Significant Issues with 2025 680

[Matt Wrights]

Hi All - is anyone else experiencing significant issues with their 2025 Grand California 680? We had had two Californias which proved faultless and decided to go for the 680 as a retirement present. We have had 14 separate faults so far. VW have been less than helpful and washed their hands of it. Our local dealer has been good and fixed each issue as it has arisen but you would have thought VW would want the vehicle back to find out why it is failing so often. Will be the last VW we will buy. Really keen to know if anyone else is experiencing issues. Thanks in advance

 

[Woody Woodwood]

What kind of problems are you experiencing? Would help to know

 

[Meoncoast]

Make a list of issues.

 

[Matt Wrights]

Yes of course:
1. Delivered with defective paint on drivers door
2. Driver alert warnings randomly coming on - this has occurred five times happening up to 20 times each trip
3. Defective side rubbing strips which faded to light grey in four weeks replaced under warranty
4. Heating failed on trip to Hebden Bridge which left my wife freezing with no hot water for 5 days.
5. Issues with the electric system providing enough juice to run the basic features whilst being connected to the mains. Left us with limited functionality for 3 days.
6. Full drain of all the batteries in 10 days requiring recovery.
7. Emergency braking from 60 to 30 on a dual carriageway. Scared the life out of me and luckily no one behind. The issue was there was no one in front either.
8. Water randomly dumping overnight on trip to France - happened twice which meant our trip was useless with no toilet and water.

Does that help?

 

[Meoncoast]

That is a long list. It should help others know and comment on their expirence.

 

[mr pg]

What was the temperature when the water was dumped? Could the Truma valve have tripped?
Have you thought about rejecting it?

 

[Hammer]

Yes of course:
1. Delivered with defective paint on drivers door
2. Driver alert warnings randomly coming on - this has occurred five times happening up to 20 times each trip
3. Defective side rubbing strips which faded to light grey in four weeks replaced under warranty
4. Heating failed on trip to Hebden Bridge which left my wife freezing with no hot water for 5 days.
5. Issues with the electric system providing enough juice to run the basic features whilst being connected to the mains. Left us with limited functionality for 3 days.
6. Full drain of all the batteries in 10 days requiring recovery.
7. Emergency braking from 60 to 30 on a dual carriageway. Scared the life out of me and luckily no one behind. The issue was there was no one in front either.
8. Water randomly dumping overnight on trip to France - happened twice which meant our trip was useless with no toilet and water.

Does that help

You mention you have come from previous Californias and assume this is you first Grand Cali? if so it is a very different beast and there is a lot to get use too in terms of heating and control system.

On your list points 1, 2, 3 all seem to be delivery issues with quality of van so can’t really comment on them.
Point 4, what heating so you have is it gas or diesel? what fault codes did you get? There are lots of things that can cause the heating to stop but most are easy fix’s and its just a case of understanding the system.
Point 5. What items couldn’t you run? the limiting factor when on hook up is normally the camp site electrics, the van sockets should all operate no issue if on a 16amp hook up. If you are connected to a lower powered EHU then you can set you heating/water to run on lower powered too. again just need to get use to systems
point 6. The leisure battery will not last long when not on hook up the best you will get with heating/fridge/lights is 24hrs in colder weather, solar option helps if there’s some sun but this is a area the GC does need upgrading is planning on staying off grid. If the main engine battery also drained within 10 days this doesn’t sound correct and VW should look into.
point 7. in over 4 years with GC not had this but is most likely old system, have had this with other cars and it is scary!
point 8. The water will dump is the inside temp drops below 4 degrees, this is a frost protection Truma use the is standard on most motorhome that use this system. make sure if you are away with water in tanks you keep the heating on when parked up doesn’t need to be high but we also keep it on min 12 degrees when leaving for day.

hope above helps a little, the main thing is you most likely need to get to know the GC its not like the normal california as there’s a lot more to think about but once you understand its great van.

 

[sticky1]

You mention you have come from previous Californias and assume this is you first Grand Cali? if so it is a very different beast and there is a lot to get use too in terms of heating and control system.

