Have a look at the Chausson brand. Our dealer had loads in stock. Their main feature is the garage space on all their models and believe me the spaces were huge. Most had electric points in that area to for charging sports equipment. They were very smart and appear to be really popular.
We have just bought a Fiat based, Chausson Welcome 610. Only took delivery on 18th December 2017, so, not been far as yet, just one week away, but, so far, quite impressed.
Others have commented about base vehicles, we have had both Fiat and Peugot in the past. My only points on this aspect are:
- Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer and Citroen ? are all built at same factory, so, little to choose between them. Fiat appear to specialise more in the camper/motorhome market and have "versions" with motorhome friendly aspects (out current Chausson has the wide track and lower chassis for example). Fiat also offer a Europe wide "Camper Assist" service for new vans (lasts three years, I think).
- All of the "usual" base vehicles (Fiat/Peugot/Citroen/Merc/Ford/Renault) are essentially (successful) commercial vehicles, which in their "works" life will do high mileages and suffer harsh treatment and neglect. Ending up as a Motorhome must be the equivalent of base vehicle heaven. Of the 4 vans we have owned, the "mechanical bits" have never given cause for concern.
- Of the four vans we have owned, three have been "British", 2 off Elddis/Compass, 1 off Autotrail, and now a Chausson. The three British vans all had quality issues. The Chausson (French) was delivered with one fault (or, I should say, one fault we have found thus far, electronic ignitor on gas stove does not work). While I am not happy with this, it should be no faults on delivery, IMHO, it is considerably better that the other three vans we have owned.
When buying the Chausson, I would have preferred a Hymer, but, my budget did not stretch that far.
As I said in an earlier post, there is no "best choice", all vans are a compromise, it depends on how you intend to use it.
Our usage breaks down something like:
- about 5 weeks of the year in UK, typically 5-7 days at one time, and always staying on a Campsite / CL
- 8-9 weeks, in France or Germany or Italy... (typically in September/October), we do a mixture of Campsites and Aires. Length of stay is determined by how much we like the place. We never book in advance.
- 10-12+ weeks, in Southern Spain. We take short ferry crossing / tunnel and drive from Calais. Again, no prior booking, we just wing it. We usually do this January - May. En-route, we use Aires, for overnight stops. Once "there" we use campsites or motorhome stops, again, length of stay is determined by how much we like the place, but, we do tend to stay longer at any one place in the winter months.
We find usage when in mainland Europe is rather different to UK. In mainland Europe, we tend to spend much more time "out doors", ie cooking outside, sitting outside, walking, cycling. This is I assume down to (generally) warmer and drier weather. This sets some of the criteria for our choice of van, we are not too bothered about kitchen space or lounge space, but, storage space to take bicycles etc is a key consideration, for example.
One of "downsides" of a Motorhome is the size, in terms of using it to visit places, once you are "on-site". We have generally found that we can get about on bicycles and/or public transport. Using public transport when "abroad" is often part of the adventure, nothing like getting lost and not being able to find the bus station in a large city, to liven up your day!
We have, experimented with towing a trailer, with motorcycle onboard. This was reasonably satisfactory, but, towing does put limitations on stop-overs at Aires, in some situations, and, we have suffered the famous "sat-nav malfunctions" putting us in difficult manoeuvring situations when towing. All part of life's rich pattern of course. At present we are "trailer less".
