lower it can take up to 20 km. for the interior of the van to get really warm, way too long. Demisting is fast and powerful. The heater output appears to be directly proportional to the position of the temperature gauge. I have asked another owner and the VW service people and they say this is normal, as it is a diesel. It actually makes winter driving a cold proposition and is extremely disappointing considering what you pay for the transporter. You would think VW could do a lot better. I have actually been to the local dealer twice now with the heater and they cannot fault its operation. Next I will approach VW Australia, for an official version of why the heater is so poor.

The rear view mirrors are electrically operated from the driver’s door and feature heating for winter, which works really well. On both sides cars appear further away then they really are. The outside of the driver’s side mirror has extra curve to expand the vision range. They are quite large, the passenger one is orientated vertically and the drivers horizontally.

This is my first European car in 40 years and 1.1 million kilometers of driving. I have owned Australian, Japanese and American cars with one British, an E Type Jaguar. The Volkswagen has everything back the front. The indicators and cruise on the left, the wipers on the right of the steering column, on a stalk, and the light switch on the dash. The radio on/off/ volume is on the left and the tuning on the right. As a safety issue there should be some sort of standardization on control locations. ! August 09 - I continue to, occasionally, wipe when I should indicate or visa versa, when I drive other cars. This lazy RHD conversion is to me , not good enough.

Electric Windows.

The windows are one touch all the way down, or up, except just after the ignition is turned off then you can send them down as little as you require on dewy mornings the windows are wiped clear when you lower them.

I had the rear windows tinted very dark, mainly so passers by could not see what I am carrying. When driving, vision is still good. The wind down windows in the front were also tinted , but a lot lighter. There is an added benefit that tint reduces the heat ingress in Summer, but I have also found that the glare from headlamps is greatly reduced through the rear window making night driving more pleasant I am so pleased with the tinted windows that I will always fit them to any future car or van I own.

This is the first vehicle I have owned with optional reversing sensors, and so far they have been worth their weight in gold. They operate automatically in reverse. In Sydney I was up a narrow lane delivering a big easel and had to turn around by driving into a narrow drive and reversing out. Backing back the sensors started to scream and I stopped. Below the window height a concrete and rock wall jutted out, above rear window height it was about 600 mm further back. I would have backed right into it, as it was totally hidden.
When parking these things are magic and give you great confidence. You can get them fitted at Autobarn for half the price VW charge!

Body Protection.
There is great body protection front and rear with substantial plastic bumpers, The front overhang is short and high, so no scraping the front underside on gutters when parking nose to kerb, however there is nothing whatsoever along the sides, and this could be a serious area of minor damage if frequenting car parks with parallel parking. Personally I hate door dents, and there is nothing to stop them at all. This is a seriously wide van and it takes up a fair width of car park and I visualize children (or adults) climbing out of their cars, flinging doors open into the sides of my van. It was parsimonious of VW not to add a rubber or plastic strip on the side, after all there are bump strips on the Multivan and it simply not good enough to leave them off the Transporter. Ground clearance is a very handy 165mm.

The storage space is a strange mix, seemingly unrelated to the things you can and would use in a van. The doors have great storage; there is a space for large bottles plus two good-sized spaces. Above the driver is a flip down sunglasses holder that does not fit glasses when they are in a case. The dash features several open spaces and there is another above the windscreen in the middle. Put anything in them and accelerate hard, and the contents spill out!!!!!! Very unhandy indeed. The cigarette lighter is in a handy little pull out drawer with 2 spring loaded cup hold holders. Good spot to hold the Ipod in one of the holders except that it rattles when out, holding an ipod, and drove me nuts, before I replaced the audio head unit. Now when I use the GPS it still rattles and is constantly annoying. In the middle of the cup holders is a little drawer for coins (the ash tray). There is nowhere to store a street directory. On the top of the dash is a cavity with several partitions where you can leave things in full view of the public. Under the glove box is a netted section; I have found it good for papers. The glove box is not very large. There is no obvious location to store cd’s, except the glove box and you would only put a small number in there. On the outside of the seat bases there is another cavity, I put the street directory in there but it ended up u shaped as the cavity is only shallow. In summary it could be better. Somewhere for a street directory, and cd’s would be very handy, then again CD’s are old technology and will virtually disappear during the life of this van.

