Volkswagen has added an eight-seat choice to the new Multivan lineup, turning its passenger van into an much more succesful people-mover. Whereas the eight-seat possibility will not be on provide within the new California camper van range, there’ll certainly be an eight-seat camper possibility. So house owners will be capable of shuttle round a complete beginning basketball workforce, plus the coach and sixth man, in the course of the week, then take pleasure in a correctly cozy hard-wall van tenting expertise on weekends.
The brand new Multivan eight-seater formally joined obtainable five-, six- and seven-seat format choices in late Could. Accessible solely on the 204-in (517-cm) long-wheelbase Multivan, it options two full rear rows of three seats every.
Reasonably than merely putting in an enormous, clunky full-width bench, Volkswagen drops a 3rd particular person seat into the middle of the second row, the place the seven-seat configuration has solely two seats. This format offers a great deal of flexibility, permitting all six particular person rear seats to take away and modify independently to create the exact format a driver wants at any given time to handle the variety of passengers and quantity of cargo aboard.
Volkswagen
Volkswagen was fast to promote the brand new possibility as the right shuttle and taxi and for personal and enterprise people-loading wants, however we had been left questioning: Can you continue to camp in it?
We already know the new California is proscribed to between 4 and 6 seats, relying on trim, so we do not anticipate that equipment-filled camper line leaping over the seven-seat choice to go straight to eight. However earlier than Volkswagen even rejiggered the California lineup across the new Multivan, it provided a light-weight sleeping possibility within the type of the Good Night package.
The Good Evening bundle is centered round a collapsible mattress that folds out over high the folded rear seats, securing to the car physique itself in order that it doesn’t depend on the seats for structural integrity. We have already seen it work with the seven-seater, as evidenced by the photograph under.
VW Business Automobiles
Because the eight-seater requires nothing greater than the addition of a center second-row seat, it does not intervene with the operation of the folding mattress. All six rear seats will be folded all the way down to clear area for the mattress setup. The Good Evening bundle additionally comes with blackout blinds for the home windows and storage equipment.
We reached out to Volkswagen’s Vans division to verify we weren’t lacking some unexpected {hardware} or payload quirk that might make the eight-seater and Good Evening bundle incompatible, and the corporate confirmed that the 2 choices will be ordered collectively to create the ultra-versatile eight-seater mild camper we had in thoughts.
Why would you desire a two-sleeper camper with eight particular person seats, you may ask. To increase the gorgeous versatility the brand new Multivan already has in spades.
Volkswagen
The eight-seater debuts as one of the severe people-movers within the midsize van class, offering a great deal of area to hold giant households, sports activities groups, and different giant teams. With the addition of the Good Evening bundle, it could compete with a really choose few extra-versatile eight- and nine-seat compact mild camper vans which can be nice day by day drivers for big households in the course of the week, extremely succesful getaways on the weekend.
The Multivan does lack among the facilities these others provide, reminiscent of detachable kitchen tools and a pop-up sleeper roof, however it nonetheless gives a lighter model of that very same everyday-to-holiday flexibility. And if Volkswagen or an aftermarket RV provider had been to create tenting modules that mount to the ground rails and swap in for among the Multivan’s seats and/or a pop-up sleeper roof, the van might compete on all ranges with probably the most versatile pop-up camper vans in the marketplace, including to Volkswagen’s already unequalled camper van heritage.
Even with out these add-ons, which can or might not materialize, the eight-seat Multivan with Good Evening bundle can serve faithfully as a extremely succesful passenger van in the course of the week, comfy two-person camper on weekends. Mother and father might use it to flee alone from their raucous youngsters for a quiet weekend in nature, or it might work as a kind of base camp “master suite” for 2 folks whereas others sleep in a rooftop tent above or floor tent exterior.
Volkswagen
We must always word that the Good Evening mattress travels on high of the folded third-row seats, so the sunshine camper setup will seat solely 5 folks as designed, with out getting artistic in carrying the mattress on a roof rack or one thing. The seats will also be eliminated for added cargo area.
Eight-seat pricing relies upon the trim degree to which the client is including the choice. The entry degree Multivan is bought as a five-seater, and including in an additional row of three particular person seats prices €1,612. The upper degree “Life” and “Version” fashions include seven seats customary, and including the additional seat to the bundle prices €660. The Good Evening bundle can then be added for €2,927.
These numbers aren’t notably helpful except you are aware of Multivan pricing, so we configured on-line an entry-level 148-hp TDI-driven eight-seater with Good Evening bundle, which comes out to €61,886 (approx. US$71,475) in Germany with out every other optionally available upgrades. Sadly, the eight-seat configuration is barely obtainable as a front-wheel drive with both diesel or gasoline turbo engine, not because the eHybrid 4Motion plug-in hybrid all-wheel-drive.
Supply: Volkswagen
