Shire Conversions Phoenix 3

Shire Range Phoenix 3 2012

Relative newcomers Shire have squeezed an extra berth into a rear lounge high-top Fiat...

Shire Conversions won’t be the first name to pop into your head when someone says ‘Fiat-based high-top camper’. And with modest plans to build one a month of their Phoenix models and maybe the occasional bespoke one-off, you’ll not be seeing them on every campsite any time soon. But their size, modest overheads, and the fact that they are a small family firm (Darryl and his brother Dale build them and Darryl’s wife Jackie does the books), means that they can offer keen pricing without sacrificing equipment or quality.

The Phoenix 3 you see here is a keen (but not bargain-priced) £38,950 on-the-road, but everything you see is standard, down to the alloy wheels, metallic paint, Prostor roll-out awning, 15-inch flatscreen TV and half-leather trim. And it also includes items that you might not spot in our pictures – like cab air-con, cruise control and a passenger airbag.

Clearly Shire don’t believe in long options lists (cab blinds and a bigger fridge are amongst the few extra cost options). They do believe in their product though, and Darryl not only has 15 years’ experience in building van conversions (with nine years at one of Britain’s most highly respected brands, just down the road), but he also regularly uses a Phoenix 3 himself. And that’s the reason behind the model’s major difference over the myriad of other rear lounge Fiat high-tops, a third berth. Accommodating seven-year-old Lewis was key to the Healey family, although at first glance you might wonder how this has been done.

After all, the layout is exactly what you’d expect (side-facing settees aft, kitchen and washroom facing each other amidships) with no apparent concessions to sleep or travel for a third, junior motorcaravanner. The sleeping part is the more easily accomplished as a 4ft 2in-long upholstered bed base simply lifts down from the overcab shelf and lies on the floor behind the cab seats. Belted travel seating is more difficult to include in a rear lounge layout, especially as Shire do not go down the Autocruise Accent route of including a half-dinette up front. Instead, the Phoenix offers seating at the rear nearside that can be converted from side settee to rear-facing seat with three-point seatbelts.

The Autocruise beats it for passenger-carrying, but the Phoenix makes fewer compromises elsewhere, especially in the galley, which is massive. For those who wish to downsize to a compact ’van but still be able to take a grandchild with them occasionally it seems a very welcome solution.

And sitting in the Shire’s rear lounge you’d not think that you’d compromised in your choice of convertor. The leather trim panels in the corners and their adjacent drinks shelves are the sort of niceties that make a camper more practical to use. The lighting, by LED spotlamps, seems plentiful too, while the rear doors are extensively trimmed to cover all the Fiat paintwork, and the half-leather upholstery is extremely well finished. A1 Trimmers in the unit next door to Shire do the soft furnishings, so customers can discuss their preferences rather than just looking at a couple of swatches.

It’s a relatively small lounge that makes into a 6ft by 4ft 6in transverse double, but Shire have introduced the extra-long wheelbase Phoenix XL for those who want single beds and a bigger lounge. We’d like to see a change in the seat foam – after enjoying the Auto-Sleeper Kemerton’s luxurious settee a week earlier, the Shire’s seats felt rather hard (though less so as a bed). The island leg table was wobbly, too.

Like several rivals, the Phoenix also offers a second seating area (and a smaller coffee table) using the swivel cab seats. If your partner refuses to evacuate the duvet it does mean you can still have breakfast in comfort – and even with the main bed and kiddy bed in use, the kitchen and washroom are completely unobstructed.

The washroom has nicely finished tile-effect walls, a bench cassette toilet, tip-up basin, separate showerhead and riser and a curtain to protect the door. There’s a small switched extractor vent too. The kitchen is more impressive, with masses of worktop and plenty of storage, plus a concealed microwave, above the small fridge. We like the pull-up triple mains socket tower (which we first saw in a Vantage) and there are three more sockets elsewhere. Even though there’s a large worktop area next to the sink (with drainer), Shire fit a foldup extension panel next to the cooker, and storage is plentiful too. Attention-to-detail includes a bin and a variety of slide-out storage, including one that’s lockable.

And looking around the Phoenix we reckon that its fairly plain but sturdy interior would stand up to the wear and tear that children can inflict. Our only gripe was exposed wiring in some top-level cupboards.

To read the full motorhome review in PDF format exactly as it appeared in the July 2011 issue of Which Motorhome, click here.

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With a massive kitchen galley and two lounges, the Phoenix has a lot going for it, but the lift-down third berth is only suitable for children.