The interior has slippery rubber or plastic mats throughout. If you put a box on the floor it can almost end up anywhere as it will slide around on the flooring. In the rear there is nowhere to store such things as tie down straps.

The floor covering looks as if it would be anti slip but it is actually quite slippery,

Carpet is a lot better.

The filler is located behind a hatch on the passengers side. This means there is only one way you can approach bowsers as there is no possibility of pulling the filler nozzle across the top of the cabin. You have to open the door, open the hatch, close the door, unscrew the filler cap and place it in a slot. The opening to the filler is the small, unleaded petrol size, but many diesel nozzles are large diameter and do not fit into it!!!!!! Filling means you have to jamb the nozzle against the opening, gently squeeze the trigger and hope you can get fuel into the tank without it splashing back. Invariably it does splash back and dribble down the side of the van. I can tell you it is extremely annoying. I am not talking about truck stops here. The Safeway (Woolworth’s to those of you interstate) service station, where I generally have filled up my previous BA cab chassis, has a big nozzle, on the same side as the filler on the VW and it is definitely not a truck stop. This is not good enough, on a commercial vehicle. You can avoid the big nozzles once you work out where they are in your area, but on an interstate trip you will invariably fill at a truck stop, and there is no chance they will have a small diameter-filling nozzle. I am extremely unhappy about this. I can find the local stations where the nozzles are small but on interstate trips that is not an option. What on earth were they thinking. The Ford transit has the large fast fill hole. My son's business has two 07 Transits and he thinks I was mad to spend so much on this van, especially with this sort of annoyance.

Volkswagen Australia customer service advised that nothing can be done and suggested using a funnel, which to me is a joke.

Diesel bowsers are dirty places; you get it on your hands and soles of your shoes, as diesel does not evaporate like petrol. I noticed at a truck stop all the truckies were using gloves or rags to hold the nozzles, the only ones not using something on their hands were a grimy, bitumen spattered, road repair crew. I have been carrying a box of throwaway latex gloves.

After 12 months ownership I find this no longer to be an issue, I am used to using gloves and seem to always find the small nozzles now. In service stations I do not know, I park and ask there always seems now to be a small nozzle on the right side for me, somewhere.

Fuel Economy.
The first tank of mixed running around gave me a bit over 10 litres per 100 km that dropped to high 9,s on the second. The third as about the same and then on a run up to Sydney with a 600 kg load it was still high 9’s. On the return I could not exactly verify the figure as I was trying (in the dark and tired at the end of the journey) to fill the tank from a large diameter fast fill nozzle. Diesel was spilling down the side of the van and after 60 litres I gave up. I think I got mid 8,s per 100 km. The lying trip computer said 7.9 so that would make it closer to 9. Trouble is the fuel gauge said full, but I believe I could have added something like 8 more litres. I expect as the engine is run in, the economy will improve. I neither drive for economy, nor do I thrash it.

I at last had a chance to check the fuel economy, a delivery trip to Portland Vic. I filled at Geelong (had to go to 2 service stations to find a small nozzle) Then filled the day after I got home. 8.5 litres overall consumption. I did us the ferry both ways to get to Geelong. If you do not know the road, it is a disgrace, masquerading as a highway, I did 100 when possible, but there are few places to pass and I followed long crocodiles of cars several times at 90. The towns have limits of 80,70,60,50, 40, take your pick, yes I drove during the 40 limit school times. I had the air conditioner on most of the time. I have often thought it would be great to live somewhere like Port Fairy, but the thought of having to drive that road on a regular basis would totally put me off.

