Full review
IT’S hardly surprising that in the current economic climate the motorhome industry has focused a little harder than usual on pricing.
But a class-leading camper based on the renowned T5 Volkswagen for under £30k sounds like a prospect to make even Gordon Brown smile. Especially when it looks as good as this Stone Blue Bilbo’s demonstrator.
This is the Bilbo’s Celex SE, with SE meaning a budget model, unlike at Danbury where SE means fully loaded.
OK, the unusual paint colour is a cost option, and this example has had its engine remapped to be rather more potent than the standard 84bhp, but this SE is still very much from the ‘value range’. You could have fooled us, though. Look inside and you’ve got the same high-quality, computer-cut and edge-banded cabinetwork as in the standard Celex.
There’s the same quality of modern soft furnishings. The same well-planned kitchen, too. All the bits that we’ve always liked so much about Bilbo’s campers are intact.
What you don’t get are some of the nice little luxuries on the base vehicle. Most obvious are the black plastic bumpers (which will probably be even more obvious on some colour schemes than others) and the similarly non-colour-coded door mirrors. It’s still a VW, though, so the doors shut with a thunk and everything feels that bit more sturdy than on a Fiat Scudo or Vauxhall Vivaro.
In the cab you still get a reach and rake adjustable steering wheel (other van manufacturers please note), a decent CD/radio and a reasonable amount of oddments storage. Staring you straight in the eyes, though, is a blank dial where the temperature gauge should be – that does look a bit penny-pinching.
You’ll have to wind your windows and adjust your door mirrors manually too – just like in the 1970s-style Danbury – but you can lock all the doors with a simple prod on the key fob, so the SE is not without concessions to modern expectations. Ours even came with cab air-conditioning, a £680 option that’s likely to pay dividends at resale time.
The lack of carpets is really not an issue with this sort of vehicle – in fact, after our beach-based photoshoot we were pleased to be able to simply do a quick brush out of the bits of Weston-super-Mare that we were taking with us. And that’s the whole theme of this camper – it has been designed to be used for camping by people who really do go camping in VWs.
The kitchen is probably the best you’ll ever find in a vehicle this small with its switch-on-and-forget compressor fridge (boasting a generous 65-litre capacity), two-burner hob and separate Smev grill, two large drawers and sink fed by an inboard tank. You’ll need to erect the table for worktop space, but that’s not really a problem as the interior of this camper feels amazingly spacious for its size, even with the table in situ.
And storage is miles ahead of its rivals. Neat little lockers above the kitchen window cater for the smallest items, while a shelved locker alongside the rear settee is a simply brilliant touch. The under-seat area has room for a Porta-Potti 335 chemical loo (easily accessible) and a second deep cupboard alongside, while the large boot area can be extended into the under-seat space (via sliding doors) for long and thin items.
The rear seat (with an armrest, twin head restraints and two three-point belts) converts in seconds into a double bed with a generous width of over 4ft at the head end. There’s a decent amount of internal lighting (including three reading lights on flexible stalks) and in the day natural light floods in through the two windows in the side of the rising roof.
Flyscreen panels with zipped covers cater for ventilation at either end of the roof and this Low-Lie lid is perhaps the clearest indication of Bilbo’s many years of experience in building VW campers. There simply isn’t an easier roof on the market to raise and lower.
Verdict:
The benchmark elevating roof camper just got cheaper. Incredibly, you can drive away the SE version of Bilbo’s Celex for under £30,000 – just – but we’d suggest you spec one up a little like this demonstrator. Its one Achilles’ heel, the 84bhp engine, seems to have been comprehensively overcome with engine remapping and the result is an all-rounder that’s very hard to beat.
This review was first published in the October 2009 issue of Which Motorcaravan magazine.Content continues after advertisements
At under £30,000, based on a 84bhp VW, the Celex SE offers great value and has all you need for no-frills touring.