The Autoblog Show returns with its fifth episode, this time featuring the ever-popular camper van.
First, Senior Producer Christopher McGraw travels to Seattle, Washington, where he meets up with Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and takes a trip to Deception Pass in Jeremy’s personal recreation vehicle, a 1975 high-roof VW van.
Then, Christopher travels to the land of ice and fire, Iceland, to drive around the island country in a Renault Trafic camper van. Things take a turn for the worse when the van breaks down and he and Producer Alex Malburg are forced to sleep on the side of the road.
Finally, we head to the shores of California where surf mogul Martin Squires talks about the role that his VW van played in his surf life and his desire to have the VW California hit the North American shores.
- This is "Autoblog."
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For over 15 years, our team has covered the auto industry. You can find more of our content at Autoblog.com, but here on "The Autoblog Show," each episode features our favorite videos of the hottest new cars from all over the world. This is what moves us.
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- We are drivers, off-roaders, journalists, tech geeks, gamers, film makers, and adventurers. This is "Autoblog."
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Coming up on this episode of "The Autoblog Show," senior producer Christopher McGraw heads to Iceland. Over in the Land of Fire and Ice, tourists have made camper vans a mainstream way to see the country.
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: This is an old Renault van. It has just shy of 275,000 kilometers on the odometer.
- Though it may look better on Instagram than it is in reality.
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: We're driving along the entrance-- near the entrance of Skogofoss, and the engine stalled out.
- But first, let's start with the most famous van of them all, the Volkswagen bus.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: One of the reasons we bought this vehicle, and we didn't want a show car, is because we plan on using it a lot. In October of 2017, we actually put over 1,000 miles on this car going from Seattle to Mount Hood in Oregon, Crater Lake, all the way back up over the Olympics.
- You're now watching "The Autoblog Show."
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: Hey, guys Chris McGraw here for "Autoblog." A couple of months ago, I drove the brand new Volkswagen California camper van in California. Today, we are a few hours north of Seattle Washington with consumer editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and his 1975 Volkswagen camper van. We're going to take a quick tour, and Jeremy's going to tell us all about it.
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So like you said, it's a 1975 camper van. This particular model, made in Germany, shipped over to the United States. And it was modified by Spirit Campers in Paramount, California. The company no longer exists, but the van still does. So that's all that matters. A lot of the Volkswagen vans that were converted to campers that you see driving on the roads are what they call pop-tops. That means they've got, like, a canvas tent opening at the top that provides additional sleeping.
This one is a high top. And I was actually looking for that, because I'm a little over 6 feet tall. And I can actually stand up without ducking in this vehicle. And that was kind of important to me when I was shopping for a camper. This vehicle carries a couple gallons of water onboard. There's a sink inside we can take a look at in just a moment. But this is the filler-- drains right out the bottom from the sink, which is just inside here. And down here, you will see this is the 110-volt power hookup.
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This blue color is striking. Is this original?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Yeah, this is the original color of the vehicle. The bottom half is this light blue color, which they carried onto the fiberglass top. It's got this white stripe. The previous owner called the vehicle, blue. And we felt like that was grandfathered in, and we didn't want to change the name. So we always just refer to this van as blue.
Of course, we're at the back now. Like any vintage air-cooled Volkswagen, the engine's around back.
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: You pop this cover.
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: And you've got 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder. You can see the fan runs directly off the crankshaft, goes into this ductwork, covers the cylinders. Of course, being air cooled, it doesn't have a traditional radiator, so it doesn't have a real good heating system. But it does have this little fan blower up here. It blows air across the exhaust manifolds and into the cabin of the vehicle for heat. This vehicle has a few modifications to it. It was originally a mechanical fuel pump. It's been replaced with an electric fuel pump, which is mounted on a bracket over in the corner.
It's got a aftermarket carburetor and an aftermarket exhaust for just a little bit more power. Factory rated this vehicle, I believe, it's something like 68-horsepower. That very well could have been a stretch even then. I've clocked it at about 22 miles per gallon, which doesn't seem all that great. But I feel like that's a win, because if I were pulling a trailer with a pickup truck, I wouldn't get anything near that. And considering it's a completely self-contained camper solution for four people, I figure 22 miles per gallon is not that bad.
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: And what about top speed?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: It really depends on the incline. If you're pointed downhill, you can pass 70 miles an hour. Right on flat level ground, I think about 68 miles, foot to the floor, is-- that's about where you're going to be comfortable at. But the slightest little incline, immediately you see the speedometer start slowing down. I've never hit an incline that has dropped me lower than third gear maxed out at about 40 miles per hour.
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: All right, so let's talk about, arguably, the most exciting part about the camper van-- the interior.
