Full review

With settees long enough to make single beds and a side dining area that makes bunks, the Quasar 524 is an adaptable layout. Add in its ultra light weight for its length – only 1300kg MTPLM – and that wide appeal stretches even further, for this caravan can be towed by modestly-sized cars. There’s something else special about the 524. The shower room is enormous, considering the compact body length of the caravan. That fact enhances its appeal to families with young children, for whom generous showering and dressing space is really important.

Showering
The shower cubicle is rectangular and fully domestic-sized. There’s space here, if your need it, for showering a couple of kids together. There are two wardrobes within the shower room – and a lot of floor space. A sliding door separates the preening department from the living quarters.

Those two wardrobes are an important feature of the 524. One is on the nearside, forward of the shower, with three small drawers beneath it. The second wardrobe is in the offside corner. Although hanging space is slightly compromised by the television aerial, there’s still plenty of space in here – and three large shelf areas beneath for footwear. Overall, wardrobe accommodation is excellent – and the fact that it’s within the shower room is a brilliant feature of the caravan as a whole; not only is the shower room a true dressing room, the caravan is free from the bulky furniture of a wardrobe, so has a very open feel. When you come to notice the finer points of the shower room, something high up, and something low down, will take your eye. There’s a rail, for putting towels to dry, running across the shower at ceiling height. And, close to floor level just outside the shower room door, is a mains socket. You can plug a hairdryer in here to use at the large mirror above the washbasin.

Sleeping
The lounge double bed base is the slat system, sliding out from under the front two-drawer unit. The slats run in enclosed grooves, so there’s no chance of them springing out as you slide them. Because the settees are 1.86m long, they can be used alternatively as single beds. Beds for two more make from the dining area, by raising a bunk base from alongside the wall. Mattress sections for the top bunk are provided; the lower bunk mattress makes up from the seating uphosltery, which is full depth. When you compare this system with the alternative sometimes found in this type of dining-bunk arrangement, of folding out the seating bases, so that they’re half thickness for mattress use, you begin to realise the comfort attributes of the Quasar 524. Upholstery is deep and firm, whether you’re sitting on it or lying down.

Storage
The twin wardrobe arrangement is superbly practical. Lower storage elsewhere is generous. The offside seating boxes have top access; you slide back a series on linked slats. Access to the front under-seat storage is by hinge-down doors that run the whole length of the settees. Top lockers are comparatively narrow – but there are plenty of them. Three are above the dining area and six more are around the lounge. Between the lounge and dining room, two cabinets and a useful-sized surface form a natural divider. The top cabinet is home to the (nice high quality) curtain that tracks round the bunk area. The track runs into the cabinet, so the curtain stays neatly out of the way, and there is still space in here for other stuff. The lower cabinet, with two deep shelves, might just be the subject of family competition for space – the kids may want to fill it with DVDs, toys and books, and the cook may want it for additional food storage space. You decide!

Dining
With a large freestanding table (stored within the kitchen cabinet) plus a two-seater table on the offside, the 524’s dining arrangements offer flexibility. In use as a two-berth, there’s a permanent breakfast-dining area. In family use this becomes a play area – or a separate area for the kids to have their meals when you don’t all want to eat together. It’s a tried-andtrusted layout arrangement that works well for a lot of caravanners.

Lounging
Great comfort from those firm settees, bordered by armrestbolsters that you can sink into and get cosy – the lounge is simply lovely. The look is good, too, with plain fabric that relies simply on its weave for interest, and dark brown curtains and cushions with patterns that catch the sunlight and gleam. Quasars are in theory supposed to be budget caravans but the looks – and the quality of workmanship you notice when you take time to lounge around here – place this range much higher in caravanappeal echelons. There is, though, one lounging issue with which we’d take the 524’s designers to task. It’s about watching television. There are two sets of aerial, 12-volt and satellite sockets. One is low down at the front of the lounge, so that you can put your TV on the front chest of drawers. That’s fine and practical. But the second is on the forward edge of the kitchen. That’s much less practical, as the TV really shouldn’t stay there when water is being used in the kitchen. We can see the thinking behind its positioning – you can put a TV here and watch it from the dining area. That works – except it would have to go somewhere else when the kitchen is in use. That’s not just about water endangering the TV’s workings – it’s about competition for worktop space

Kitchen
Work surface space is generous, at around 50cm wide on the right of the sink. Even when a TV does impinge on space here, there’s still plenty. Around the large, circular sink there’s more space. And we found that when we put the clip-on plastic drainer in place, there was still plenty of area to make our test-day salad lunch with ease. The cabinet to the right of the fridge gives you two deep shelf areas and a drawer. If this drawer presents a challenge when it comes to accommodating both kitchen utensils and table cutlery, there are two more, wider, drawers at the front to use. Top storage consists of one large cabinet, fitted for tableware, and a second smaller one. The microwave is housed in the locker run; it’s a Daewoo model with an auto-cook facility featuring specific timers for items including soup, baked potatoes and fresh or frozen vegetables. Quasar 524s, it seems, cater for caravan buyers who want their meals instant, as well as those who want to spend time cooking, for which there’s plenty of space.

Towing
We’d hitched up the 524 at the Lunar factory just south of Preston and sped north, along the M6 and down one junction of a spur motorway that led us in the direction of a quiet, quality little site at a little-known village called Weeton, amid farmland. Unladen, the 524 displayed characteristic light nose weight; even so, it was a doddle to tow – and a doddle to manoeuvre onto our pitch at Little Orchard Caravan Park, too. On the return journey, with nose weight in place, its handling was even better.