Full review

The Auto-Sleeper Symbol has been around since the last millennium in various forms and continues to be a key part of the firm’s entirely Peugeot-based van conversion range today. Throughout, it has offered a classic British front lounge with a single forward-facing seat and a long side settee, while the choice of a double bed or twin singles has been another attraction. As has its compact size, the current model being Auto-Sleepers’ only medium-wheelbase (5.41m) campervan.

It’s easy to see why the Symbol has been so popular for so long when you sit on the side settee on a warm, sunny day with the sliding door wide open. Rear lounge, and even fixed bed, layouts may have increasingly replaced designs like this in the sales charts but the appeal – which no coachbuilt can emulate – is enjoying the outdoors with the creature comforts of sitting inside your ’van. While we test so many settees that seem to be designed to suit only the tallest folk, here the sofa is not too high, while armrests and scatter cushions offer added comfort. The single forward-facing seat is also well-proportioned, with a headrest and raked back. It comes with a three-point belt and is best viewed as an occasional travel seat.

Another bonus – and one you’d probably expect bearing in mind the standard Symbol’s long history – is the ease of making up the twin single beds. On the offside you simply need to have the driver’s seat facing front and pushed forward as far as it’ll go. An extra cushion then slots in at the end of the settee to make a reasonably generous berth with no joins (except under your pillow). The nearside seat makes the second bed in seconds. Just release a catch and the base and backrest slide forward and flatten. Again, there’s an infill cushion required but we found that both could be stored conveniently behind the single seat’s backrest and, while this bed is the shorter and narrower of the two, it is just as flat.

The Symbol Plus also offers a double bed. A slatted base pulls out from the settee and on top go the long backrest and two more infill cushions. Therein lies the rub. Van conversions without a fixed bed are never overly endowed with storage, so the last thing you want to do is fill the wardrobe or under-seat space (which is generous, here) with cushions. On the plus side, however, the double bed is very wide and flat, although (with eight cushions) there are a lot of joins. Bedding is best kept under the offside sofa but the lack of a drop-front hatch means removing some of the cushions to raise the base of the bench on its struts.

 I’m guessing that the kitchen in the Plus will be the feature most likely to win buyers over, especially with whoever wears the chef’s hat in your household. For a start, there’s plenty of room in this area and – with it being L-shaped – you’re not confined in a narrow corridor, sandwiched between opposing cabinets. There’s a decent amount of worktop, too, plus a hidden slide-out surface that appears from a slot betwixt wardrobe and fridge. Then you discover the kit – three gas burners, combined oven/grill (both in a stylish new Can unit), roof vent with extractor fan, 96-litre automatic energy selection fridge, eye-level Russell Hobbs microwave, a cupboard fitted with crystal wine glasses and even a 12V coffee machine. Storage space is pretty good, too (including a large pan drawer under the oven); however, for cutlery, there’s only a plastic tray that goes in the under-sink cupboard.

Alongside the kitchen, in the rear corner, is the washroom, hidden from view behind a tambour door. Slide that back and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a not-so-little ‘little room’ by standards of the class. There’s plenty of space to use the swivel cassette toilet and fixed corner basin, while showering should be a lot less of an ordeal. Firstly, you have room to move and, secondly, you’ll not be tightly enveloped by a wet shower curtain, while using the space for the reason it was intended.

If you enjoyed this review, you can read the full version and more in the January 2019 issue of MMM magazine. You can get a digital version of this latest issue of MMM magazine here.