On your list points 1, 2, 3 all seem to be delivery issues with quality of van so can’t really comment on them.
Point 4, what heating so you have is it gas or diesel? what fault codes did you get? There are lots of things that can cause the heating to stop but most are easy fix’s and its just a case of understanding the system.
Point 5. What items couldn’t you run? the limiting factor when on hook up is normally the camp site electrics, the van sockets should all operate no issue if on a 16amp hook up. If you are connected to a lower powered EHU then you can set you heating/water to run on lower powered too. again just need to get use to systems
point 6. The leisure battery will not last long when not on hook up the best you will get with heating/fridge/lights is 24hrs in colder weather, solar option helps if there’s some sun but this is a area the GC does need upgrading is planning on staying off grid. If the main engine battery also drained within 10 days this doesn’t sound correct and VW should look into.
point 7. in over 4 years with GC not had this but is most likely old system, have had this with other cars and it is scary!
point 8. The water will dump is the inside temp drops below 4 degrees, this is a frost protection Truma use the is standard on most motorhome that use this system. make sure if you are away with water in tanks you keep the heating on when parked up doesn’t need to be high but we also keep it on min 12 degrees when leaving for day.

hope above helps a little, the main thing is you most likely need to get to know the GC its not like the normal california as there’s a lot more to think about but once you understand its great van.

What an excellent and considered response. Really interesting to read some of the features in the Grand California, clearly worth knowing about many of these considerations.

 

[Matt Wrights]

What was the temperature when the water was dumped? Could the Truma valve have tripped?
Have you thought about rejecting it?

Thanks for the response - it was above freezing. I have heard that below 0 the system dumps the water in case of freezing. I guess that puts winter touring in Scandinavia off the agenda. What a design flaw if that is a reality. We have tried to reject but VW not interested. In fact their customer Service has been nothing short of shocking.

 

[pjm-84]

What was the temperature when the water was dumped? Could the Truma valve have tripped?
Have you thought about rejecting it?

My thoughts....its a Truma safety feature to prevent damage...dumps the water at 4 degrees

 

[pjm-84]

Quite a few campsites abroad have 10amp supplies hence the refillable gas solution. Truma has multiple setting, the max being circa 1800watts (don't quote me), which only leaves 500 watts left on the supply. Easy way is amps x volts = watts .....so a 16amp supply = 3680 watts, whilst a 10amp = 2300 watts. A normal kettle is around 3000watts / a travel kettle may be 1600 watts

Truma has gas / electric mix settings

 

[Matt Wrights]

What an excellent and considered response. Really interesting to read some of the features in the Grand California, clearly worth knowing about many of these considerations.

Agreed -
Thanks for the post. So in answer to your points:

4. It is a diesel / electric heater and the error code was a fan failure which required a full reset by the dealer.
5. The electric system on the van was failing to consume from the site. This required a software update and the electric system resetting.
6. Yep - like the Cali the Leisure battery drains quickly but we could leave our Cali off a trickle charger for 2 months and the main battery would still be fine. Evidently this is not the case for the GC according to the dealer and it should be connected to the mains when not in use. Again doesn’t make sense really.
7. Yes scary - never had it happen with nothing in front of me but they are reassuring me they have resolved it.
8. That’s really helpful to know - thanks for that

Really appreciate you taking the time to come back on these points. Our biggest disappointment is the lack of care or interest shown by VW. Will keep this 10 years and hope another brand offers a better overall package!

 

[PaulGC680]

Hi Matt
Firstly thank you for reaching out with your concerns and issues.
I was new to a GC 12 months ago and with the van just exiting its warranty then my first action on any query was:
To search this forum and see what is already said and solutions
In general terms I have had a few issues which, with no support, could have become more major issues.
When searching, make sure you you have the GC sub forum ticked and none others.
But I must say how helpful and supportive information and forum members have been and everything has been solved . Often issues were my lack of knowledge/understanding of the systems or operation.
Good luck and search/ask any query while it is current/present and try to give sufficient info or images (if relevant) to help the forum members give you help and support.
Paul

 

[Topsy]

Thanks for the response - it was above freezing. I have heard that below 0 the system dumps the water in case of freezing. I guess that puts winter touring in Scandinavia off the agenda. What a design flaw if that is a reality. We have tried to reject but VW not interested. In fact their customer Service has been nothing short of shocking.

