This is SEEINGLAND. It‘s a 2022 VW camper van with an electric pop-up roof and full kitchen. Colloquially it‘s also known as Bulli. According to worst-writer, it got that name because, as a utility vehicle, it is commonly used by the German Polizei aka die Bullen. Although the term is/was somewhat pejorative, it fits—I guess. Now. According to my better-half, worst-writer is incorrect regarding its nickname. Out of respect for her and her (German) heritage, here‘s the real reason for the nickname. The name Bulli is a mix of bus and delivery van (Lieferwagen) and it dates back to its incarnation fifty years ago. By-the-buy. VW offers trim or side panels with the name Bulli. Ours has the trim with California, which I prefer. Luck has it, don‘t you know, we can always switch the trim if needed.
Our van is the California Ocean Edition. California means this is VW‘s camper van. Ocean indicates it has a full kitchen with fridge, twin burner gas stove and a sink with running water. It also comes in a Beach version which does not have the full kitchen. It sleeps two in the pop-up bed and two more below with the rear seat flattened, which we haven‘t yet tried because the pop-up bed is too cool to not use. With our upcoming trip where we‘ll have to spend at least one night in northern Italy, because of heating, we might finally break-in the lower bed. Edition means it has a few more bells & whistles with trim, lighting, interior, etc. It has front wheel drive and a turbo diesel with a 150hp and a few other bells & whitles.
We took delivery of Seeingland August 1, 2022. Although it is a 2022 vehicle, we purchased it from the dealer used with less than twelve thousand kilometers, which means, for a VW diesel, it‘s just broke-in. It was the dealers show vehicle. Although we had decided to buy new, there were two reasons we did not. According to various dealers the wait time for new Californias is somewhere between eight and eighteen months, the former being we‘d have to buy a dealer‘s preordered, i.e. what the dealer already had in the pipeline for their showroom, the latter being one we spec’d out. The other reason we bought her was because, since it was registered to a dealer and used, albeit with ridiculously low mileage, we got a pretty good discount compared to ordering a new one. As far as what we paid for her? Sorry. The better-half and I have muted that issue. (Google it!)
More to come.
Vanlife on.
-T aka worstwriter.com
SEEINGLAND 