Full review

ALTHOUGH slightly longer, internally the Prismo is a take on the popular German ‘Van’ concept, as in Hymer Van, Hobby Van – or indeed Bürstner’s own Travel Van.

But unlike Fiat or Ford-based rivals, Prismo is built on a rear-wheel drive Ford Transit chassis, complete with twin rear wheels. This isn’t the only good news – it also gets the larger 2.4-litre engine with either 115 or 140bhp (front-wheel drive Transits receive the 2.2-litre power unit).

‘So what if it’s rear-wheel drive?’, I hear you exclaim. Rear-wheel drive motorhomes are relatively rare these days, but more experienced motorcaravanners will know that this attribute, along with the twin rear wheels, offers excellent traction – particularly when camping on muddy rally fields or farm sites.

Unless the UK’s unpredictable climate throws something particularly nasty your way, getting bogged in could be a thing of the past.

All this is bound to go down well with motorsport enthusiasts too, who like to pull their bit of fun behind them on a trailer. The towing limit on this Ford is two tonnes – a huge capacity for this size of vehicle.

Of course, it also enables you to trailer a car if you don’t like to move your motorhome off site while on holiday, although measuring in at just over six metres I wouldn’t hesitate to manoeuvre the Prismo around my local supermarket car park.

The Prismo is slightly longer than its Fiat-based Travel Van counterpart, and currently only one layout is available within the Prismo range (while the more mainstream Travel Van offers three different floorplans). Prismo is also more expensive, although there are extra reasons over and above its underpinnings for paying the additional cash.

The biggest of these is the inclusion of Bürstner’s Travel Lounge – a three-stage reclining bench seat that enables your passengers to travel as comfortably as those in the cab seats. And if you really want to spoil them you can also opt for rear passenger heating.

Add on the optional Chassis Pack and the driver has all the gismos he/she could possibly want, such as cruise control, steering column-sited radio switches and air-conditioning. There’s even a bit of fake wood trim – which isn’t overdone.

The Prismo’s exterior looks fashionably modern thanks to the optional silver-coloured cab, which will hopefully appeal to the youngsters as well as the older folk.

Prismo’s layout is practical – and typically continental – with its swivelling cab seats and half-dinette, as well as a single inward-facing seat beside the offside habitation door.

The compact kitchen and bathroom are behind this, and then there’s the high-level double bed with a huge garage beneath. This isn’t a big motorhome, although it feels airy thanks to the long, sweeping sunroof that arches all the way from the cab to the caravan door.

With the cab seats swivelled the lounge is very sociable. It has two fixed spotlights illuminating the wall-mounted table, and two high-level lockers providing storage for your books or board games. For a more modern form of entertainment the flatscreen television mounting is on the bathroom’s front wall, enabling the TV to be viewed from the cab seats or the inward-facing seat.

The kitchen will be a disappointment to some – it is very basic by UK standards. It comes without an oven, grill, fixed draining board, or even any real worktop space.

But on the positive side, there’s a large curved-fronted Dometic fridge and a three-burner hob (with manual ignition). And the stainless-steel sink has a removable draining board that doubles as a tidy cover.

The rear double bed is exceptionally comfortable thanks to its slatted frame with flexible rubber supports.

You wouldn’t expect a huge bathroom with this layout, but despite this small room’s dimensions there’s plenty of space to shower and ‘use the facilities’ without being cramped or uncomfortable.

This is partly due to the swivelling, grey plastic, washbasin that pivots over the fixed cassette toilet to make extra room for showering. The showerhead doubles as the tap, but unfortunately you’ll have to hand-hold this when showering as there’s no high-level clip.

Like the bedroom, there are modern design touches everywhere, such as the ridged walls, the frosted glass panel within the main door (which also features towel hooks) and a curvy central semi-circular shelf unit with fiddle rails that will hold most of your toiletries.

In addition, there’s a cupboard above the toilet. The two large mirrors are not only useful but positioned to further enhance a sense of space. This size of motorhome is perfect for do-all, go-everywhere types, and Bürstner’s modern styling shouldn’t upset any age group.

A full version of this review first appeared in the June 2009 issue of Which Motorcaravan. To order a road test reprint tel: 01778 391187. To subscribe to the magazine, click here.