Full review

THE 900’s design brief may well have read: ‘Make it spacious, but waste no space... and do nothing by halves.’

As such, the vehicle has a transverse, tail-mounted washroom, fixed rear single beds, a full dinette (or the option of facing sofas) and an overcab bed with mood lighting.

There is space to sleep as many individuals as the 900 has alloy wheels and there are belted seats for two-thirds of the overnight occupants. That’s a lot to pack into any motorhome.

Externally, the Roadstar 900 is imposing, not so much because it’s big but because its proportions harmonize.

The luton is large but then again, the vehicle is lengthy so the various elements of the coachwork balance one another out.

A notably long tail overhang means a big washroom (or vice versa) but the bold sculpting of the external panels, especially those of the luton, lower mouldings and tail end, relieve boxiness to the extent that the graphics largely represent cosmetic lip service.

Quality bodywork, good panel fit and neat touches like a recessed awning, bold bespoke tail-lights and a similarly tailored roof ladder mean that the 900 works well externally.

Stepping through the 900’s entry door puts you face to face with an L-shaped sofa, the L’s shorter arm being a forward-facing travel seat.

What, there’s nowhere for the outboard passenger’s legs to go? Actually there is, because the wall-side seat’s squab sits on a constituent that can be swivelled. 

Doing this reveals a transverse, rearward-facing seat that is the leading half of a full dinette. White hide trim, blending agreeably with two tones of wood finish (with matt silver highlights) and contrasting with black-and-flower-print curtains, gives the 900’s lounge a pleasant ambience.

The Roadstar also has plenty of storage space, with head-level lockers, complete with under lockers all round.

The overcab bed makes up easily, using a board-backed cushion stowed in the luton. The overcab ladder lives in the luton too, this area having groovy LED mood lighting as well as a ceiling light. Diesel-fired heating can make the interior as warm as it looks and heats the water effectively too.

One pace aft takes you to a roomy L-shaped kitchen. Standing cheek-by-jowl with a Spinflo Caprice MkIII cooker (domestic-style with gas burners and an electric hotplate) is a well-equipped sink unit.

Well-equipped? With a Dometic Cramer drainer sink, a pull-out worktop, a three-drawer cabinet, a cutlery drawer and a further cabinet with door-mounted wire racks, let’s just say it’s appointed more than comprehensively.

Two head-level lockers enhance the storage space and the short arm of the ‘L’ houses a tambour-doored cabinet offering still more space. Above this is a shelf with a vertical section that folds down to give table space to the rear bedroom.

And topping the stack is a TV cabinet (tambour-doored front and back), with a pendant, slide-out swivel mount for an LCD TV. On the left side of the kitchen, a 175-litre Dometic (non-AES) fridge/freezer stands beneath yet another tambour door, which slides open to reveal a Daewoo microwave oven.

To the rear of this stack is a useful cabinet with six, lipped shelves while forward of it is a large, full-drop wardrobe with an inconvenient fore-and-aft rail, a light and three drawers beneath. The leading face of the wardrobe carries a padded trim panel, with two double coat hooks and a handy document pocket.

The hardware (and softwear) described can be closed off from the remainder of the interior by a transverse pleated curtain. In the boudoir thus created, two short single beds flank the central walkway through to the tail washroom.

This spacious en-suite enclave houses the expected Thetford swivel cassette WC, opposite an entirely private shower enclosure with a folding screen.

An oval washbasin, offset slightly to the right of centre, stands above a tambour-doored shelved cabinet and small, lipped cubbies stand respectively to either side of a good-sized mirror and ‘grey marble’ topped basin unit.

Two head-level lockers, placed over the WC, add further to the washroom’s storage capacity and a ceiling light with a frosted glass lens illuminates the whole.

And as well as having a toothmug, a towel ring and a loo roll holder, the washroom has a narrow vertical cupboard for the 900’s dining table. It’s a long way to carry that into the lounge, though!

The 900’s bedroom verges, quite appropriately, on the luxurious. The beech-sprung beds have a headboard apiece and the right one has a shelved aperture above. But why aren’t the beds longer? The designers were hardly short of space to work with!

In the upper bedroom corners, lipped corner shelves provide each sleeping partner with oddments space. A centre light and four spotlights, mounted under the three-strong-per-side ranks of head-level lockers, provide illumination, and there is still more space beneath the beds. 

The Roadstar 900 is impressively large – and largely impressive. Seating four (legally when in motion) and sleeping six, it has more than enough space to do both. Judging by this brief test, it appears capable of doing both comfortably.

A full version of this review first appeared in the June 2008 issue of Which Motorcaravan. To subscribe to the magazine, click here.