Some of the biggest news in the American camper van world in the past few years was that Westfalia, the builder of camper vans with iconic pop-top roofs, made a triumphant return to America. The company is back to selling new vans to Americans and now it’s coming out with a smaller and cheaper option for people who want to downsize. This is the 2025 Westfalia Wave SRT, and it perhaps has one annoying problem.
Toward the end of 2023, the camper van world lit up with shocking news. The iconic brand Westfalia, the outfit that helped make the pop-up tent roof popular on vans, returned to America after a near two-decade-long hiatus. This was a pretty huge deal. Camper vans have grown in popularity over the years and pop-tops are a popular way to add to a van’s space. Yet, Westfalia essentially left money on the table as it missed out on our lucrative RV market.
Last year, Westfalia finally changed that, returning to America with 20′ 9″ camper vans based on the Ram ProMaster. Now, Westfalia is stripping off more than a foot from its van and a chunk of the price, too. The new Westfalia Wave SRT promises to be “for effortless maneuvering, making parking and navigating tight spaces a breeze.”
From Europe, Via Canada
Now, some of you are probably scratching your head right now. If you know your Westfalia history, you know Westfalia once had a decades-long relationship with Volkswagen. Then it flirted with Daimler for a little bit. So what’s going on with the whole Ram ProMaster deal? Here are some details from my previous entry:
Westfalia’s American operations began winding down in the 2000s. Back in 1999, DaimlerChrysler purchased a 49 percent stake in Westfalia before taking a 51 percent controlling share in 2001. Until 2003, Americans could buy a Volkswagen EuroVan MV Weekender, which featured one of Westfalia’s iconic pop-tops. When the EuroVan was discontinued, DaimlerChrysler carried the Westfalia torch in America. In the mid-2000s, Westfalia vans were built on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter platform, badged as the Dodge Sprinter Westfalia, and sold through Airstream dealerships. In Europe, they were sold under the name James Cook.
I could not find any official press release, but owners of Mercedes-based Westys began finding out about the discontinuation of Westfalia in America in 2006. Reportedly, Airstream moved only a couple hundred of the Sprinter Westfalias before calling it quits. So, this return comes about 18 years since those dark days for American Westfalia fans.
Weirdly, Westfalia Americas says the brand left America around 2001, which completely erases the later Airstream Westfalias, which are not some sort of Mandela Effect. They do exist! If you’re interested in learning why Westfalia is an icon, click here to read my history piece on it.
As Westfalia entered into the modern era, it worked on various projects outside of its relationship with Volkswagen, including camper vans for Ford and Mercedes-Benz. Westfalia also made the gloriously weird BMW Multi-Trailer. Even though the company hadn’t been in America for nearly two decades, it did keep churning away camper vans out in Europe, adding the Fiat Ducato to the portfolio in 2009.
Westfalia’s American rebirth is a little weird. French RV conglomerate Rapido Group, which has owned Westfalia since 2011, bought Canadian camper van builder Roadtrek in 2019. Having both of these brands under the Rapido umbrella gave Westfalia an easy way to come back to America. The new Westfalia Americas is a brand of Roadtrek and the vans are built in Canada with VINs that read as Roadtrek, but the vans are branded as Westfalia.
The first new Westfalia to be sold in America was the Wave and, after touring it, I thought this van was a breath of fresh air. A lot of the camper vans built during the pandemic and for some time after had absolutely dreadful interiors. Roadtrek and Westfalia are punching out vans with solid materials and touchpoints.
It sounds silly to say this when you’re talking about an RV, but these vans felt like the folks from these companies actually considered that you might want to touch the things. Then again, Forest River is punching out travel trailers with metal edges that can slice your hands open, so maybe this level of consideration is special.
The 2025 Westfalia Wave SRT
One of the hotter trends in the RV industry right now is downsizing. RV manufacturers are finding out that an increasing number of RV buyers don’t want to drive large buses and trucks. Instead, they want to command vehicles that aren’t much bigger than their pickup trucks while still offering a cozy place to sleep. Smaller RVs tend to be cheaper, easier to maintain, and can fit in standard parking spaces.
