Auto-Sleeper Topaz

Berths: 2 Travel seats: 2 Base vehicle: Volkswagen Transporter T6 LWB panel van Gross weight: 3,200kg Payload: 673kg

The Topaz has been around since February ’94, when it was based on VW’s T4. Now, with the arrival of the T6, it has been updated again - slightly.

It still has a front lounge with side settee and single forward-facing seat, a kitchen split across the aisle and the washroom across the back. But then the T6 is not radically different from the T5, although there is new safety kit. The engines are also Euro VI, requiring the addition of a 13-litre AdBlue tank. And power outputs have increased –148bhp is standard. There’s also a new soft-closing sliding door.

Inside, Auto-Sleepers’ new Catalan fabric range works well in the confined space. The offside settee is now longer, so the bed made from it and the swivelled driver’s seat measures just over 6ft. The nearside bed is fractionally shorter and slightly slimmer but folding the rear travel seat flat is a two-second job.

You can make a sizeable double by bridging the aisle, but there’s little standing room left and the folding contraption that slots between the cab seats is not the best design.

The extra bed cushions and the main table do eat into your storage, while the settee base is full of appliances. But we still found room for two sleeping bags and a pair of pillows under the single seat. If you forget the fiddly double bed, use the smaller table and relocate the extra cushions for the single beds under the settee, you free up more room.

Despite a smaller fridge, the kitchen offers a fair amount of cupboard space and facilities. An oven/grill and running hot water are both very rare finds in a VW campervan, but you’ll miss drawer space. Auto-Sleepers can turn the area under the cooker into a pan drawer with a slide-out cutlery holder.

The sliding washroom door has been replaced by a solid timber swinging door that looks nicer but could be inconvenient. Again, Auto-Sleepers can revert back to the previous design.

But it’s the bathroom that makes the Topaz unique. Here’s a space that incorporates shower, wardrobe, tip-up basin and cassette loo. It won’t suit those who are very tall or very broad, but if you want to drive a VW and be independent of campsite facilities, here is the answer.

This is an abridged version of the full review appearing in the June 2016 issue of What Motorhome. Buy it now.

The new Topaz trades a smaller fridge for bigger beds, but keeps the USP of a rear washroom with shower.