Elddis Autoquest CV80

Base vehicle: Fiat Ducato Price from: £47,669 Berths: 4 Travel seats: 4 Length: 5.99m Width: 2.05m Height: 2.67m Gross weight: 3,500kg Payload: 595kg

Now you can find all motorhome and campervan reviews published in What Motorhome magazine, dating right back to February 2012. Sign up to our new digital content archive, and you can search for any review, by model or manufacturer.

Just type the name of the brand into the search bar below - for example, Elddis - and you'll see every review featuring the company's models. 

At first glance, not much seems to have changed. The layout of this latest Elddis campervan is exactly the same as the existing CV40. But look up and you’ll spot the difference – the pop-top roof that makes the CV80 into a four-berth. It fills a gap in the range and reflects a growing demand for van conversions of this size with an elevating roof.

This is still a six-metre model, like the others in the Autoquest CV range, based on a 140bhp, 3,500kg Fiat Ducato, but the pop-top is all-new and is the result of a huge investment across the whole Erwin Hymer Group.

It’s manufactured using cutting-edge long fibre injection (LFI) moulding for light weight and rigidity but the key feature is its 2.10m by 1.44m double bed on a slatted base.

There’s just enough headroom at the back of the roof area to contemplate sleeping this way around, which will make for easier getting in and out.

The roof, when raised, has a massive flyscreened section with zipped cover around three sides of the front of the canvas, while a reading light is also fitted for upstairs occupants and a ladder is provided for access.

However, the USP of the Elddis roof is a wind-up Midi Heki rooflight. This is especially important when the roof is lowered as it allows a lot more daylight into the forward lounge.

With its traditionally British floorplan inherited from the CV40, the rest of this Elddis camper in unlike its mostly imported pop-top rivals, so rather than a fixed bed aft, there’s a second lounge.

Here, there are twin sofas (1.35m long on the nearside, a tad shorter opposite) making a cosy space with four corner reading lights and opening windows on three sides.

Of course, the pop-top precludes a rooflight here but there’s still plenty of daylight and ventilation, especially when you swing the back doors open in summer. The settees are a tad high for comfort and the free-standing table seems a touch low, but a TV bracket is fitted and the table slides away in its own locker.

At night, it’s easy to convert the area into a transverse double bed but mattress length is limited to 1.84m – some rivals offer longer beds by extending into the curved sides of the Fiat van.

The kitchen is a strongpoint, featuring not only a Triplex cooker with oven/grill but also a good selection of drawers for practical storage and a worktop extension flap adjacent to the sliding door (which comes fitted with a flyscreen).

Alongside the cooker is a 90-litre compressor fridge providing generous food storage at a convenient height. The wardrobe is below.

The washroom has a corner basin, towel hooks and toothbrush mug, as well as an opening window. Storage is in a mirror-fronted cabinet (which needs the addition of fiddle rails) but the smart moulding around the window shows good attention to detail.

The CV80 has Grade III insulation and a 4kW Whale CompleteHeat gas/electric heating system, a TV aerial and a 25-litre underslung gas tank as standard.

It comes in white (or grey for an extra £500), while the Lux Pack is a £1,218 essential that adds cab air-con, cruise control and a passenger airbag.