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JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: When Volkswagen sent this vehicle over to the United States, it would have been in a cargo configuration with no seating or anything. So spirit campers added a refrigerator, a stovetop, a sink, and the z-bed. So the seatback folds flat. This package shelf flips over to the top and makes a bed that's just over six feet tall.
There is an additional bed up at the top. There's a three-piece wooden panel system. It folds out and makes an additional bed for two more occupants. As long as they are not claustrophobic, they're pretty comfortable up there.
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CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: So how much of this is original to the 1975 transformation of a normal Volkswagen van into a camper van?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Quite a bit of it. I actually replaced this faucet, but I did it with an original piece. As you can see, it works. The refrigerator is original. The stove top is original. All this cabinetry is original. Some pieces, though, had to be replaced. There was an original shag carpeting in here. That got ripped out-- just absolutely covered in mouse droppings and nesting from all kinds of animals over the years. So that got ripped out.
All this upholstery is brand new. My wife actually did a great job re-upholstering all of this. Foam's all new, the fabric is all new. And we tried to keep the vintage feel to the best of our ability, so we chose fabrics that kind of had that '70s look to them. The package shelf has got this fabric on it. There's a set of curtains that my wife made to give us privacy at night.
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Of course, this being an air cooled Volkswagen with the engine in the back, that means tons of linkages. So this is definitely not the kind of vehicle that you would buy for the joy of driving. But it gets you from campsite to campsite, and that's the important part. Steering, as you can see, a loose definition of straight ahead-- clutch pedal, brake pedal, gas pedal. That one is usually pushed all the way to the floor at all times just to keep up with traffic. The shifter-- 4-speed manual. And as you can see, it has the world's longest shift lever. You can also see why they refer to these things as the Volkswagen bus. You've got a very bus-like driving position. The steering wheel is, like, directly in your lap.
The other nice thing about this vehicle is that everything works-- everything from the lights, the turn signals, parking brake, the heater controls-- all of it works. Even the radio works. I figure anytime that you can get in a vehicle this old and everything functions as it should, that is a victory.
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: How much use does this thing get? And what do you got planned for it?
JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: Actually, one of the reasons we bought this vehicle, and we didn't want a show car, is because we plan on using it a lot. In October of 2017, we actually put over 1,000 miles on this car going from Seattle to Mt. Hood in Oregon, Crater Lake, all the way back up over the Olympics. And we have plans to keep using it. Next weekend, we'll probably be the last people to show up for our campsite, but we'll show up in style.
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- You're watching "The Autoblog Show."
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Up next, camping in Iceland.
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CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: So we are currently in the Keflavik Airport. We're about 40 minutes outside Reykjavik waiting for the Happy Camper van rental people to come pick us up, which should be in, like, 20 minutes.
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In the happy camper. This is an old Renault van. It has just shy of 275,000 kilometers on the odometer. And this is-- it's, like, a tall van. And you can't really tell by looking outside right now, but it's super windy outside. And you can definitely feel the wind coming across this van. They said that most of the accidents that these get into involve the wind more than anything-- the wind or sheep crossing the road.
Van camping seems to be a fairly easy way to see the country. There are a lot of campsites you can go to, especially in the summer. There are still a good amount of campsites you can visit in the winter months too. From 2014 to 2016, the amount of tourists coming to Iceland has doubled from around 900,000 to almost 2 million. And that trend is still going upwards. So they're just building more hotel rooms to accommodate people. But at the moment, using a camper van seems to be the best way to go, in my opinion.
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This is the campground in Selfoss, Iceland. As you can see, there are a bunch of other people camping here. It is 10:00 AM, so a lot of the campers have left. It's not the high season, but it still filled up pretty quickly last night. We're walking to where you can go take a shower. There are some bathrooms. There's a kitchen, power outlets-- all communal area. So you have everyone in there at night charging up their cameras, checking out their photos on their computer.
But it's a nice thing to have. It's a lot different than campsites in the United States. It does cost per person 1,500, which is roughly $15 US. So we spent $30. And included in that is the showers. If you park over there, you have access to power all night, which does cost a bit extra.
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Campers were driving along the entrance-- near the entrance of Skogarfoss. And the engine stalled out, and so we came to a stop, and now I can't get the vehicle to start again. They have a mechanic, he says, is not too far away. I don't know exactly how far "not too far" is. Until then, we're stuck at the entrance of, like, the busiest area in all of this region of Iceland, which is great. So yeah, just keep the hazards on, and hopefully one of these buses doesn't hit us. This is the downside to getting the experienced van-- the one that has a few miles on it is that I think sometimes things go wrong like this.
