Full review
YOUR first impression of the Terrestra concerns how very tall it is.
It looks big enough from the front, but out back, your eye is drawn helplessly to a rear elevation that seems to just keep spearing ever higher towards the heavens until right there at the top – seemingly a couple of hundred feet from the ground, but actually ‘just’ 10ft 5in – is the ‘third eye’ LED brake light.
On this motorhome at least, following drivers of even something as dinky as a bubble car could never claim to have failed to see that it was braking.
This is a good-looking motorhome, with largely unadorned flanks lifted by bold contrasting grey panelling, flush-fit windows and doors and the barest minimum of graphics.
Out back, an octet of smoked-out round lights are sufficiently low-set to actually emphasise the motorhome’s height still further, but the large window helps break up what would otherwise be a vast swathe of white GRP.
Staying with the outside, the A 690’s rearmost locker doors open to reveal the reason for its lofty demeanour: a 370mm-high double-floor.
This is a construction method much beloved of German manufacturers because it offers such unprecedented storage space at a low level where heavy outdoor gear has a less detrimental effect on handling.
Climb aboard and you’re presented with a spacious and bold-looking living area.
The front lounge is of the typical pullman variety, although the three-point seatbelts attached to the forward-facing seats are not matched by similar restraints on those opposite.
Given that the A690 can sleep up to six people, this seems like something of an oversight on Eura Mobil’s part.
The cab seats, too, are quite low-set relative to the rest of the interior, and as such don’t swivel, although a pullman layout doesn’t really lend itself to this arrangement anyway, so this isn’t much of a problem.
It’s not really the lounge to which your eye is drawn when you first enter, anyway, but rather that remarkable kitchen.
It takes a particularly bold sort of manufacturer to finish its kitchen units off with burgundy-coloured units, but they actually look rather special.
They feel pretty good, too, for the impressive build-quality demonstrated on the Terrestra’s exterior is replicated inside, with cabinetry whose solidity and precise alignment within the surrounding frames wouldn’t disgrace a Concorde.
Part of this is down the superb grade of wood, but closer inspection reveals frames made, not of the usual wood, but rather solid metal painted to look like wood.
The transit catches are exceptionally solid and precise in action, too, while each roof locker door is equipped with a pair of small plastic dampers and a thick strip of rubber. If your Terrestra rattles on the move, then there’s something seriously wrong.
Moving further towards the rear of the A690, the door off to your right opens to reveal the washroom. Your first impression in here is one of an overwhelming sense of blue and grey, the colours that predominate in here, and while it is ostensibly an all-in-one affair.
The heavily ribbed floor is clever in its design, however, in that the deep ridges feed overspill water to each of the drain holes, meaning the usual post-shower mop-up shouldn’t take long – if, indeed, it’s needed at all.
Three closely-grouped downlighters keep the whole area nicely lit (which is a good thing, since there’s no fitted window), and two or three huge mirrors, allied to modern plexi-glass shelves, make the room feel quite a bit bigger than it actually is.
It’s equipped with a single blown-air vent to speed up towel drying duties, too, while anyone used to having to charge shavers and toothbrushes from an inconvenient kitchen power point will approve of the three-pin socket located safely at high level in the Terrestra’s washroom proper.
And so to the A 690HS’s raison d’être: its end lounge. And rather disappointingly, this is where the big Terrestra falls down just a little.
It’s spacious enough, and the welcome provision of a fitted table that slides and collapses hither and yon makes access and egress, while hardly plain sailing, that little bit easier.
That self-same table also means that four people can sit comfortably around it with relative ease, either for dinner, or to settle in for the night with a Trivial Pursuit board and a bottle of Chianti.
It also makes for a pretty good playroom for the little ones, being at once sufficiently removed from the front lounge to give mum and dad a bit of privacy, but close enough to ensure they don’t get up to mischief.
The devil, however, is in the detail. For one thing, there are just the two reading lights fitted, and for another, there are no speakers linked up to the cab stereo (there aren’t any in the front lounge either, come to that), both of which seem like rather obvious oversights on Eura Mobil’s part.
Most irksome of all, though, is the fact that the task of converting the lounge into a bed is frustrating to the point of being near-impossible.
The good news is that the other beds are mightily impressive, and the middle one in particular is quite easy to erect.
The central 3ft 5in-wide bed is a little narrow to be deemed a proper double, but not to the extent that two children couldn’t sleep on it. The overcab bed, on the other hand, is positively enormous, with sitting headroom of some 800mm – hence that bulbous appearance from the outside.
It’s not perfect, mind. That huge panoramic rooflight does make you wonder why Eura Mobil felt it necessary to equip this area with two side windows (with the attendant hassles of sitting up in bed), and it actually reduces the available headroom. At 6ft 9in by 5ft 3in, however, it’s a properly king-sized bed.
Verdict
The only real let-down here concerns the design details of the rear lounge. That said, this is a motorhome that’s genuinely engineered like no other family coachbuilt I’ve ever tested, and which offers proper year-round motorcaravanning.
A full version of this review first appeared in the May 2008 issue of Which Motorcaravan. To order a road test reprint ring 01778 391187. To subscribe to the magazine, click here.Content continues after advertisements
Well made with a double-floor design and lots of thoughtful design, only the fiddly rear bed lets the Eura Mobil Terrestra A 690HS down