Leisuredrive Vivante 20th Anniversary Edition

Price from £41,990 Four berth, three travel seats Based on VW T5 SWB 2-litre, 100bhp engine Five speed manual gearbox

Leisuredrive has been making the Vivante for 20 years. First on the VW T4, now on the T5, and with the T6 on the horizon, there will almost certainly be a Vivante appearing on this updated platform when it arrives in 2015.

For now, though, the Vivante comes as standard on a short-wheelbase T5 base vehicle, while the 102PS engine spec (still a step up from the 84PS often quoted) helps keep the price fairly keen at a tenner short of £42,000.

With the T5 vogue very much for elevating roofs, conversions like the Vivante, with a high-top as standard, are getting rarer. You can opt for a lifting roof version of the Vivante, and save £500 in the process, but few buyers do.

Some attempt has also been made to lessen the impact of this Vivante’s dark colour with stripes and logos. Thing is, they just get lost on the rather sombre backdrop. Fortunately, the Vivante is also available in more cheery colours.

The chrome side bars and VW Colmar alloy wheels do manage to add a touch of welcome pizzazz to the exterior finish on this test vehicle, though. The wheels are part of the VW Highline Pack that Leisuredrive specifies for all Vivantes. Also included in the pack are front foglights and colour-coded bumpers, mirrors and door handles.

The 102PS (100bhp) engine comes as standard with a five-speed manual gearbox. Some buyers upgrade to the 140PS unit with a DSG automatic, although this adds a substantial £4,000 to the price of the vehicle. But the standard engine works really well.

Acceleration in the lower gears is strong, and the engine is quiet and smooth. For those used to the six-speed gearboxes found in many cars these days, there’s a compulsion to shift into an imaginary higher gear in the Vivante, but fifth is high enough for just about all your high-speed cruising.

The single best feature of the Vivante is its rear kitchen. It takes up roughly half the habitation space and can be accessed from the lounge or through the tailgate. Leave the boot door open when you are cooking and you can hand food straight out to diners sitting outside. They even get to shelter under the tailgate if the weather’s being British.

The permanent ceiling height of 1.86m makes the kitchen very roomy. Try a rear kitchen in a front-lifting pop-top conversion and when you’ve got off your knees, jump into the Vivante. A rear kitchen layout works best with a high-top roof, and in the Vivante it works very well indeed.

There’s a small wardrobe just inside the kitchen area capable of holding a selection of shirts and jumpers, and you could repurpose some of the kitchen storage for smaller items. Essentially, the Vivante is a camper for a couple, and the limited storage may be OK for two. But if that couple brings children along, too, there’s probably going to be a lot of loose luggage, and very little space left onboard.

This is a condensed version of the review in the February 2015 edition of Which Motorhome.

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With lots of standard kit, a great kitchen and the fixed cassette loo, the Vivante looks like a good choice. But the cramped lounge and fiddly double bed are downsides of the design.