IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: VW Type 2 T3 (T25) Devon camper van

Today's video features my friend Aaron's newest purchase: a Volkswagen Type 2 T3 T25 Devon camper pop top van.

Today's video is sponsored by Adrian Flux

Video walkaround text as below:
If you’re after a camper van which will hold its value, give you hours of fun and get you to your destination, albeit a bit slower than your modern runabout, maybe the T25 Devon is the camper for you.

These campers used to be the cheaper alternative for somebody who wanted the VW camper experience but on a smaller budget. Nowadays they’re steadily climbing in price - but with a bit of budgeting and being flexible on taking on a van which might need a little TLC, the T25 is a camper which most families could work towards and in the world as it is at the moment, the Staycation is the safest holiday choice.

So before we get to explore the practicalities of the van, let’s discuss the history!

Now whilst this is called the T25 by some, it’s actually a Type 2 T3 and was the third generation of the Volkswagen transporter.

Launched in May 1979, the Devon as we’re testing here today was introduced by Devon Conversions and was a similar design to the earlier type 2 bay window Moonrakers and this version was introduced in 1980.

There were several options available at launch including the Petrol Aircooled 1.6, the Petrol Aircooled 2 litre auto and 2 litre manual.

From 1982, you could also get the diesel water-cooled 1.6 manual.

This one is the the Petrol Aircooled 2 litre model and would’ve been one of the last air cooled vans sold like this, because from October 1983, all the T25 Devon vans were Watercooled.

It’s worth mentioning that if you spot these out in the wild, you can tell whether it’s an air cooled or water cooled because the grills differ. If it’s a water cooled, it’ll have two grilles and if it’s air cooled it’ll only have the one as we see on the van we’re testing today.

At point of sale, this van would’ve cost £9,140. However, this van really held it’s value because this example was sold to the second owner when it was nearly 8 years old for around £8,000. Interestingly the first owner was an artist who used to travel around with his art hanging in the back of the van and actually traded it in for Citroen in 1990.

The colour options for these vans were pretty limited and you could’ve got the brilliant orange and ivory beige, the agate brown and ivory beige, the assuan brown and Samos beige and the bamboo yellow and ivory beige - which is what this camper is.

Although for a reduced price, you could’ve picked a single colour scheme from 1982 and from the early mid 80s the duo colour scheme was stopped and replaced with single colour options.

The interior colour scheme on the cupboards in this van is coffee and cream although from 83 there was a lighter honey coloured brown option called Harvest.

Now let’s talk specs - we’re not promised anything amazing but we’re not testing a modern SUV we’re testing a joyful camper to take us away on our holidays.

The best we can hope for on fuel consumption is around 20 miles per gallon according to the sales brochures although Aaron said this is the lower end of what he gets and he gets around 25 miles per gallon on a long straight run and around town it is probably closer to the 20 mark.

She might be a 2 litre but she’s not a speed demon and you’ll be looking to go from zero to 60 in around 22 seconds - although as you’ll see on our test drive this is a wee bit optimistic.

We’ve got rack and pinion steering through split steering column and skew angle gear and we have discs to front, drums to rear and vacuum servo.

Power steering has been retro fitted to this, but I’ll talk about it when we go for a drive.
#vwcamper #volkswagencamper #devonmoonraker

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