Just to clarify. The Truma safety valve will only dump the water when the temperature INSIDE the van is below 4C, so touring in Scandinavia is fine as long as you leave the heating set above this.

 

[Hammer]

Agreed -
Thanks for the post. So in answer to your points:

4. It is a diesel / electric heater and the error code was a fan failure which required a full reset by the dealer.
5. The electric system on the van was failing to consume from the site. This required a software update and the electric system resetting.
6. Yep - like the Cali the Leisure battery drains quickly but we could leave our Cali off a trickle charger for 2 months and the main battery would still be fine. Evidently this is not the case for the GC according to the dealer and it should be connected to the mains when not in use. Again doesn’t make sense really.
7. Yes scary - never had it happen with nothing in front of me but they are reassuring me they have resolved it.
8. That’s really helpful to know - thanks for that

Really appreciate you taking the time to come back on these points. Our biggest disappointment is the lack of care or interest shown by VW. Will keep this 10 years and hope another brand offers a better overall package!

4. When you get errors like this the best option is to turn off the red switch in the electrical cupboard. Lot of faults clear when this is done and would assume that what the dealer did!
5. if the van is not showing its on hook up this normally means the plug into the battery charger is not fully pushed in. Look under the passenger seat and you will see a black box with a kettle style plug just make sure its fully pushed in. This is very common issue. One other point on this if you are on a brand new 2025 van with updated touch screen etc then think there have been couple of software issues so maybe now this updated you wont have further problems.
6. If you are leaving the van for extended period turn off the red switch in the electrical cupboard. There is a slight amount of drain so will flatten leisure battery over few days if you don’t have solar option which i assume you don’t if a 2025 van as can’t spec them at mo. Leaving plugged in is option but if you turn off the red switch should last lot longer without need to plug in then you can just done one month for long weekend for example.

The issues you are having are not unusual so stick with it and i am sure you will start to enjoy the GC. There’s a huge learning curve and yes VW are nightmare but so are most motorhome manufacturers unfortunately!

 

[Matt Wrights]

Hi Matt
Firstly thank you for reaching out with your concerns and issues.
I was new to a GC 12 months ago and with the van just exiting its warranty then my first action on any query was:
To search this forum and see what is already said and solutions
In general terms I have had a few issues which, with no support, could have become more major issues.
When searching, make sure you you have the GC sub forum ticked and none others.
But I must say how helpful and supportive information and forum members have been and everything has been solved . Often issues were my lack of knowledge/understanding of the systems or operation.
Good luck and search/ask any query while it is current/present and try to give sufficient info or images (if relevant) to help the forum members give you help and support.
Paul

Thanks Paul - appreciate your support

 

[Matt Wrights]

4. When you get errors like this the best option is to turn off the red switch in the electrical cupboard. Lot of faults clear when this is done and would assume that what the dealer did!
5. if the van is not showing its on hook up this normally means the plug into the battery charger is not fully pushed in. Look under the passenger seat and you will see a black box with a kettle style plug just make sure its fully pushed in. This is very common issue. One other point on this if you are on a brand new 2025 van with updated touch screen etc then think there have been couple of software issues so maybe now this updated you wont have further problems.
6. If you are leaving the van for extended period turn off the red switch in the electrical cupboard. There is a slight amount of drain so will flatten leisure battery over few days if you don’t have solar option which i assume you don’t if a 2025 van as can’t spec them at mo. Leaving plugged in is option but if you turn off the red switch should last lot longer without need to plug in then you can just done one month for long weekend for example.

The issues you are having are not unusual so stick with it and i am sure you will start to enjoy the GC. There’s a huge learning curve and yes VW are nightmare but so are most motorhome manufacturers unfortunately!

