Full review

Compass Coronas are designed for year-round caravanning. Fittingly, our review took place in winter… There’s snow on the long, feature rooflight as we arrive in Country Durham for our Corona review day. The sun is rising but making little impact on the temperature as we switch on the Alde heating. The control panel says it’s 3ºC inside the caravan. We know it’s going to take a while to warm up and we’re prepared for that. But this is a real-life test and we note the time: 10.50am. We get on with some analysis and try to forget the chill air.

It’s now three years since the Explorer Group reintroduced the Compass brand after an absence of four years. In that time Corona and Rallye, both with Alde heating, have established strong appeal to four-season caravanners. Our review Corona is one for buyers looking for not only the luxury of Alde heating but the luxury of a permanent bed, too…

For 2016 the Explorer Group added two new island bed caravans to Britain’s widening choice of this popular layout. They’re almost the same length. They’re both called 554. They’re both constructed using the fully-bonded SoLiD method, with 10-year warranties. But there the similarity stops. For these new-for-2016 models have totally different characters.

One of the 554s is in the Elddis Avanté range; the other is this one, the Compass Corona 554, at £800 and 44kg more. The key difference is the presence of Alde heating in the Corona, whereas the Avanté range is heated by the Whale ducted warm air system.

Corona style is distinctive, with an enormous (1.4m long) roof light and fabrics in cool shades of fawn and pastel turquoise. Soft suede-effect is on two the cushions and along the tops of the seat backs and headboard. The other two cushions have fine embroidery on one side; it’s an intricate floral pattern and quite beautiful. That’s the side that seems to look best right now. But when warmer weather and outside activities dominate thoughts, you can turn the cushions over and give your Corona a totally different look, for the reverse side is a linen-look stripe reminiscent of deckchair stripes.

While we debate the year-round appeal of Coronas the Alde heating is beginning to get on with its job nicely. We can just begin to feel warmth above the casing over the radiator-run in the bedroom. We check the temperature on the panel. It’s already 11º and we’ve only been in the caravan 15 minutes. And the base of the heated towel rail in the shower room is beginning to feel warm.
 

Showering

Two LED clusters, in the shower and above the basin, plus concealed lighting above the cabinet high up on the offside wall, create enough light but there is no window in the washroom. Does that matter? We debate briefly. We think we’d really miss daylight here but decide many buyers may consider it not to be a priority.

Floor space in the little room is 70cm deep; it’s by no means the most spacious shower room in caravans but in the context of the appealingly light 1447kg MTPLM, it’s fine.

The shower is 80x63cm; again, adequate but not enormous. We decide the 554’s washing department is nicely fit for purpose, with enough places to store essentials and move on, to the sleeping department.

Sleeping

This is where the 554 earns its appeal to buyers looking for the luxury of falling into bed without any upholstery-moving to do. Well, nearly… There is just one task. This bed retracts by 40cm so that there’s plenty of corridor space (56cm) at its foot. When you go to bed, you pull the base outwards to create a mattress that’s 1.9m long; the 554 is definitely one for tall caravanners to consider. When you extend the bed, the top section of the mattress drops down, to lie level with the rest, under your pillows. During the daytime, with the bed retracted, this section forms a big bolster-style backrest, perfect for feet-up, reading-relaxing.

When you make the lounge into a bedroom, a webbing-linked slatted base comes out from under the central-front chest of drawers to make up the middle of a double bed.

Storage

Both under-settee lockers have full-length, drop-down doors and there’s also a locker under the chest of drawers in the lounge, plus four top lockers, making lounge storage capability excellent.

There is of course a lovely big space under the bed, and there’s an exterior hatch.

His-and-hers (in theory!) wardrobes give you 51cm and 26cm of hanging space. The small wardrobe has three drawers beneath; the large one has two drawers and a drop-down-door shoe cupboard.

In total we’d say the 554’s storage capacity is excellent for its length.

Dining

The main table lives in the larger wardrobe. It’s quite easy to extract and replace although if the wardrobe is anywhere near full you’d have to swish clothing aside or even perhaps remove a few things to make the task easier. But in practice, unless there are four eating, the front pull-out table, giving you a level surface of 81x65cm, will be more than adequate for most meals.

Lounging

By the time we’d started to analyse the lounge we’d been in the Corona for 50 minutes. The Alde panel tells us it’s 12ºC. Coats are off and the warmth from within caravan is just starting to make an impact on melting the snow sitting on the large rooflight that makes this lounge so bright in daylight. Eight lights are set into the panel that surrounds this super feature. White light streams across the roof from above all the side top lockers. A strip of white light illuminates the pull-out dining area and two simple cone-shaped corner lights plus four spotlights ensure there’s enough light when the sun ceases to contribute to the lounge ambience.

Now, sitting in the lounge composing these words, we’re taking an overall look at the 554’s delightful pale, pastel turquoise and cream hues and coming pretty close to imagining it in use. The heating has now reached a comfortable 19º in just an hour and 10 minutes. We all know Alde is slower on warm-up than some of the blown-air systems. But just over an hour to toasty,, on electric operation, is fine. And there’s an option available which enables you to programme your Alde heating before your arrival back to the caravan after a day out, for example. If you go for the Phantom Tracker anti theft tracker system option you also get telemetry facility for the Alde heating. The whole package is £499.

If we bought a 554 we’d complete the total look by going for the optional bed set. You get a duvet, two pillows and cases, plus two bolster-shaped cushions and a bed runner, both in shades matching the lounge upholstery scheme, for £249.

Kitchen

The kitchen is well illuminated, with two LED clusters set into the base of the top lockers.

With 1.05m of kitchen surface, we can safely say meal-making would not present any space challenges. Neither would washing-up; the (smart steel) sink is 40cm in diameter.

The storage arrangement forward of the fridge is a 40cm-wide cabinet with two drawers above. The cabinet is enormous, with a depth of 65cm. But there’s no shelf, so there’s actually a lot of wasted space here. But that doesn’t matter too much, for the dresser gives you a good cabinet (50x50cm), this time with a shelf, and a drawer above it, plus a top cupboard, above the microwave.

We love the height of this microwave; it’s low enough to be easily used by shorter people.

Towing

Coronas have the ATC electronic stability system that gives you peace of mind and enhanced safety margin in gusty wind conditions and when lorries threaten to create their own brand of gusts. And, at just 1447kg all-up, this model would be a good choice for a wide range of mid-sized vehicles.

Our test tow this time was a short one, but served to demonstrate good balance; a nice performance.