Full review

The classic layout is this new Warwick XL campervan from Auto-Sleepers feels spacious and classy with sufficient room for a couple downsizing from a larger coachbuilt not to feel at all short-changed. Here, after all, is the extra-long Peugeot van (6.36m long), with the benefit of two rear settees each measuring over 6ft long and without the intrusive overhanging wardrobe of the shorter (six-metre) Warwick Duo. In the XL there’s no need to argue over who sits, or sleeps, on which side!

The end lounge is a star feature here, with its armrests and scatter cushions, windows all round, room to stretch out, a quartet of reading lights and two tables. It’s a really luxurious place for a couple to unwind and, had the weather been very different, it would have been great to throw open the back doors.

Instead, I was glad of the draught excluder press-studded over the join between the barn doors and the Combi 6 heating. I didn’t even contemplate opening a window, which is just as well as the only ones are in the sliding door and the washroom. With those three rooflights, however, it shouldn’t be too big an issue. More importantly, the lounge makes into comfy single beds just by removing the backrest cushions, or a huge double in barely any more time. Because you’ll sleep lengthways, access to the kitchen and washroom is still easy, without any gymnastics.

The bathroom is another reason to buy a Warwick XL over the more compact Warwick Duo, as it comes with a separate shower – a real rarity in a van conversion. In fact, whether you’re looking at legroom on the loo or elbow-space in the shower, you might struggle to remember that you’re in a campervan. That just leaves the rather small water tanks – 69 litres for fresh and just 40 litres for waste – as a possible incentive to use the campsite facilities, rather than your own on-board ones.

Kitchen facilities comprise a microwave at eye-level, masses of worktop, three-burner hob plus combined oven/grill, an extractor hood, automatic energy selection fridge, well-placed mains sockets, a deep drawer for your pans and even a kitchen roll holder. What more could you want? The chef even gets his/her own chair, in the form of the swivel passenger cab seat. And it’s an equally suitable spot to read the Sunday papers while your missus has a lie-in.

Storage is pretty good, too, for this type of motorhome, with easy access into the under-seat space, thanks to gas struts. The wardrobe comes with three small drawers below and there’s elasticated pockets on the side of the wardrobe, backs of the cab seats and outside wall of the bathroom.

So, now that the door handles are colour-coded, there’s not much more that Auto-Sleepers can add for 2018. Matching door mirrors, perhaps?

If you enjoyed this review, you can read the full version and more in the March 2017 issue of What Motorhome magazine.

You can get a digital version of this latest issue of What Motorhome magazine here.