Thanks Hammer - encouraging - when we get it back from the latest round of issues I certainly hope we can get some smooth camping in it. The first six months have left us missing our Californias! Appreciate you taking the time to give me your insights!

 

[Matt Wrights]

Just to clarify. The Truma safety valve will only dump the water when the temperature INSIDE the van is below 4C, so touring in Scandinavia is fine as long as you leave the heating set above this.

Thanks for that

 

[Black.Sheep.Cali]

Yes of course:
1. Delivered with defective paint on drivers door
2. Driver alert warnings randomly coming on - this has occurred five times happening up to 20 times each trip
3. Defective side rubbing strips which faded to light grey in four weeks replaced under warranty
4. Heating failed on trip to Hebden Bridge which left my wife freezing with no hot water for 5 days.
5. Issues with the electric system providing enough juice to run the basic features whilst being connected to the mains. Left us with limited functionality for 3 days.
6. Full drain of all the batteries in 10 days requiring recovery.
7. Emergency braking from 60 to 30 on a dual carriageway. Scared the life out of me and luckily no one behind. The issue was there was no one in front either.
8. Water randomly dumping overnight on trip to France - happened twice which meant our trip was useless with no toilet and water.

Does that help?

We collected our MY25 on June 13th 2025 and yes it was a Friday.

1.no problem with the paint.
2. ours has done similar but not every trip and usually when it is damp. Had read on Cali.com that there is a seal for a plug which is a failure point and moisture bridges to pins.
3.I’ve not noticed this.
4.never had the heating fail.
5.been ok so far, we use an EcoFlow off grid.
6.we have just noticed the vehicle battery draining quickly and also the control panel flashing we an amber light against the fresh water tank empty symbol. Power ON and that stops but on starting the vehicle battery id guess is at 10%.
7.only ever slammed on when navigating into a car park as the barrier/gate is sliding open. Never when driving.
8.ours dumped the first night but learned to keep the diesel heater on the minimum if expecting a cold snap.

We have had the TPMS randomly stop working or temporarily unavailable. But never a constant issue.

We had many issues with the dealer from the day we ordered it to its arrival. We had the wrong colour wheels, leg adjusters missing from rear table, step illumination not installed and a few dealer issues.

The dealer got the wheels painted before pick up, our v5 was incorrect which in the end I got it up plated to 4.2t. All other items were sorted but still waiting for step illumination to be retro fitted. We got a few extras given to us, an additional free service added to the plan and a decent money back sum on top of the £9k discount they had already given us. We had read many times VW would usually not reply or help with the issues but we at least came away with something.

We have now covered 14,000miles, through all weathers. Rarely stopped over in camp sites and with no solar haven’t missed having it really given how many report of needing a lipo4 upgrade. I suppose it helps having the EcoFlow a little.

We would definitely buy again from VW but maybe another dealer. Other than a adria we don’t see anything that appeals to us in the same campervan set up.

Hope you get things sorted soon and start to enjoy it

 

[Matt Wrights]

Thanks for this - sort of reassuring we are not alone with issues.

 

[pinomarmo1958]

We are on our second Grand California's 600. Loved both, we've had three oceans would never go back.
Only problem I have at the mo ,is my tow bar, when reversing. And I am leaving it until it has its first service in June 26.That's it.
The low tyre pressure light came on . Went for a long drive tyres warmed up and light went off.

If you look up California Chris he shows you how to reset the boiler,saving you a trip to VW.
P.S. All 3 oceans had faults of some kind.
Have you downloaded these two apps. ,the first in the van the second front the web.
First only for facelift.

 

[kalatrava]

We also faced some unpleasant problems with our brand new GC600. So far we have identified two main problems:
- the on-board battery would not charge while driving even with the special button turned on. It turned out to be a factory defect, which after disrupting half of our vacation, was fixed by the dealer under warranty, but nevertheless the unpleasant feeling lasted for a long time.
- when the mains power is turned on, it only charges the on-board battery, but not the engine battery. As a result, the car battery was completely drained in the winter and again in the service center. Still waiting for the problem to be fixed.
Cheers everybody, the life is good and interesting