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bognormike · Moderator

Hello all - I thought I would post up our thougts about the NEc show, and.......

Mission impossible?

Two days at the NEC in our search for a replacement for Stella2

We had booked up with the Caravan Club to go on to their temporary site in the beautiful surroundings of the west car park, nestling between Birmingham International Station and the Airport – it would have been a delight for me as a train spotter in the 60’s, but I suppose all this was fields then, and there wasn’t a station here either. As it is now, jets flying off to sunny Majorca, and Virgin Trains (running late as usual) leave at frequent intervals from the station.
We decided to have Friday night at a CL between Banbury & Warwick so we could arrive early enough in the morning – the weather was appalling, and the farmer’s wife advised us to park in the yard, because the CL field was soggy (they had to tow a motorhome off in the morning!) Managed to listen to Oxford United thrashing Cambridge to go 5 points clear at the top of non-league (still hurts). A peaceful night, and up & away by 9:00; got to the NEC off the M42 and started to look for the West Car Park – nowhere..... Asked brummie lads doing marshalling on car parks – dunno mate. We did see a sign saying Caravan Club campsite is on West car park, but where the hell is it? Eventually got to a barrier / kiosk & asked the guy – he said, oh no, it’s on the other side of the railway. He gave us instructions how to get there; so far so good, but over the other side no sign of an entrance or the west car park. Driving on following signs to the NEC again, we decided we had gone past it when we saw loads of motorhomes & caravans to our right – how to get in, though? After driving ½ mile we turned round and eventually found the entrance, off the same roundabout as the entrance to the station.
We were shown where to park up, levelled up and hooked up & set off to the show. Courtesy buses were running after going under the railway, but you could walk up to the station & get in over the bridge directly in to the show (avoiding queues at the main gate.

