Continental v UK built motorhomes
Comments
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on the continent, most users will be eating and lounging outside the van in the sunshine...hence their vans generally have smallish lounges and kitchens (usually no oven but with good storage drawers and large fridges for the weather) and focussing more
on large comfortable beds, needed after all that outside 'activity'. they might have garages to store all that outside kit. gas lockers will be larger and have easy access as gas is cheaper over 'there' and folk are happy to use it.uk vans generally will have more comprehensive kitchens with large ovens for roast dinners, but smaller fridges and poor storage. their lounges will generally be bigger, but wouldnt get used, and their beds are generally more compromised, usually short on
width and length, and the outside access to storage is generally poorer, a lack of decent lockers and few with garages. gas lockers will be small and compromisedjust different emphasis placed on the things demanded by the markets they are sold in....
not a comment on 'quality' merely on the design requirements.
Excellent summary and having just got back from France after a month in our AutoSleeper I can confirm that we were definitely the odd one out by having parallel seating like a two berth caravan. It suited us but nearly every other van had a "garage"......
and you should see the junk they carry!0 -
Arguably continental motorhomes are better constructed but I disagree that they are better designed. I see just as many design flaws as I do in British vans, they are just different and designed for a different market. You makes your choice and pays your
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Haha, PG, remember, i am particularly familiar with your kitchen layout....a very well designed kitchen and van.....
...but IMHO large drawers are better than cupboads...having had both, in the van and at home...
...and as we prefer instant coffee, i took the coffee maker out, lol...
So what did you do with the coffee machine BB?
DD, 'tis in the garage along with a bunch of other van stuff that sometimes makes it into the van....
we now have a little extra shelf/worktop in the kitchen, ideal for my jar of Kenco.....
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BB, agree with you about the coffee, thats what I drink. Mine has to be decaf though.
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If it's build quality which is a priority, I would definitely say that the Continental built M/Hs are better. The Hymer range among other continental manufacturers, IMO beats the likes of Swift and Bailey on
that category.The layout of some of the British built vans better suit the holiday requirements of UK holidaying in typical British weather where indoor living and TV watching are much more the norm.
It's all a matter of priorities, where you holiday and if you like outdoor living.
K
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I agree that if ones priority is build quality then buying continental upmarket vans may be the way to go. You will need very deep pockets though.
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I agree that if ones priority is build quality then buying continental upmarket vans may be the way to go. You will need very deep pockets though.
the bolero 744PR with auto and vogue pack is pretty damn close to £70k.....thats 'deep pocket country' i reckon...
kontiki nudging £80k......
its certainly possible to get a top line German van (let alone french) for this sort of money....
the other price advsntage with a continental MH is that you can actually buy one even cheaper on the continent itself...
a nice Hymer from Belgium with save you thousands, not an option when purchasing a UK model...
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We looked at the Carthago C-Tourer T and would certainly not argue about it's build quality but the layout just didn't appeal to us, as is the case with most continentals. If we could like the continental layouts then we would most likely buy one and I can't
say fairer than that. The Bolero layout really works for us with little or no compromises within the layout. It was also over £11000 cheaper,which buys me a lot of camping.0 -
I have a continental van because it meets my requirements - everyone has different requirements so viva la difference - if that is not too one-sided. One thing that interests me is the number of 240v sockets people need.
We do spend a lot of time not on elec and if the weather is reasonable do all our cooking outside whether on gas or elec. We carry an elec kettle, elec frying pan and occasionally a small oven which all sit on the gas hob if on elec and no more than
two are on at a time. We charge our laptops, phones, tablets on 12v, tellies are 12v and have a 900w inverter to charge our electric bikes in the garage. We use a double gang adaptor for the single 240v socket. I know I am missing out on something but not
sure what, any clues why I need more sockets or what anyone else uses them for?0 -
I am now on my 4th Motorhome over 12 years, all have been British manufactured, 3 have been excellent, 1 not so good, we dont tour on the Continent, mainly prefering the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, so, UK layouts and provision suits us fine, a Continental van in the UK does not have many plus points.No lounging area is fine IF you can lounge outside, but not if you cannot.Fixed tables are a obstacle too far, when moving around inside the van, and Tec Tower ovens are dangerous when the cook is only 5 foot tall. As has been said Horses for Courses. The best quality British M/Home i have owned was an Autocruise CH. Prior to the Swift takeover. Still miss it.
