Full review

The reintroduction of the Compass range for 2014 brings in a refreshing new brand. For although the name Compass isn’t new – it first appeared some 30 years ago – the styling and the equipment is very different from the Compass range that disappeared in 2009. So, enter a range of 12 models in three specification levels. The range with the lowest spec, the lowest weights and the lowest prices is the Corona. These four caravans may be the budget models in the Compass portfolio but, at £16,999 for the family-layout 576 we test here, the price would indicate you might expect a caravan well above what might be regarded as budget territory. And you get it. The look and feel of the 576 is one of comfort and quality.
It has a very practical layout, with twin bunks in the offside corner, long lounge settees and a nearside central four-seater table area that converts into a double bed.
At the start of our evaluation, our first task was to turn on the heating. With the temperature at 7ºC the 4kW Whale blown air heating had quite a lot of work to do. Test one, therefore, was about speed and heat. After just 15 minutes the Corona was cosily warm; we were using it on electricity as gas wasn’t supplied with the test caravan; warm-up time is rated as quicker on gas but we found the electricity mode was just fine. There’s an outlet for the blown air in the shower room, which is where we start our review…

Showering

In a caravan made for six, the shower room dimensions are really important, especially for buyers with young children who may need supervision with the showering routine. The 576’s shower room is 1.3m deep and 1.34m at its widest point. There’s a good amount of floor space, especially in front of the shower.
Towel accommodation is a 38cm-wide rail plus a hook unit for two towels. If we bought a 576 we’d want hooks for two more towels, on the basis that each occupant should be able to hang his/her towel to dry.
 

Sleeping

The bunk beds are 80cm wide and 1.8m long. A pleated partition tracks at an angle to meet the shower room wall; there’s enough space inside the area it defines to stand up and get dressed.
    At 1.9m long the lounge seating is well into single-bed ability, as an alternative to a double that you can make by drawing out webbing-linked slats from beneath the two front-central drawers.
The central nearside double bed, though, is more unusual in construction. The seats are 94cm wide. You widen the bed base area by hinging up wooden extensions; additional upholstery sections are supplied. These are of a size suitable to be stored under any of the seating areas or under the bottom bunk. The table forms the central base area. Converting this area from dining mode to a bed takes only a few minutes and creates a bed that’s 1.8m long and 1.2m wide.
There is, though, something in the construction of the bed that proved less easy when it came to converting it back to a dining area for the first time. The two hinges on the base extension units have release catches; you raise the platform slightly, then press the two release catches so you can lower the platform into its vertical position. It’s a robust mechanism, and is quickly done once you know where the catches are, and you don’t have to get on the floor to have a look, which we did on our first attempt!
 

Storage

Nine top lockers, three of them containing shelves, are all secured by positive catches. Seven of them are 40cm deep and extend 30cm into the caravan, so they are capable of containing a lot of stuff. The two lockers at the front, which slope following the bodyline, extend 40cm into the caravan, so these, too, are capacious.
Access to all four under-seat areas is via drop-down doors.
The wardrobe, aft of the kitchen, has two rails, each 55cm wide, one above the other; plenty of hanging space for the needs of six, then.
And there’s something in the Corona’s storage capability that’s not obvious at first glance. Beside the door there is a hatch that leads into the storage space under the dining area seating. It’s in the ideal place for you to put your footwear, rather than leaving shoes in the doorway. Brilliant!
 

Dining

The freestanding table is stored in the wardrobe, on the forward wall.
The nearside dining table is large enough for four, which is a real plus-point about this caravan.
 

Lounging

With full single bed length settees, stretch-out comfort is guaranteed for two. The armrests on the forward end hold your shoulders firmly and there are four scatter cushions to ensure you can get comfortable.
There’s a television bracket on the nearside wall, at the fore end of the dining area. You can adjust the bracket to enable you to watch from either the lounge or the dining area. And there’s a really clever example of design ingenuity here. The power and aerial points are in the cupboard above the bracket, with a cable aperture, rather like ones you find in desks, with a removable circular plastic plate. Whatever length your TV cables are, they’d never look untidy here!
Lounging ambience is enhanced by bright white lighting above the top lockers. There are conical light shades in each corner, containing a line of LEDs and a striplight under the front central top locker. Lighting levels are as good as in any caravan we’ve tested and better than many.
 

Kitchen

One of the neatest kitchen surface extensions anywhere in caravans is here in the Corona 576. It pulls out on metal drawer-type runners from under the kitchen surface; neater and smoother than a hinge-up surface. It’s slightly curved, to follow the shape of the surface above it, creating an additional area that’s 45cm at its deepest point and 24cm at its widest. We think that because it’s slightly lower than the rest of the kitchen, it has quite specific, separate use. The kettle or toaster, perhaps. Some caravans with kitchen extensions rely on these in order to make the kitchen practical; not so in the 576. The surface area between the hob and the forward edge of the kitchen measures 91cm. Admittedly, there’s a circular chunk of that taken up by the sink. But it’s still a good-sized kitchen that is truly up to the needs of six appetites.
You can cook on gas (three burners) and mains power(a hotplate). The microwave is centrally located.
The lower kitchen cabinet is 24cm wide but much of the space inside is taken up by the wheel arch and water pipes. There are two drawers above (and two more, wider ones, in the lounge) but buyers of this caravan will have to think outside the cupboard (so to speak) to find kitchen storage solutions; it didn’t take us long to solve this one. If we chose this caravan we’d buy a couple of plastic boxes to fit under the dining area seating. The front access here would make it easy to slide them in and out when required.
 

Towing

Whereas the Explorer Group’s other ranges ride on BPW chassis, the new Compass models are on AL-KO chassis. Coronas are equipped with AL-KO ATC stability control systems. That’s another pointer to the fact that, although Corona is the lowest-spec range in the Compass collection, these are
very well equipped caravans. So how did it behave out on the
road? Well, so far as we are
aware, the ATC didn’t activate (there was no wind and no over-zealous White Van Men overtook us). And the 576 impressed us with natural stability.