Full review

There's no doubt that the star of Pilote’s 2020 season portfolio is the low-profile P696D (click here for our review), a model that follows the fashion for a big front lounge with parallel settees and a large rear washroom and garage. Now, in a mid-season spring announcement, the French maker is launching a shorter version of this best seller, the P626D.

That new nomenclature refers to an overall length of just 6.20m, while the ‘D’ stands for Dressing (the Gallic terminology for a large rear changing-area-and-bathroom). Pilote describes its newcomer as ‘a unique layout in the market’ and says the model is aimed at travellers looking for the comfort of a motorhome in a van-sized vehicle.

Based on a Fiat Ducato with 140bhp Euro 6d engine and 15in alloy wheels, this 3.5-tonne motorhome has a colour-coded front bumper, gloss black headlight rims and grille and front foglamps as well as ESP, Traction Plus and ASR.

Its body construction includes Styrofoam insulation, a hailproof polyester roof, aluminium side skirts, framed windows and a polyester underfloor for added protection. It has Truma Combi 4 heating and meets the Grade III standard for insulation.

Inside, it’s the size of the lounge relative to the compact body that’s key to this model.

The extra-large seating area adopts the contemporary face-to-face lounge that has become so popular over the last couple of seasons but with the possibility of converting the nearside sofa into a pair of individual rear travel seats (one forward-facing, one rear-facing, both with three-point belts).

A fold-in-half table emphasises the impression of space in the P626D, while there’s room for up to seven people here once the cab seats have been swivelled. The longer nearside settee measures a generous 1.60m long.