So we were in, and started our search, didgital camera in hand (never remember what the bloody things look like – all very well as long as you can remember what the photos are). I’ll fill you in with the details; Stella2 is a Pilote Galaxy 240 from 1999, and we were not looking to buy now, but get ideas for a short list 18-24 months down the line to replace her. We want :-
1) approx 6m long – limitations at home & don’t want anything too big – we think that parking is difficult enough without adding any more length
2) A class if possible (we have been spoilt these last 3 years)
3) Decent lounging space for 2 – a dinette or half dinette is not on
4) Possibly seat belts for 2 extra passengers (optional grandchildren - with sleeping arrangements)
5) No real price bracket, but we know they would range from £40k to £50k.
6) A good sized fresh water tank (over 100l – we’ve been spoit here again)
We saw the Pilote 622 and Rapido 927F at Earls Court last year, and thought they looked a good bet, so headed through the door and up to the Pilote Stand. Loads of gleaming vans – all look a bit big, though? No 622. Oh bugger. Had a look at the brochure, and layouts – nothing. I asked the guy from Hayes leisure where is it? He said he asked the same question to Pilote because they have sold well in the UK– apparently they haven’t sold very well in France, and as it’s their main market we can get stuffed.
Hmmm....
Across to Lowdhams with the nifty new Knaus A class (apparently Jay Kay from Jamiroquai has one), couldn’t get in (accompanied viewing only). Anyway it has no seating apart from the cab seats, and £60 grand seems a bit steep? Poor selection of Vans from Knaus and Laika on the stand, and Hants & Dorset who usually share things with Lowdhams seem to have given up, or the new owners aren’t bothered.
Ho hum, onwards to Autosleepers & variants; I haven’t been much of a AS fan, and this didn’t change my ideas much. They’re obviously very well finished but still look very chintzy – the Orians look a bit “younger”, but nothing jumped out at us.
What struck us looking around at the mainland european vans is how many had the fixed bed with bathroom at the side, kitchen midships and a half dinette at the front, normally utilising the cab seats with swivel for dining. They obviously sell loads of this layout over there, but does nothing for me – we like to laze around (and not on the bed). And if so many people are doing this layout you’ve got to get it really good, or very cheap to get your market share – must be very competitive.
On to Autocruise – I’ve got to admit I have a soft spot for them because we had one of the first Starfires, and they are at least attempting to do something imaginative with the design of their vans. That said, there’s nothing A class here, but the Starburst appealed because it’s got two bench seats for lounging, and a nice separate bathroom across the back (but a small water tank), and it’s under 6m. No extra seat belts, so the grandchildren would have to stay at home! A good looking van. Looking around on the stand, the Starfire is now about £37000, we paid about £22,500 for ours in 1998! Gulp...
Burstner next – nice designs & use of colour, but no A class under 6.5 metres, and they seem to be going the way of the Hymer & the others in having A class vans with a fixed bed at the back as well as the drop down bed. Have the Germans decided to save money and have two couples sharing a van, or are more families getting A class vans? I certainly haven’t noticed this trend in Europe, as most occupants of A class vans are still couples. Anyway, looking at lower down the market again (in a size that wouldn’t cause too many problems) we looked at the Marano T595 with the U shaped lounge at the back – nicely done, a bit over length at 6.34m, though.
God, this is getting depressing, is there really the demand for bigger & bigger vans which you won’t be able to park up anywhere? Ah perhaps that’s it - the Caravan Club chairman has been doing the rounds in Europe with his mates from the big sites lobbying manufacturers to make vans so big you have to go on site!
On to Dethleffs, and we meet the owner of Premier Motorhomes from Chichester on the stand; he points us to the Globebus 3 A class – under 6m , rear U shaped lounge, good storage, good water capacity, a nice midships shower room with a swinging wall (copied from Autocruise?), but of course no rear seat belts for the additional passengers. Not too sure about the headroom above the drop down bed – it’s a very low profile van, and the build quality isn’t as good as the Burstners. They do the same layout on a low profile cab version, without the drop down bed of course. Worth considering, but doesn’t tick all the boxes. Again the other A class vans are all too big, with fixed beds as well as drop down.
We then had a run through the Rapido vans – excellent quality, but again the 927F has gone the same way as the Pilote 622; its replacement, the 9048DF is 6.5 metres, but vey nice, and ticks all the boxes except the length, probably the most influential one!
So we wandered around the halls had some lunch & went across to the Swift stand. They have some nice designs outside (new Bolero) but all too long for us. Not very impressed with the layouts, very samey, and as Ace and Bessacarr do exactly the same layouts with exactly the same prices, it all seemed a bit repetitive. Even worse on the Explorer group next door – only seemed to have the old Autohomes design models at the cheap end of the market – again with both Compass & Elddis badges – bloody dull. No wonder people are buying foreign vans.
We were getting a bit tired after this, but had a look at Brownhills / Hymer; now Hymer are supposed to be the bees-knees, but we were decidedly underwhelmed. As I had a go earlier, they all seem to be fixed beds as well as the drop down bed, and expensive!
Autotrail were very nice, but didn’t turn us on, mainly because they’re not a target; IH’s first attempt at a coachbuilt looked very nice – superb quality, but £60k? Ouch.
The Lunar Telstar was an unusual layout, bit old fashioned stable door (not vey secure), and small ouside lockers.
Back to the van & listened to the football (Dagenham lost at home, Oxord still 5 points clear), had a shower & went to see the "show" in the big tent. Ok I suppose, best thing was the 12 year old drummer.
On Sunday we had a foray early on before things got too busy, and had a look round the accessories in Hall 1 (disappointing – only half open) and around the edges of the other halls. We had a look at the new Euro mobils on the Westcroft / Brownhills stand – the Terrestra 570HS looked good inside with a huge luton, with as much headroom as our Pilote A class bed, it had a U shaped lounge like the Dethleffs & Burstner in the next hall, and a vast underfloor area. Unfortunately with that it was very tall & had a bulbous luton. Talking to a couple of The Brownhills sales guys we had a moan about the dearth of A class vans at or near 6m, and said about the Rapido 927; they were sympathetic and said there may be some 2006 model 927F’s in stock to get a deal on! Here we go – sales pitch; I resisted.........
So what else? Frankia were huge, (not just big), Adria were OK, and I liked the Fiat stand pushing the new design van. And how much did the caravan club pay for the members lounge? We sat & had a coffee (bought from the catering outlet down the road), but did they (or us members) get “value” from it?

We left when it was just starting to chuck it down on Sunday afternoon, disappointed that we hadn’t got any nearer to finding a replacement for Stella2 – she sighed a sigh of relief as we drove away. Maybe we’ll save some money, get her re-upholstered and the engine chipped to get some more power and keep her for a while longer.
But, if a Rapido 927F or Pilote 622 comes along in the meantime, we might be tempted, or perhaps the Dethleffs?.....

Mike & Viv Turner
(Bognormike)

MandyandDave · Moderator

Mike, my sympathies for not finding a replacement for stella, ..obviously not meant to be at the moment Sad

Keep looking mate Wink

mickyloo

Made us feel better reading your post. We went to the show in our Autoquest 400RL fully intending to replace her and were so underwhelmed we apologised to her when we got back. Had a nice 3 days in Warwick (CC Site at Racecourse) and took in shopping at leamington Spa and visited the excellent Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon so it was all worthwhile in the end. We too will keep looking for an elusive replacement for "Ding" in which we can lounge around in space, not fall over each other and without the prospect of having to store clothes in oversized showers because the wardrobes are half sized !
regards Mike & Jan