Adria Matrix Supreme M687 SLT

Price from: £62,460 Price as tested: £70,747 (2014 model price)

The Matrix was packed with every conceivable necessity for a fortnight’s family holiday. The weather and traffic were both better than expected. We were in vacation spirits even before we reached the ferry. In fact, all was going so swimmingly that we decided to stop for coffee.

Note this is a long-term update test. To read the first full test, click here

It was then that we discovered that an ex-colleague had broken part of the mechanism for the Thetford toilet valve and failed to report the fault. If he wasn’t already an ex-colleague he would be now!

We got it sorted – we now had two loos (one in the shower) but I (or rather my new wife) still wasn’t convinced that I’d solved the problem.

Thankfully, all the lavatorial shenanigans didn’t make us too late arriving in Portsmouth and by the time we’d had a top-notch dinner in the restaurant on board one of Brittany Ferries’ luxurious ships, en route to Caen, we’d unwound and returned to the holiday mood.

That our first night’s stop on a free aire in a tiny village (it looked so promising, so peaceful on the map) was marred by a wedding party that went on until 5am is another story.

The rest of the aires we found were much better. Many of them were free (others cost up to a whopping six euros a night), so 14 nights cost us a total of about £100 (including three nights at campsites with pools).

Lets go back to the start, though, for the success of any motorhome trip can be scuppered by insufficient, or poorly planned, storage. Fortunately, our Adria Matrix Supreme got a full 10-out-of-10 for carrying everything we needed for four of us (including a six-year-old with a teddy bear obsession and a baby) and still leaving a little space to spare for French acquisitions (my other half has a passion for brocante and vide grenier events where she will buy all manner of old tat – sorry, priceless and unrepeatable bargains of antiques).

Yes, we’d resorted to the pushchair in the shower (where it was nicely ready at hand) but it wasn’t as if the Matrix lacked external storage, with two big locker doors opening onto the under-single-bed spaces towards the rear. On the nearside we’d accommodated our two large (and very comfy) outdoor chairs. This locker is huge (thankfully as my daughter tried to fill it with bags of shells collected from the beach for her and all her school friends).

On the other side the locker is almost as big but houses the full-sized spare wheel. In went all our beach gear, including a massive windbreak and Ariane’s buckets and spades which would see such intense action remodelling the beaches along Brittany’s north coast from Mont St-Michel right into the tip of Finistère.

Clothes filled the top lockers above both single beds, with room left over for toys (in case of bad weather but mostly untouched for the trip). The huge fridge/freezer was truly family-sized and even the cab had enough pockets and recesses for all the driver’s kit. I even packed a ‘spare’ sat-nav in case I couldn’t get on with the TomTom unit built-in by Renault. Good thing I did as the factory one only covers the UK!

That aside, and even bearing in mind that there’s now a more powerful Twin Turbo option for the facelifted Master, the Renault proved near impossible to fault. We hardly saw another Renault-based motorhome in France (except a couple of older Bürstners) but its gearing is spot on to make the most of the torque from an engine that seems more like Fiat’s 3-litre than a 2.3.

Equally, the Adria element lived up to the five-star rating we gave it (see the full test here).

At night, Katy and I slept well in the drop-down double, while Ariane loved having a bedroom to share with her baby brother. And the blue setting for the interior lights meant we could get to the bathroom without disturbing them. If only the washbasin didn’t look so awful when smeared with soap, the washroom (complete with super-sized wardrobe) would get top marks too. Other drop-down beds come down lower but this one left enough room underneath to scramble through to the cab to feed Ruben in the night, or for Ariane to play loom bands at the table.

Even the large table works well here. It’s genuinely the right size for family meals but it also slides far enough forward to accommodate child and baby seats in the dinette. Katy also commented that the back seats are more comfortable for adult passengers than in most coachbuilt motorhomes.

Looking back at my notes, only the lack of reading lights in the lounge seemed a bit of an oversight and the expected interface of ferry ramp and long rear overhang just never happened.

If you’re looking for a large and luxurious low-profile for four people then put this Adria on your list. You’ll find it very, very hard to beat.

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This is a five-star motorhome in every respect