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I am now on my 4th Motorhome over 12 years, all have been British manufactured, 3 have been excellent, 1 not so good, we dont tour on the Continent, mainly prefering the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, so, UK layouts and provision suits us fine, a Continental
van in the UK does not have many plus points.No lounging area is fine IF you can lounge outside, but not if you cannot.Fixed tables are a obstacle too far, when moving around inside the van, and Tec Tower ovens are dangerous when the cook is only 5 foot tall.
As has been said Horses for Courses. The best quality British M/Home i have owned was an Autocruise CH. Prior to the Swift takeover. Still miss it.Write your comments here...When you say no lounging area do you mean 2 parallel bench seats like a caravan? We ahve a lounge area, we swivel the captains chairs round and put feet up, the bench seat is also very comfortable. Our fixrd table moves, forwards/backwards
and left to right as well as swivels so can easilky be moved out fo the way if required but lets be honest you are not goiong to move around too much in the 7.5m space except to go the the loo, get a drink etc. TEC twer ovens IMHO are great as it frees up
lots of kitchen storage space, and again lets be honest the oven is not used every day but the kitchen storage is!!As you say its all personal preference, I am not saying UK vans are inferior to Continental but I do think they are better thought out i.e. we have a little flap to pull when it gets cold to direct ehat from the blow air system to the water tanks, we ahve
1 service box that houses all the water inlets/outlets, EHU etc.0 -
By a lounging area i mean somewhere you can get you feet up and lay out, perhaps to read or watch tv, without having to go to bed. Pullman style dinettes do NOT allow that. But not necessarily 2 parallel benches.We use our oven almost every day, unless we are eating out, have looked at many Continental vans, the only one that came within the top 5 was a Benimar, where they had at least put the habitation door on the Correct UK side. My wife has looked at Tec Towers and pronounced them Scolding and burns m/c s, for anyone under 5 foot 10 inches. If for mainly Continental Touring, then Continental vans are fine.
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By a lounging area i mean somewhere you can get you feet up and lay out, perhaps to read or watch tv, without having to go to bed. Pullman style dinettes do NOT allow that. But not necessarily 2 parallel benches.We use our oven almost every
day, unless we are eating out, have looked at many Continental vans, the only one that came within the top 5 was a Benimar, where they had at least put the habitation door on the Correct UK side. My wife has looked at Tec Towers and pronounced them Scolding
and burns m/c s, for anyone under 5 foot 10 inches. If for mainly Continental Touring, then Continental vans are fine.it its most certainly possible to relax with feet up in van with a half dinette (L-shaped) 'euro lounge' ......i know this as we 'relax' in our van every day we use it.
with bums on cab seats, legs can be raised and supported by the L sofa on the nearside and the sofa opposite on the offside, while watching our TV.
this 'pattern' is essentially identical to the 'relaxing' positions we assumed in our Bolero which had twin sofas.
the only difference is that one sofa is a little shorter than in the Bolero by a few inches....
also, why would i feel that i had to go to bed to relax when i can use our comfortable Roadliner armchairs....which, IMHO, give me far more support than a typical low backed side sofa...
the table, as Michael says, does not obstruct as it glides out of the way when necessary.....how easy is it to 'glide' a heavy stand alone table out of the way?.....not very....and can be a risky procedure....
mealtimes are a delight, plenty of space, no wobbling table, glasses secure, no precious wine spilt
.....amd our Tec Tower oven actually cooks
pretty damn well.....yes, its high....better for me to use it than OH, but we would rather have have the large drawer storage where we can keep heavy items low down....our pals have a low oven but all their kitchen storage is up high, so tins on bonces is a real risk...
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