Recently, we’ve seen how several RV manufacturers have been downsizing from giants like Coachmen and Thor Industries to smaller units like Wingamm. Now, Westfalia wants in on this party with the new Wave SRT, a camper van cut down by just a tad over a foot and being marketed as the perfect van to make parking, maneuvering, and navigation as easy as possible.
The new Westfalia SRT is still based on the Ram ProMaster 3500, but now it’s based on the ProMaster’s shorter 19′-7″ variant. This one is just a foot and two inches shorter than the regular Westfalia Wave, but the idea here is that the Wave SRT will be able to fit into most standard North American parking spaces without spilling over. Cutting off the foot is also marketed as making the van easier to drive, but I’m not sure a foot of length is going to make much of any difference in that regard.
Aside from the shorty length, the whole idea about bringing Westfalia back to America is to give American camper vans a European style. You won’t really tell from the exterior, where you get what’s more or less your standard Ram ProMaster camper. Your only real hints that this camper is supposed to be something special is the Westfalia compass logo and Westfalia badging.
Otherwise, the ProMaster part of the Wave doesn’t look meaningfully different than an Airstream Rangeline. I’d love to see Roadtrek/Westfalia spruce up the visuals of the ProMaster like Wingamm did. Fiat Ducato-based Westys in Europe have pretty slick looks!
If you want to find the European style, you’ll have to crack open a door to see it. The inside of the Wave SRT looks classy. You get white walls, a dash of wood, gentle LED lighting, and relatively cushy leatherette seats. This is pretty much the same interior as you’ll find in the larger Wave models, but scaled down a touch. Here’s what I said about this interior in the larger vans:
Westfalia does not say what materials are being used here, but they feel solid with some heft. The cabinets are thick and their doors have robust latches. The countertop and floor also felt pretty good. This is a sort of place you can feel really cozy in. There are also a lot of cubbies and soft-close drawers to store things in, which can help keep down on clutter. The front seats swivel to give you a sort of living room while the second row quickly and easily folds into a bed. I was able to convert the seating into a bed with just one hand! Westfalia says that this particular bed is a patented creation, so you won’t find it even in Roadtrek vans.
In the middle of the van is the kitchen and the bathroom. Now, the space here is pretty narrow, and I found myself rubbing my butt across the bathroom door. However, there’s some logic to this. You can stand in the shower wearing a Stetson and holding a laptop and still have room to spare. As many of you know, I hate tiny RV showers, so I was happy about that.
It looks like most of this returns here. You’re getting a wet bath with a shower, sink, and cassette toilet. The rear of the coach behind the bathroom and kitchen is all bed. Westfalia says you can set this bed to be a twin, double, or queen size based on your exact needs and cargo volume. There’s also a passthrough under the bed to the rear garage area in case you’re carrying something long inside of the van.
Westfalia says that when the beds are completely deployed, you get sleeping room for up to four. Thankfully, the van also has seatbelts for four total occupants. That’s another thing that sounds silly to mention, but some vans have more bedding space than seatbelts. Everything else in this van is exactly as it appears in the regular Wave, so I’ll quote myself again for the gear you get under the metal:
The lack of storage on the roof is due, at least in part, to the van’s systems. There are 600 Ah of lithium batteries and a 3,000-watt inverter. These batteries can be topped up with the 300 watts of solar on the roof, shore power, or the generator under the van’s hood. A Firefly Integrations control interface helps you monitor these systems.
Equipment includes a Truma Combi furnace and water heater system, a roof-mounted air-conditioner, a two-burner propane cooktop, a Vitrifrigo refrigerator, a microwave, and a cassette toilet in the wet bath. Optional equipment includes an upgrade to an induction cooktop and an extension for the cushions for the center convertible bed.
Power comes from a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, which is good for 276 HP and 250 lb-ft of torque. That’s driving the front wheels through an automatic transmission. Westfalia says that the van weighs 7,545 pounds when empty and can tow a 3,500-pound trailer.
Overall, the new Westfalia SRT is a great follow-up to the vans I toured in 2024. It’s slightly smaller and slightly cheaper, but appears to keep the same good quality, which I like. I suppose Westfalia will have to figure out if cutting off a foot will make much of a difference in consumer interest.
