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We were thrilled to bring back the Motorhome Awards last year and launch the first Campervan Awards in association with our sister magazines, MMM and Campervan and leading consumer finance provider, Creation. It hardly seems possible that a year has passed since, but here we are announcing the 2024-season winners. I won’t give away the results here, but let you read on to find the 15 class winners and the victors of the highly prized top categories, Campervan of the Year and Motorhome of the Year. I can assure you that these decisions aren’t taken lightly, or easily. With fellow judges, Rachel Scholes and Iain Duff, we‘ve travelled all over the UK, attending press launches and shows, even arranging exclusive previews of important new models. By the time of the…
WINNER Frankia Now FACT FILE BASE VEHICLE Fiat Ducato PRICE FROM £82,995 BERTHS 2/4 TRAVEL SEATS 4 LENGTH 7.05m WIDTH 2.30m HEIGHT 3.05m GROSS WEIGHT 3,500kg PAYLOAD 550kg JUST occasionally, a new motorhome appears at a show without any prior hullabaloo and then it grabs our attention as an unexpected star of the show. That’s exactly what happened with the Frankia Now at this year’s Caravan Salon Düsseldorf. From a premium brand best known for its big, luxury A-class models on Mercedes-Benz chassis, this is something completely different – a low-profile on the ubiquitous Fiat cab and with a 3,500kg maximum weight to suit any driver. But so far, so ordinary. Nothing about the exterior of the Now prepared us for the fact that we’d nickname it the Frankia Wow. Bar…
WINNER Bailey Alora 69-4S FACT FILE BASE VEHICLE Ford Transit PRICE FROM £75,499 BERTHS 4 TRAVEL SEATS 4 LENGTH 6.99m WIDTH 2.12m HEIGHT 2.85m GROSS WEIGHT 3,500kg PAYLOAD 500kg MAKING an unexpected debut at the Motorhome & Caravan Show was Bailey’s latest motorhome range, Alora. The company’s first narrow-bodied coachbuilts (just 2.12m wide), they reflect a growing interest in slimline vehicles that offer the space, comfort and insulation of a motorhome in a size a little closer to that of a campervan. However, at almost 7m long, the Alora was considered too big to fit into our Compact Motorhome award category. The brand-new range includes the expected single bed and island bed floorplans, but it’s the transverse bed model, the 69-4S, that appealed to our judging panel. Yes, it has the…
WINNER Rapido 606F FACT FILE BASE VEHICLE Peugeot Boxer PRICE FROM £74,800 BERTHS 4 TRAVEL SEATS 4 LENGTH 6.69m WIDTH 2.35m HEIGHT 2.90m GROSS WEIGHT 3,500kg PAYLOAD 545kg IN the October issue we said the Rapido 606F “looks like winner.” I hope we didn’t give the game away too early but this new 2024-season model seemed like a shoo-in for the Drop-down Bed award from the get-go. This type of motorhome – sub 7m in length with a large front lounge, an equally generous rear washroom and, importantly, a full-sized garage but without a fixed bed – has been growing steadily in popularity since Chausson first brought us the concept with its 640. It’s not hard to see the appeal of models like this, which offer lots of living space…
WINNER Swift Voyager 475 FACT FILE BASE VEHICLE Ford Transit PRICE FROM £69,995 BERTHS 5 TRAVEL SEATS 5 LENGTH 7.54m WIDTH 2.37m HEIGHT 2.98m GROSS WEIGHT 3,500kg PAYLOAD 430kg WELCOME back the overcab bed! Over recent years, low-profile motorhomes with drop-down beds have almost seemed like they were pushing their luton overcab rivals towards dinosaur-like extinction. But, perhaps, not any more. Swift, Britain’s largest maker of motorhomes, campervans, caravans and holiday homes, still has faith in this type of vehicle, as witnessed by the arrival of the new Voyager 4 Series. Family buyers could opt for the 485 model on the following page, but it’s the 475 that would be our top choice for touring with kids. It sleeps five and has five seatbelts to match and key to its success…
WINNER Chausson X650 FACT FILE BASE VEHICLE Fiat Ducato PRICE FROM £79,490 BERTHS 4 TRAVEL SEATS 4 LENGTH 6.36m WIDTH 2.10m HEIGHT 2.75m GROSS WEIGHT 3,500kg PAYLOAD 580kg AS of the time of writing (9 October), our video of the Chausson X550 has had 776,527 views (you can watch it at motorhome.ma/review220) – that’s the level of interest in this rather special campervan/motorhome crossover. However, the winner of our Best Compact Motorhome Award 2024 is not the X550, because that debuted in 2021 (and sold so much like pâtisserie chaud that Chausson temporarily dropped it from the brochures to catch up with building sold orders!). No, this year’s very worthy winner is the X650, the X550’s new and slightly bigger brother. The X650 takes everything that made the X550 so…