19 August 2008. Van now has 10,000 km and last tankful I got 9.2 litres/100km with normal running around. Under the same conditions my old BA ute got 12.5 l/100 but when you consider diesel is usually 15 to 20 cents a litre dearer at the pump than petrol. I am saving some money on fuel, maybe $400 per year, however the range of 700 to 800 km on a tank is a real bonus.

Feb. 2009 Van now has 22,000 km. The engine is possibly run in now. On the open road on say a trip to Sydney I average 8.5 litres per 100k. Around town it is in the low 9's say 9.2. This is measured by the number of k's traveled and the amount of fuel I put in the tank. Diesel for the last few weeks has actually been cheaper than petrol, HOORAY!!!! A strong headwind can add as much as 1.5 litres per 100 km to consumption.

The steering is excellent. On the open road it goes exactly where you want it to go. No wanders at all. I still feel you are twirling the wheel a little too much when cornering though and the steering wheel itself,is just too far away.

I ordered the optional trip computer. It has a red display on a very dark red, almost black background. It always displays outside temperature. It resets itself every significant trip. If you stop for say an hour in the journey it retains the information on that journey, but if you stop overnight, it starts the next day as a new journey. It displays all the normal things such as time elapsed, kilometers, average fuel consumption, kilometers to empty and actual fuel usage at the time. The trip computer,(or parts of it), is not accurate by my estimate. It showed the average fuel consumed was up to about 1.4 litres per 100 km lower than an actual measurement I made by the amount of diesel I could get into the tank relating to the distance traveled between fills. I did that test several times and the trip computer was always much more optimistic. Contrast this with the Trip Computer on my old BA Falcon Ute, which was dead accurate. If Ford can do it, why cannot VW. Dec 08 after 18000kms. The trip computer is erratic in that its error is not consistent and can be anything from 0.1 litres/100k to 1.4/100k lower than actual. The trip computer also tells you when a service is due and when the temperature drops below 5 degrees it warns you, I expect for road ice. It is not accurate for kilometres to empty. I put 75 litres into the tank, which meant I had 5 left, but the trip computer was telling me I could still go 140 kilometres.

Pedals
The drivers foot well has the wheel arch intruding on the right, which locates the pedals more to the left than I find natural, particularly with size 13 UK feet (14 US) The brake pedal is wide and directly in line with the steering column. The accelerator is quite high off the floor. After a months ownership I still find I am occasionally trying to accelerate using the wheel arch and worse still braking with the foot half on the accelerator. I also find the angle of the pedals or location uncomfortable requiring the foot to be angled back to constantly operate the accelerator. I actually do not wear certain types of boots and shoes as they are too uncomfortable to drive in. As a consequence of this I am forever driving with the cruise control. There is quite a lot of travel in the accelerator and with the uneven acceleration of 1, 2 and 3 gears then a slowdown with fourth gear, unless you give it a bigger prod I find using the pedals is not intuitive at all.
The other issue is that the brake pedal is higher than the accelerator. You cannot slide from one to the other, you have to lift the foot a little otherwise you simply collide with the side of the pedal. Short legged, small footed people will no doubt be happy with the pedals. Feb 2009, The other day in heavy traffic my right foot started to cramp due to the bad location of the pedals!!. I honestly do not know how a courier or taxi driver my height would cope with this. I finally solved the problem by cranking the height adjustable seat to maximum height. It also brings you closer to the steering wheel. The down side is very little knee room. In all honesty if the seat went back a bit further,and the steering wheel telescoped more it would be a near to perfect seating position, except for the pedals as above.

