A little bit of research later and I came across the Sportline Kombi.
Wow. I love the look of this van! So I went around to my local dealer and arranged a test drive. Now this was my first ever time driving a van and it was a bit of a shock. The van looked gorgeous from the outside but on the inside even the Sportline was quite basic. It had leather seats but a plastic steering wheel and plastic trim. The back of the van was exactly as I expected - a rubber floor and very practical, with a 3 seater leather bench which you can easily remove.
At 174 BHP this thing rips along too. It really does. But I found myself a little disappointed at the general feel of the thing. The ride position up high was lovely but something just didn't feel right. It was very different to driving a car! I went back the next day and had another go and it felt a lot better, so I set the salesman to finding me a Sportline Kombi, although in all honesty it was probably beyond my budget. These things are like hens teeth though, especially at my budget so he wasn't able to find one straight off. That meant I had time to do more research. With superb help from my friend Andy I began my delve into the murky world of VW Transporters. He pointed me at the awesome Brick-Yard forum and I read and read and read. And joined up and posted question after question. And I discovered the wonderful Caravelle.
This van has an amazingly simple but clever rail system meaning you can slide the back seats back and forth giving huge flexibility - the ability to have a rear row bench pushed forward for driving and have space in the boot for bikes, or push the rear bench back and, if you get front swivelling seats, you have a nice "lounge" area in the middle of the van, complete with a built in table. You can also fold all the seats flat to end up with a big bed on the inside!
So I went to see one in my local show room. There I discovered that the driving experience of the Caravelle is lovely. Leather steering wheel and plush cabin make you feel like you're in a quality car as opposed to a commercial van like the Sportline Kombi's interior. And the rear was luxury all over compared to the Kombi. However this Caravelle was also very expensive and so I test drove the Shuttle they had. This was a cross between then two and the trouble was it was basically just a big taxi. No matter how I tried to convince myself I should buy it, I kept coming back to the same thought: it looks like a taxi. I think it's to do with the windows all the way around and then the fact it has three rows of seats. Okay, so I would have removed (and possibly sold) the back row of seats but it still just looks like a taxi. Spot any Shuttle on the road and that's what they look like. And the more I looked at them the more I realised that the Caravelle was the same - only to me it looked like a plush taxi. I didn't want that. I had a brief flirt looking at a Caravelle Startline which is a cheaper Caravelle with less flash interior, with the really cool rail system and with the practical kombi floor. Trouble is, from the outside it still looked like a taxi. So I ended up back with the Kombi.
