It’s a busy time for the Volkswagen Transporter Kombi
The Transporter Kombi has been in near-constant use recently. Zaak Andrews explains how it’s getting on with the tasks in hand
Being three months into any relationship can be a speculative time for all parties involved.
Imperfections become more apparent and judgments can often be made in haste. However, three months into our long-term relationship with KY18 PXF and it’s all becoming a lot clearer just how easy it is to not only live with but continue to enjoy on a daily basis. Hopefully, the feeling is mutual.
We spoke last month of how capable this Kombi van is – with particular emphasis on fuel economy – and we’re pleased to report that so far that’s still the case. The 45.6mpg book figure from Volkswagen is proving to be more realistic than some manufacturers would have you believe theirs are. We’ve actually seen 53.1mpg this month on a 118-mile trip involving all classes of UK roads and being heavily laden with equipment.
This leads me to my next point: the UK roads. They’re the mainstay of transport for this country and, of course, the motor industry. We personally spend a lot of time on all different variations of them, and for that reason it’s a huge bonus if we’re in a vehicle that makes driving on them easier.
The Kombi certainly does that. Its car-like motoring manners once you’re up to a comfortable cruising speed make it a very easy driving companion. However, no matter how easy a vehicle is to drive or how comfortable it makes a motorway feel, it’s not clever enough to avoid flying debris from other untidy motorists.
Unfortunately, that was exactly the case this month. While on the return 118-mile journey during which we lovingly saw that 53.1mpg, we were overtaken at speed by a low-slung pickup whose cargo wasn’t quite as safe as it should have been. Cue impact…
With it being rush hour too and no space to try to avoid the bang, both we and the T30 just
had to grin and bear it. BANG! A golf-ball-sized piece of rubble bounced up off the asphalt and straight into the windscreen.
Admittedly, its bark was much worse than its bite, and although we were half expecting the windscreen to have a substantial crack through it, it merely suffered an inch-sized chip just off centre left. This was still bad news for the T30 though, as it was in line to have a busy week. We had to get this sorted pronto so phoned Volkswagen, which quickly arranged for the repair to be carried out.
One new windscreen later and the van was back to its transporting ways. First up, a house move, and the second row of seats in our Kombi van had to be taken out before we could even think about shifting any form of furniture. A minor piece of advice: don’t try this on your own – it’s definitely a two-person job.
You need to pull the toggle on the rear and at the base of the seat so the upright folds forward. This then gives you access to the release bar on the floor of the van. Once that’s pulled, you can unlock the seats from their anchor points.
Having that second person on standby means you can quite simply lift them out of the sliding door shortly afterwards and then that’s it: full van mode engaged – something we can hopefully find more uses for in the coming weeks.
The relationship with KY18 PXF is becoming much tighter knit now, and although the parking sensors still continue to deafen and Apple CarPlay has a mind of its own when making calls on the move, these are minor imperfections and can easily be overlooked.