This van was $53000 on the road (which is a discount over retail when you add in the options). This was a lot more than I had planned to spend. It took me about 6 months to come to grips with the fact that to get what I wanted in a van I would have to spend that sort of money. I eventually spent another $3000 plus to sort out some things that annoyed me,(radio, carpet/soundproofing shock absorbers) this makes it pretty expensive for what you get. That said there is no other way you can get the safety features, folding rear seat, power levels and an automatic gearbox in a van anywhere else. I still feel it is overpriced and certainly some of the options should be standard like a driver’s side sliding door, trip computer, and dynamic stability control. I do not think it is great value for money. The problem is that if you want, what I wanted in a van, there is no alternative. Actually I could and should have bought a Multivan for the same money I ended up spending.

Options
If you are happy to wait the 16 weeks for delivery there is a huge range of expensive options you can add to a transporter. Your dealer will love you as I am sure they have fat margins in the options.

The service interval is 15000k’s. There is a big service due at something like 160,000k’s The dealer strongly suggested that the oil be changed at 7500k’s.

4 -5 -2008 First service . As suggested the oil was changed by the dealer at 7500km. Cost $314.65 The charge for the oil, plug and filter was $181, the rest was for labor and GST??? A pretty expensive oil change, but they say they did check everything out. I waited the hour it took. My second service was free as part compensation for the van being damaged during delivery.

7-7-2009 30,000k service. I decided to ask them to fix the heater and the guy behind the counted started to get defensive when I complained about the slow to warm up heater. (it is like there is no thermostat and it takes 13 plus km to get hot) I also asked for the 5 tyres to be rotated and he said they normally only did 4 which I guess is OK if you do not have a matching spare, but I do and want it to wear like the other wheels. I insisted on the 5 and they did it. They also ripped out all the fibre glass insulation I had laboriously stuffed under the dash to cut down on sound. They claimed it is a fire hazard!!!! They did not ask me first. At this I was most unhappy, as I know you cannot set it on fire and I assume they were speaking about the rest of the under dash fittings like wiring. I also noted that there was stuff like cotton wadding factory fitted. I assume it is also not flammable. Anyway it seemed to make about the same amount of noise when I drove it home, so maybe it was not making a lot of difference. The upshot is they saaid the heater is working as designed and the slow to heat is due to it being a diesel, and in my opinion a lousy outcome. I cannot believe that all these owners of diesel cars put up with heaters that take ages to work. After complaining they had a secod look at the heater and said it is working correctly.

22-12 2009 45,000k service. Cost $553.55, had new wiper blades fitted all round. They could not fix 2 warranty issues at the time, rebooked for January.

July 08- 9500km covered. The only problem has been that the front end was out of alignment from new.

The driver's side rear door lining has a hole in it. During one of my delivery trips it looks like an easel leg was pressing against it. As it is only painted 2mm thick chip board, it has no strength. I have fitted carpets on the floor and to have the trims and wheel arches carpeted to protect them from this type of damage. I have not yet had the chipboard linings covered. The interior plactics have multiple minor scratches, the plastic is way too soft and damages easily. The paint on the bonnet has numerous stone chips, making me think the paint is soft and also easily damaged. My Falcon with similar driving, suburban and interstate, had only a small number of minor chips in th paint. I will photograph and post all this in due course.

June 09 I am getting pretty disappointed in the standard of plastics VW have used, as they are simply not durable enough. The plastic in the front cabin scratches really easily. Around both interior door handles, scratches and scuff marks are getting obvious, there is now more than one scratch on the dash board and the steps you use getting into the van are now quite scratched. I will photograph all this in due course and post it.