Vans Keep Getting More Expensive
But here’s my problem with this whole thing. In 2024, a Westfalia Wave without a pop-top had an MSRP of $155,333. Losing the pop-top did at least mean you got pretty neat skylights, which is what you get in the SRT. Throwing in another $10,374 got you a Westfalia Wave with the pop-top.
Pricing for 2025 is sort of bleak. The Wave Skylight, the model without the pop-top, now costs $175,645 to start while the Wave Pop-Top has the exact price. The Wave SRT comes in at $160,550. Now, for those of you doing the math, that means this camper van is smaller than last year’s model and with the same equipment, but for a $5,000 premium.
If you want the regular Wave, it’s now $20,000 more expensive for the skylight model while the pop-top model is $10,000 more expensive. That’s the annoying problem. At $160,550, this van is more expensive than the $157,400 Airstream Rangeline. That doesn’t sound that bad, but then I must tell you that Airstream raised the price of the Rangeline by over $25,000. So the Westy is more expensive than an inflated Rangeline. Camper van prices have been rising since before the announcement of tariffs, so who knows what’ll happen if the Mexico-built ProMaster is hit with a 25 percent tariff.
Things become a bloodbath when you compare them to other popular models. The Westy is more expensive than every single ProMaster-based van from Thor Motor Coach. Ironically, for about the same price as the Westfalia Wave SRT you can buy a Winnebago Solis NPF (above), which is also based on a ProMaster, but as a twist, comes with a pop-top roof, which the Westy does not. Yes, the Winnebago almost certainly doesn’t have as nice of an interior, but camper van pricing is interesting like this.
Now, with all of that being said, this Westfalia van is cheaper than a number of Roadtrek’s ProMaster vans, which exceed $200,000. That just goes to show how expensive camper vans have gotten, and that’s a shame. The good news is that new Westfalia vans are already being sold at big discounts. The Wave SRT is not yet on sale, but the regular Wave is being discounted as low as $140,000 as of publishing. That’s still not cheap, but it’s a lot better than $175,645.
So, I left feeling a bit conflicted. These new Westfalia vans have so much of what buyers have been begging for. But what I would love to see is this kind of quality at a more affordable price. Still, if you do have the kind of money the new Westys command, I think you’ll like them. They’re a cut above a lot of what I’ve seen today, and I’d like to see more of it.
Is there really a market for FRONT wheel drive RV’s? RAM Promasters don’t have the traditional RWD powertrain that RV’s have had for decades.
I guess I’m just the wrong person for these things. I did, own a VW based Westy back in the late seventies and early eighties and use it sometimes for it’s intended purpose, but mostly as a daily driver and a van that could move stuff. Now, if I really wanted to live in 100 square feet, surrounded by shitty particle board and climb a ladder to bed (I don’t), I guess I could settle for a condo in Toronto.
Do you buy one now to get ahead of the tariffs, or do you wait for the tariffs to nuke the economy and force them to cut the price in half?
I’ve said it before, but these have always been absurdly expensive. Like, well into the six figures even 15 years ago when I bought my trailer. I get wanting the smaller footprint, but the cost premium is steeeeeep.
I bet you can get the old Amazon version of a pro master with 200k mi for $5k and live the real van life. I love watching people self convert these things and realize they made the whole thing a kitchen with a bed at the back and the toilet is a bucket under the bed or sink. They make little modular wet rooms you could shove one in for sure. I assume the market for the new ones are people that buy them and hardly use them.
“I’m going down to the river to work on my abs.”
“Don’t forget your Mr. Beast hat, we don’t get paid unless you post at least 3 selfies in it today!”
“Hey, did Maruchan ever email you back about our ‘Everybody Loves Ramen’ sketch idea?”
“Not yet. Abs. Hat. Go!”
–how I imagine a day in the life of vanlifers
I imagine it being something like wow I wish I was in a shower in my apartment after a nice quiet 9 to 5 job. My nephew quit his six figure electrical engineer job to become a extreme sport videographer and is realizing that he thought he would have plenty of time to vacation and travel, and he’s now constantly searching for the next gig, and he kind of misses his real job.
