Full review

THE Atessa isn’t the prettiest motorhome ever created, looking a little unbalanced with that large luton’s angular front end and the huge rear overhang.

There’s a small step up into the living quarters from the cab, but one thing you’re not going to do in this motorhome is bang your head.

There’s a full 6ft 6in of headroom wherever you stand – in fact I found this a disadvantage as I had to stand on the rearwards-facing dinette bench to open and close the Heki rooflight!

One of the 746’s major selling points is the extremely inviting lounge with its U-shaped settee.

The creamy colour scheme isn’t the most practical shade, but it’s modern and the fabric feels hardwearing.

The curtains are gold, and the fawn carpet may be a poor fit (and feel cheap to the toes) but it matches perfectly. The silvery decorative strips on the locker doors, along with the silver-coloured handles, add a modern touch.

But the seats don’t live up to expectations. They are quite firm and not at all cosseting as the backrests are very upright. The seat cushions aren’t made of the best foam either; sit in one position for too long and it’ll take a while for the cushion to return to its original shape. But a few soft scatter cushions later and I could sprawl comfortably, if not in a position my chiropractor would approve of!

Unless you erect the central island-leg table there’s nowhere to put your coffee unless you reach up to the two shelves nestled in each of this motorhome’s rear corners.

These aren’t suitable for storage when travelling, although they did make a great home for my embroidery bag and Ariane’s pouch of Play-Doh. The tabletop has a designated storage area between the nearside settee and the Trumatic heater, and the leg is set into the wardrobe’s floor in an easily accessible place.

There’s one more inescapable fact back here too – it’s very dark, even on a bright summer’s day. I couldn’t have wished for a sunnier week in early June in Wales, but with the single Heki rooflight being strangely positioned over the front dinette, and the two smaller vents blanking out all the daylight when shut, it’s a very dim environment.

You really shouldn’t feel the need to turn the lights on in the middle of the day, even in winter, never mind early summer.

And the tinted windows don’t help either. I know they’re only opaque from the outside, but they do cut out some of the interior light – you really notice the difference when you open the windows. Of course, some will like the darkened windows as they provide privacy from your fellow campers, but what’s the point of having a layout like this if you want to hide away?

Having said all that, there’s plenty of interior lighting in the form of four ceiling lights (three down the central corridor and one in the bathroom) and four striplights (two over the lounge, one in the kitchen and one over the dinette).

In the kitchen there’s a good amount of worktop towards the rear of the cooker, although with the mains and aerial sockets found here this is where you’re most likely to site your television, despite having that designated flatscreen mounting in the front dinette.

Beneath this, there’s the cutlery drawer (which, with its faulty catch, refused to open), and the 3kW Trumatic heater with electric ignition and blown-air heating control.

Above is a line of three high-level lockers, although with no shelves or cutlery/crockery racks your packing will once again result in a lot of wasted space.

The cooker is a fully-equipped Spinflo Caprice Mark III with four burners of differing sizes, a grill, oven and a storage drawer for your pans (although it wasn’t large enough for my frying pans).

Next door, the circular stainless steel sink isn’t overly large, and it lacks a draining board. The excellent Thetford fridge holds a generous 110 litres.

The washroom is almost faultless and is a pleasure to use. As you pass through that solid wooden door, with its towel rail on the inside, the washbasin unit and swivel cassette toilet is ahead of you. It’s finished in the normal white plastic, but the cupboards and much of their surrounds are a silvery grey, and there’s some shape to the mouldings too, with the upper cupboard being slightly wavy.

A full version of this review was published in the September 2009 issue of Which Motorcaravan magazine.