Full review

THE Coachman reputation for solid build quality has for many years won it fans among caravanners for whom this attribute is important.

The Coachman factory may be a slick production-line operation, up there with the best but the results have long borne resemblance to hand-crafted, much higher priced caravans. Attention to detail is a watchword at Coachman – and it shows.

And Coachman manages to inject character to its caravans. In the case of the middle-to-upper Pastiche range, that character can be summed up as homely modernity, sitting pretty on the fence between the traditional and the contemporary in interior-design terms.

But it’s the exterior that catches your eye first, of course. And cool grey clean-lined graphics distinguish the Pastiche, together with a quadruple banding of recessed lines running the length of the caravan at window height. 

Its ample storage space has swallowed up our equipment and the fridge is full of goodies we intend to devour during our few days of Coachman experience.

But before we settle down to dinner, we’ll take you on a guided tour of the 535/4.

Nearside double bed with offside shower/washroom, centre offside kitchen, front parallel settees with centre front drawer unit. All pretty standard stuff. Until you look to the right as you walk through the door – and you find the 535/4’s best (in our opinion) feature.

It’s an enormous multi-use work surface, right where you need it – in the centre of the caravan and opposite the kitchen. There’s plenty of space here for your television and perhaps your digi-box also.

And there’s still ample space for you to use this surface as auxiliary kitchen area. Great when you’re entertaining friends – call this the bar, if you wish. Or call it a breakfast bar when croissants and coffee are on the menu.

The kitchen itself is not small. The food preparation area to the left of the sink would be quite adequate of you’re catering for two. When you’re feeding four, though, you’d use both work surfaces – and that’s when you’d really appreciate this design.

Cooking equipment is a Spinflo Caprice Mark III unit with four gas burners, grill and oven, plus a microwave – but, unusually, the microwave is not built in; you have to take it out from its head-height in-use position every time you tow and there is a notice up there to remind you to do so.

The bedroom is sheer luxury! A double bed with minimal corner cut-off, and en suite shower and toilet room. And, full marks for the smallest room, Coachman. This shower arrangement is just superb – a complete door to shelter the loo from shower splashes – and the shower is large.

The only slight doubt we have about its universal appeal is that you have to walk through the shower to get to the loo, which means you have to wipe-dry the shower tray meticulously after each use.

The washbasin and ample mirror are forward of the shower room – and the bedroom divides from the living area by means of a concertina door plus a blind that drops through the part-wall beside the nearside working surface/television area.

This caravan attracted plenty of praise-points during its week with us – one very minor point among them is that we liked the door window; it’s especially long, so you get plenty of light flooding into the central area of the layout. Come evening, there’s praise of the light of a different sort.

Delightfully neat little spotlights with spectrum shades perch on each side of the bed and there are plenty of spotlights in the living area.

Verdict:

If you’re looking for this popular end-bed, side shower layout, the Pastiche 535/4 is essential viewing before you make your final choice.

D

•    A full version of this review appeared in the May 2008 issue of Which Caravan. To order a road test reprint contact Tina Beaumont on 01778 391187.

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