It's Here

Yesterday we picked up the Beach from the dealer and brought it home.  We stopped off on the way home to drop off the spare two middle seats in storage as we won't need them most of the time.  So now we have a 5 seater van with the option to add two extra seats in when needed.

Pics of what it looks like today:

Front

As you can see it is pretty plain at the moment - the default California in Reflex Silver.  We have a plan to change that later this week with a visit to SMG Cowfold to bling it up a bit, but I'll save that for a fresh post at the weekend.

Front Side

First impressions on getting it home:  Pretty cool.  I'm loving the electrical side door, it's dead handy to be able to open it by remote control when carrying a heavy car seat in the rain for example.  I think it will be a great addition until it breaks....

We took the removeable 12v cool box out of the back and stored that away for when we need it.  Not something we would have ordered but as it came with the van anyway, it's an added bonus.

Rear side

This van came with Premium Bluetooth.  Again, not something we would have ordered if we bought from new but as it's in there we may as well use it.  Hooked my phone up to it and have tested making calls and playing music through it.  All works a treat.

Side

As you can see from the pictures we have removed the side awning.  Personal choice but we found we hardly ever used the one on the SE, it was windy and rattled as we drove along and can only have added to the fuel consumption too.  Plus it was an ugly lump on the side of the van.   I'm very happy with the improved looks on the Beach without it.   There is still the side rail on both sides so you can still hook up a drive away awning directly to the van - which is important.

One thing which is really annoying is the rear 3-seater bench.  In our old SE it was really simple to shift the bench foreward and back.  You simply pulled a lever on the front of the bench and slid it.  With the Beach it seems this is no longer the case.  From the manual (which is not very clear) it appears you need to fold the back of the bench down first.   This is clearly impossible with 2 child seats fitted so as yet I've not managed to shift the bench.   I've posted a question on the ever excellent California Forum to see if that actually is the way to shift it and will see what answers I get from the clever people there.

UPDATE:  Yes, it seems that you do need to fold the back seat down before you can shift the rear bench.  Not a great design from a user point of view, but I tried it and it is easy to move the bench singlehanded once the rear seat drops down.  Just can't do it with the kid seats in.