Yeah, the other-- my co-driver filled it up last. I'm looking for the receipt. D-I-E-S-E-L-O-L-I-A. They thought that we were putting regular gas in the car. I read him the receipt. This isn't the first diesel we've driven, clearly. So I told him that it's been only diesel. And it's going to be half an hour till the guy gets here. The waterfall is right back there-- so not the least beautiful place I've ever broken down-- would've been nice to not break down at all.
Double checked the receipt, we've put in diesel the whole time.
- What happened? You have no idea? All right.
CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: We'll have to steer with the door open [INAUDIBLE]
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CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: Right.
- OK. Yeah. Yeah.
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CHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: This is van number two from Happy Campers. And it is completely identical, except for the fact that this one runs. So we've got a couple of seats here. So here's the bed I was talking about-- the top bunk. So you just got to kind of muscle it out here-- just pull it out all the way. So this seat, we've got some storage underneath, and you can just pull it out. And if you don't have stuff in the way, this'll lie flat. And that's where your second bed is.
Right here, we have our refrigerator. So we've got some food in there. Kitchen countertop where we can take our stove, set it up, cook some food. We actually have running water in here, which is nice. There's just, like, a container underneath. So if you open up this door, you can refill your container of water. We haven't come close to running out. We've been here for three days.
So this is our passenger seat. What's cool about this is that it leans forward. So you just get rid of this, and that way you can kind of just hang out in the back when you're at your campsite and just chill in the back before snoozing. Very easy to get back up and turn back into the passenger seat. Up here, more storage-- We've got our big huge bag up there. And it fits with room to spare.
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After our third night here in this Happy Camper 3X, I have to say, this isn't the van that I would recommend for a trip to Iceland. If you do want to go the camper van route, I would get one of the newer, smaller vans. They're more reliable and easier to drive-- not to mention, they're a little bit cheaper. If you'd rather stay in hotels the entire time you're here, you can do that too.
You can rent a car from the airport and just drive. You'll just have to plan ahead, because they do book up fast. Now, if you're planning on going on some of the rougher roads, you'll have to get a four-wheel drive car. You can get a four-wheel drive camper van, a Defender, a Land Cruiser, or just a regular four-wheel drive SUV from the airport. All of these cost about roughly the same. So you can stay in this for $200 a night, or you can rent a car for $70 and drive to a hotel that's $130.
My preference, having already lived the camper van experience here in Iceland for a few days, would be to get something fun like a manual Golf to really take advantage of what this country has to offer in terms of its roads, though getting a smaller camper van definitely comes in a close second. There's really no wrong way to experience Iceland.
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MARTIN SQUIRES: I had a compulsion to buy one. Like, I was living in an RV down by the beach and I needed a mode of transportation-- I was like, OK, I want a van that I can carry my surfboards in. And I want a cool van-- you know, not some white Econoline. So I ended up getting-- I ended up looking all over the internet, found this one, drove up there that day, bought it, and, you know, the rest is history, as they say.
Almost every morning, I wake up thanking that I bought this van, because this van really changed my whole life. This van here was the catalyst that started my business, which now is the number one surf school in California. So it's been a boon. And it's all because there's so many people that have stories with this van, and it attracts so much attention that, you know, people either come up to take pictures with it or they come up to talk to me about all the stories they had when they were kids about going on road trips in a van.
The drive up to Mavericks, it takes from LA, you know, seven hours. It took me about 20. So when I got there, I really appreciated getting there. So I drove up just kind of at first light. And like, I just remember just hearing the surf-- like, 20-foot surf. Like, it's like a freight train hitting.
And just parked right there watching the surf, and just, like, you see all these people out there just charging, you know? 20-foot wave's pretty substantial-- it's like jumping off a three-story building. And whenever you go for a wave like that, you have to 100% commit. So I ended up grabbing my board, grabbing my suit, heart pounding, paddled out there, stayed on the shoulder, caught a couple of maybe 10, 15-foot waves, got a little of my, I guess, bravery, and ended up charging a 20-foot wave, and that's the wave of my life. You know, here I'm almost 50 years old, and I still remember that one 20-foot wave, and I've been surfing for 30 years.
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To be honest with you, I often think I would love to move back in the van. That's why when I saw the California, like, I'm like, OK, maybe I don't have to go back to the hard lifestyle. I can actually drive around in, like, a mobile mansion. So I wish they sold the California here. I would buy that thing in a heartbeat.
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- Thanks for watching, and we hope you enjoyed this episode of "The Autoblog Show." for. A lot more of our content, check us out at Autoblog.com, where you can find the latest reviews and news on all of your favorite cars.
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