Full review

A-class motorhomes almost always come from the Continent, where they sell in large numbers. Here, where volumes are smaller in right-hand drive (versus the whole LHD market), our main homegrown manufacturers avoid the sector, mostly having tried and failed to come up with anything that either sold well or, indeed, was any good.

The corollary of this is that, while you can have an A-class with the steering wheel on the right-hand side, it will still have the habitation door on the offside, and the cab door on the nearside, next to the cab passenger seat. It might seem odd, at first, but you still (usually) have a door on each side and, anyway, they’re all to this same format.

Roller Team is not the first to buck the trend and build an A-class with the doors, as well as the wheel, on ‘our’ side. Back in the 1980s and ’90s Pilote built all its motorhomes this way and even the mighty Hymer once dabbled with a UK special model.

But, right now, if you want a mainstream A-class with a UK-handed layout, your choice is just one model from one maker with a solitary floorplan: the island bed Roller Team 740.

It isn’t the most conventional variation on the island bed theme. Rather than the ubiquitous lengthways bed and split washroom facilities seen in most rivals, the Pegaso goes for a wall at the foot of the bed, on the reverse of which is the washbasin. The rest of the ablutions are more open-plan, but can still be closed off for privacy from the bedroom and the forward living area.

The pluses are a more secluded bedroom, a full-width washroom and a wall at the foot of the bed that is the perfect place to mount a telly.

On the negative side, feet can’t overhang a bed that’s sandwiched between walls, so check dimensions carefully if you’re tall. Here, we measured the mattress at 1.89m by 1.39m. In this particular ’van, also note that the cassette loo sits on a plinth, so you need long legs to be comfortable there.

With predominantly white upholstery, off-white cupboard doors and lots of blingy lighting (over the top lockers, on the travel seat’s backrest and a backlit galley), this is a bright, modern interior. If you like a country cottage feel, look elsewhere!

The kitchen comes equipped to please British buyers – with a Thetford Duplex combined oven/grill – but also gets the huge fridge (141 litres with a bottle drawer) that you expect of a continental model.

While many A-classes are seen as couples’ motorhomes, the Roller Team works as a four-berth, too, with a 1.87m by 1.34m drop-down bed in the cab and a (manually) height-adjustable rear bed to maximise family-friendly storage in the big rear locker. There’s a rear-mounted bike rack, too, but if you’re touring four-up you’ll need to think about the gross weight upgrade from 3,500kg to 3,650kg; otherwise, payload is just a modest 340kg.

If you enjoyed this review, you can read more in the December 2017/January 2018 issue of What Motorhome magazine.

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