Don’t forget to post pics of your toenails and blog about ‘philosophy’ eight hours a day.
“You can read more of my thoughts on my Philoso-vlog, I Kant Even, click below to like and subscribe.”
Add on another 25% cost increase if those tariffs actually go through.
I was thinking this price increase over the previous models was probably in part because of those.
Sadly, camper van prices have been increasing independently of whatever’s happening in Washington. I’ve noticed that many of these vans launch at a somewhat attractive price and then prices rocket up the second the media/influencers stop looking.
For a while it looked, from the non-expert view, that Harley-Davidson was in trouble as there customers were aging out of motorcycles or just going room temp. Are the expensive RV manufactures trying to get a much money as possible from the remaining alive boomers that can afford $200K toy? Are there loads of young people who can or will be interested in and afford these things in the future? There are so many young couples that want homes and cannot afford them even with good salaries how will they drop $200K for a van?
$150k camper vans just don’t make sense. I picked up a Canadian-spec Eurovan Westy in fantastic condition for just over $20k last year. It has all of that high-quality interior described here, which still seems to be in like-new condition, and fantastic attention to detail. It’s also small enough that it fits in my carport, unlike this Promaster beast. I can even use it around town for errands if the family is using the other cars. Only downside against daily use is the 15 mpg fuel economy. It doesn’t have a toilet/shower either, but I’d never want to have to deal with that anyway.
I just love the American measurement systems. In this case, bed sizes.
The bed can be configured as twin (makes sense – suitable for two persons), double (… that’s exactly the same) or queen (one person, but perhaps with a few inches extra for luxury).
Unless you’re a 19-year-old getting lucky in your college dorm room, there is no way you’re getting two adults in a twin bed.
I really miss the 2 people in a twin bed college days.
Double is smaller than Queen. Double is just a bigger solo bed.
I think you need to read up on American bed sizes if you think a twin is for two people and a queen is for one.
No need to read up on it. I already know it doesn’t make any sense and that words have no meaning.
I guess this could make sense for retirees. If you have a 4-bedroom house and all the kids leave for college, you could sell the house and get a 2-bedroom condo and one of these.
Wow, those are pricey! That must be some markup. In true Autopian fashion, I’ll gladly be the third owner when I can pick one up for $10k.
I feel like there are two levels of camper van. The very simple one provides a place to sleep and a few other conveniences when camping but can otherwise be used as a regular car. I have used pickups with toppers for that purpose for a number of years. The other is a drivable home that has a shower, bathroom, AC, etc.
I don’t get the inbetweeners that are specialized enough to remove them from consideration for any use other than camping while not providing a full suite of amenities.
Hmm, do I use that money for a down payment on a house or this thing where I can shit into a cassette toilet every night.
But with a house you lose the chance to meet people while you carry your box of shit to wherever you have to empty it.
You can live in a camper van, but you can’t drive a house.
True, but I can sell a house in the future and probably make a profit, not so much the van.
Cool looking, but gimme a break with those prices!
The pricing IS obscene across the board. However to the average lottery winner perhaps newly interested in something like this, I’m guessing Westfalia is the most trusted brand out there, followed probably by Airstream, and then maybe Winnebago, based on quality reputation (whether or not actually deserved is another matter, I’m just talking about general perception to normies not heavily invested into the RV space. Roadtrek isn’t broadly familiar to the general public and the others might almost as well be labeled some kind of Amazon Alphabet Salad names, no matter their qualities – although much of this reporting series shows their quality overall doesn’t seem much better than the Alphabet Salad stuff.
My biggest issue is they can’t be having an FCA chassis calling it an SRT if it doesn’t have at least 1000 horses under that bonnet. Gobbless borrther
Good gravy boats those are crazy expensive prices. I get why but wow I am old enough to remember when those were house prices. I can buy an nicely prepped promaster for $68K and make an camper out of it that is good enough for me.
I paid less than a buck and a half for my house in 1997. So you’re not wrong.
Amen brother, I realize I’ve been retired for 16 years on a sort of fixed income (Soc Sec is indexed for inflation) but wow on these numbers.
Makes me wonder who their customers are, and how many of those customers actually exist.