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Adria Compact Plus SP
Sections:

Key Features

Model Year 2016
Class Low Profile
Base Vehicle Fiat Ducato
Price From (£) 46,090
Engine Size 2.3TD
Maximum Weight (kg) 3,500
Berths 3
Main Layout Garage
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At a glance

Berths: 3 Travel seats: 4 Base vehicle: Fiat Ducato Camper Chassis-Cab Gross vehicle weight: 3,500kg Payload: 778kg

Full review

With a width of just 2.12 metres and a length that comes in a millimetre short of six metres, Adria’s Compact Plus manages to pack in a good length transverse double bed, a decent-sized kitchen and washroom and a front dinette that manages to expand a little on the typical continental layout.

The Compact has been around for a while and has dipped in and out of Adria’s UK line-up, but for 2016 it has been given a wholly new interior with an option of either dark blue and beige fabrics or Fumo leather. It has also received new, concave overheard lockers, designed to maximise the feeling of space.

The cab, to be honest, looks a bit ordinary. The blinds on the side windows come out like a fan, making them less fragile but the housing for the one on the passenger side obscures the blindspot mirror.

With the benefit of this year’s Anniversary Pack (celebrating 50 years of Adria production), the exterior looks modern, with a gloss black grille and LED daytime running lights. The new rear is an improvement, with modern, clear lettering for the word ‘Compact’.

The garage has two doors, one of which is full-length, and putting a bike on board is easy, thanks also to the hooks that are included.

The first thing you notice as you step inside is the shoe locker to the right of the inbuilt step, useful if you don’t want to sully the carpets, although these are easily removable to reveal perfectly adequate laminate.

The extra space afforded to the lounge by the side seat is well worthwhile. Once you have swivelled the cab chairs there is space to seat five for dining, although even with the table extension some of them might have to lean forward.

Adria has also made use of the space taken up by the side seat to provide a full-length hanging wardrobe behind it.

As for other storage space, the leisure battery takes up a bit of the space right under the side seat, and the Truma Combi 4E heater and boiler is under the travel seats, but there is still enough space here to store a camera bag next to it. You also get three overhead lockers.

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Adria has also done away with any frilly curtains in the dinette, replacing them with an exciting LED panel. In fact, the whole table space is nicely lit, including two swivel spots from the driver’s cab.

The table does fold down to make a small third bed. But I wouldn’t recommend it except for an emergency, and even then only for a no-more-than-medium-sized child.

If I was pleasantly surprised to find central locking on the habitation door, I was blown away to find an extractor fan in the kitchen. Such a luxury is usually only confined to ’vans that are tens of thousands of pounds more expensive.

You get three in-line gas burners which are all part of the same moulding as the stainless-steel sink. There’s no oven, however. The remaining worktop is really only adequate – you need to keep chopping to a minimum. But it is well lit, and you get a 100-litre three-way Dometic fridge, plus a cutlery drawer and a capacious pan drawer.

There are also two overhead lockers, which, if left open, could obstruct anyone trying to open the washroom opposite, as this isn’t the widest of corridors.

The washroom is relatively easy to use, thanks to a clever fold-away basin and a shower with two drain holes that is shielded off with a screen and comes with a rooflight and flyscreen. There is good shelving, too, and a towel rail – although this consistently fell off while I was driving.

You reach the bed at the back with the help of two fold-down steps which you certainly need. The steps obscure another wardrobe – this time half-sized but perfectly adequate for a second passenger, probably male.

In bed there is plenty of decent lighting which you can control from the bed, plus a rooflight with flyscreen and a window for ventilation. The bedroom’s overhead lockers are a bit of a stretch to reach, but are plenty big enough to hold more clothes.

On the front side of the bed, on the wall next to the washroom, there is also a TV bracket, but no TV as standard. From this position it would need some manoeuvring for the television to be visible even just by two people sitting in the cab seats. Watching in bed would be a closer, easier option.

This is an abridged version of the full review appearing in the November 2015 issue of What Motorhome.

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Our verdict

The Compact's spec really impresses, especially as the Anniversary Park is included as standard. It;s comfortable too, with a generous payload and good garage but still, as its name implies, compact.

Advantages

Great spec
Large, comfy bed

Disadvantages

Impractical third bed
Not much kitchen worktop

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