I scratched the hubcaps, which protrude out from the tyres, when parking. There was an annoying rattle, it turned out to be the trim on the A pillar and I fixed it by wedging 12 business cards in the gap!!!! The step holds water!!! The van is parked so that on a cross axis the drivers side is higher than the passengers side. After heavy rain, water sits in the foot step next to the door. The dealer could not duplicate this problem, It runs away when you drive on a flat road. None of these things I expected from a van of this quality. When I sold my BA Ute after 5 years and 70,000k the interior was scratch free, immaculate and it did not develop any rattles whatsoever. I will go so far as to say Ford build and design a better interior, in fact I have never owned a vehicle so easily marked on the interior trim as the VW. August 09 - there was a squeak or creak in the rear going over bumps, that was getting steadily worse, it sounds like something working loose, and it is behind the rear seat, where there is nothing! I then traced it to the rear lift up door, so I lubricated the catches and it stopped. Interesting that Peninsula Volkswagen had done the 30,000k service only days before and did not lubricate the catches, although the service report was ticked. This is the same service they removed my under dash insulation. Instrument panel cover cracked, a new assembly will be fitted under warranty. The dealer said it was very unusual, but they had seen it before. The assembly had to be ordered in.

February 2009 The first door dent, someone opened the rear door of a red 4 wheel drive (judging by the height off the ground) and left red paint and a minor mark in the drivers side sliding door. As stated elsewhere the side protection is nonexistent, another cheapskate touch from VW.

September 2009, Arms fall of rear seat in the dark and cannot be locked in place. Easily fixed next day except plastic fitting lost. New fitting ordered by dealer, has to come from Singapore.

December 2009 warning light on dash, to do with the sensor that controls the Particulate filter and it did not affect the engine performance. Both problems promptly fixed by dealer.

Summary.
This is a good van, having lots of positive attributes. However it is not perfect. I had to change the sound system, and fit carpets to reduce noise and cover the slippery floor and replace the shock absorbers.. It is great on the open road where it is quiet and comfortably devours kilometers, treating all terrain as if it was flat. It has abundant power, but does not consume excessive fuel. There is plenty of room for cargo and passengers are well catered for in an industrial way. It feels bullet proof. No wheel spin on wet or gravel roads, great vision, excellent maneuverability. Around town it is noisy, unless you do what I did. With the superior height and vision you feel like you are king of the roads. It is a very good place to be when moving goods around. After 18 months I still enjoy driving it!!! I am disappointed with the easily marked interior, and external paint.

Likes
Feels bullet proof, comfortable, tons of room , commanding driving position and excellent all round vision, no centre console, very good at freeway speeds, great vision, powerful, roomy, very safe, traction control/esp, safety is 4 stars, but I believe that is without the ESP and 6 airbags my van has. Great 165mm road clearance with short overhangs. lots of character, has all I wanted in a van. Wonderful for long distance trips. I mostly enjoy driving it.
Dislikes
Cheap radio (fixed), poor headlights, noisy motor, bouncy ride ( fixed with expensive Bilstien shock absorbers), badly designed storage spaces, slippery floor (fixed) and filling with diesel from large diameter nozzles, which is no longer a problem as I have figured out where to find small nozzles, Heater is way too slow to get warm. Steering wheel too far away, pedals too close, seat does not go back far enough, but steering too far away to move seat back anyway, rattles (fixed) and easily scratched interior plastics. Painty has numerous stone chips. Inaccurate, hard to read trip computer. The fact I have spent $3000 so far to fix what I consider to be short comings of this van . With my previous Falcon ute I did not see the need to spend any money in 5 years of ownership, however I did not have an Ipod in those days. Airconditioner is ordinary.

If you are deaf, do not drive at night, live in a benign climate where it does not get below say 10 or above 35 degrees C, plus you only drive in daylight on very smooth roads, and always tie everything down, have small feet, short legs and long arms, and do not give a tinkers cuss as to how easily the paint and interior trim chips scratches and marks, you will love this van.

It is a bit of a love hate relationship for me!!!! Much more love than hate. After every long trip I arrive home thinking what a great van it is, particularly since the suspension was fixed. I am resigned to the deficiencies.

The van is plated 12/07 and is a Short Wheel Base, standard roof, Volkswagen Transporter T5 Crewvan. It has the 128 kw/400newton metre diesel with a 6 speed tiptronic automatic gearbox. It has central locking, cruise control, electric heated mirrors, drivers and passenger airbags, Air–conditioning, full industrial grade lining, a rear seat with windows behind the driver. The payload is approximately 1200 kilograms. The Crewvan also had a package that includes more sound insulation and nice touches like grab handles, Sunglasses holder and vanity mirrors in the sun visors. There is traction control and ABS as standard, I ordered the following options: Electronic Stability control, fog lights, full wheel caps, reversing sensors, a sliding door on the drivers side, rear bonded windows, alarm with siren, front and side airbags, trip computer, spare 3rd key and deluxe front seats. It is metallic silver.

I could not justify the price of alloy wheels but these hubcaps were quite reasonable and I like the way they set the wheels off. I have since noticed on other Transporters fitted with the expensive optional 17inch Alloys, that they stick out past the tyres and often have damage from gutters. I am now glad I did not order them. Another example of where VW could do better. The Hubcaps also suffer from gutter damage, 2 of mine are now scarred.

MB Vito - I test drove a manual Vito about 2006 and could not get out of it fast enough. It was a miserable windy day and I got lost in the manual gears. It was a basic van, very noisy. Before ordering the VW, I went to the local MB dealership to have another look. The salesman told me to go away and he would ring me to arrange a test drive! (I was in my working clothes, looking like I was financially challenged) Naturally he forgot. I went back a week later, before I had ordered the VW. He made all sorts of excuses and at least opened up several doors of the stock they had on display so I could get into them, and said he may be able to put trade plates on one for a short trip, another time! The Vito Crewvan back seat did not fold ( I believe it now folds) and the spare tyre is screwed to the inside rear wall where I would want a window. The motors had less power except the Model 120 which would blow my budget and is long wheel base anyway. They also did not have trip computers, side and curtain airbags and things like electric mirrors and cruise were optional. With the useless salesman and lack of the features I wanted, Vito was crossed off the list. The fact that Vito has a 3 pointed star means nothing to me.

No way!!! I owned a BA from new and did 70,000 km in it, the only problems were a weeping water pump and a LSD that operated more like a standard diff. The Falcon had much better, more appropriate materials on the inside, the dashboard design was better, the value for money way better. It never developed rattles and squeaks. The trip computer was dead accurate and easy to read, the Ford headlights excellent, it was much quieter (and more powerful) under all driving conditions and the driving position better. Sure it is a bit like comparing apples with pears, but put the Falcon motor into the VW, the Falcon steering, including the excellent wheel mounted controls, the Falcon ride, headlights, and you would improve the VW a lot. The heating and Air conditioning was also a lot better in the Ford. Sure the VW is better in many areas, but it is also $20.000 more and the price difference is not apparent. I expect the new BF Ford would be improved over, the the BA. I also hated the the dreadful A pillars and terrible drivers vision for a tall person. I thought I would get used to it but I never did. The Falcon resisted wear and tear a lot better than the VW.

A courier who calls here occasionally has a T5 with 145,000k on it and has had no trouble. A customer with a T4 with 70,000 km had to have the auto trans rebuilt at 60,000k as the radiator leaked into the transmission via the cooler. Another person with a T4 with 250,000 km has had to rebuild the manual transmission twice and had other niggling problems. When I was recently in the Gold Coast I rode in a Toyota van taxi and I asked if they had any Transporters. The driver said they bought 20 Transporters and 20 Vito's and got rid of the lot because they cost too much to maintain. The courier I use has a Kia Pregio with 300,000km and he has only ever had to replace the alternator, clutch, gas struts on rear hatch and brakes, and he does not baby it. Another Pregio owner I spoke to had 100,000 km trouble free. My son has had no issues with his two Ford vans.

Others: The new Hyundai looks to be good value for money, however their idea of a crewvan is to have a fixed rear seat with a partition behind. Absolutely useless for my deliveries. I will however seriously look at their IMax people mover, with the plan to remove the rear seats when required and fit tie down eyes. The Hyundai is very well equipped but does not have cruise.