Full review

Words and photos: Peter Vaughan

The Auto-Trail Excel 690L

Remember the Excel, the compact low-profile range from Auto-Trail that ran from 2009 to 2011? Well, maybe it was ahead of its time, because now that moniker returns on a brand-new range for 2024 that again boasts a slightly slimmer overall width than a typical coachbuilt motorhome.

The newcomers are 2.24m wide and, this time, they’re based on the Ford Transit with a low-frame, wide-rear-track chassis. 

Choose from four layouts, ranging from 6.20m to 6.90m long: two with fixed beds (singles or a transverse double) and two without (end washroom and garage or a rear lounge). They are targeted, Auto-Trail says, at customers looking to upgrade from a campervan for more space and greater storage.

All models have a 3,500kg gross weight and yet payloads are generous (570kg for this 690L model), while prices start at £61,634 ( for the 620G).

The options and packs saw the total for our test vehicle rise to a less than budget figure of over £74k. For that price, however, you get the company’s most contemporary-looking motorhome yet with an all-new design inside and out. 

The rear of the motorhome has a particularly cohesive aesthetic and there are practical touches like a low entrance step, opening overcab sunroof and external shower point. 

Inside, the Moyet Oak furniture contrasts with Serica matt grey worktops and on-trend matt black for the kitchen tap, spice rack and reading lights. You can also have the cab in a choice of five colours at no extra cost (black, silver, two greys or metallic blue).

The spec and options

A surprise standard feature is the lithium leisure battery, while the solar panel is a generous 150W. The latter, however, is part of the £1,578 Lux Pack, which also adds the Xzent 9.5in touchscreen with DAB radio, motorhome-specific sat-nav and colour reversing camera, plus an external barbecue point, TV aerial, Omnivent two-way fan, carpets (cab and living area), and the upgraded habitation door (linked to the central locking) with flyscreen.

The other essential add-on is the £1,975 Drivers Pack, which includes electric/heated mirrors, automatic headlights, front fog lamps, body colour side mouldings, a heated windscreen, colour-coded front bumper, cab air-conditioning, rain-sensing wipers and cornering lights.

It’s not all extra costs, though, because the 690L comes with Ford’s potent 170bhp motor as standard and the automatic gearbox option is priced keenly, at £1,860. 

On the road, that combination makes for effortless motoring with strong acceleration, while the wide rear track (with wheels almost bursting out of the wheelarches like Hulk out of his T-shirt) results in class-leading stability, both when cornering and in the gusty weather experienced on test.

I’m pleased to report on the lack of rattles, too, although the kitchen worktop extension does like to chatter.

The cab is a nice place to be, thanks to the car-like driving position, excellent adjustment for the small leather steering wheel and seats with tilting bases and twin armrests. 

The rear view camera can be operational while driving forwards, there’s some through-vision via the centre mirror, and the twin-lens door mirrors make manoeuvring easy. Just don’t forget to budget for the cab blinds (£680) and alloy wheels (£995). 

And be careful after heavy rain – manoeuvring the Excel up to the emptying point after a heavy downpour resulted in a shower through an open driver’s window!

On the outside, the 4m awning is £1,145, but a standard feature is the external access into the under-seat space from either side (this is the only Excel model without a garage). The locker (which can’t be reached from inside the motorhome) is a minimum of 60cm wide and 30cm high and a 230V socket is fitted here. Bike rack fixings are mounted on the rear wall, too. 

Water tanks are of good capacity but underslung and neither heated nor insulated, so the best news here is the new T-handle to empty the grey tank so much more quickly and easily (other UK manufacturers take note!).

The interior

Step into the Excel and it’s not hard to be impressed with the feeling of light and space, while the clean, simple design is sure to win new customers to the brand. Handleless top lockers, fabric surrounds to the windows (which have pleated blinds), plenty of ambient light (some of it dimmable) and an attractive (and unusual) grey, tweed-style upholstery create a strong first impression.

Up front, the half-dinette that provides the Excel’s belted rear travel seats seems a lot larger for the fact that the table can be stowed away (in its own locker alongside the fridge). 

The sunroof over the cab must be one of the biggest and the MPK rooflight above the dinette can be opened to any angle you wish. There’s one reading light with USB port (none over the cab chairs) and a 12V socket here but no three-pin power point. 

This space is less successful with the table erected, as it cannot slide far enough forward and thigh room for those sitting on the bench seat won’t suit all. There’s no extension leaf, so dining here is for two (perhaps three at most) and, as we’ve seen countless times before, the open side cupboards in the overcab are of little practical use as they lack nets or straps to keep their contents in place.

The lounge

You’ll dine in the half-dinette but it’s in the 690L’s rear lounge that you’ll spend far more time – and this is without doubt the model’s star feature.

With large windows on three sides, plus another big MPK rooflight, long sofas and plenty of light (natural and artificial), this is rear lounge motorhoming at its best. With wet and windy weather during our test, it wasn’t hard to see the attraction of unwinding, feet-up here, even if there was little time in our busy schedule to switch on the well-placed 21.5in Avtex smart TV (a £420 option). Again, there are USBs built into the reading lights and a 12V socket for the telly, but no 230V points.

There’s no table here, either, although we did discover that the free-standing one from the Excel 675B fits the space perfectly! And, if all you need is room for a coffee cup or glass of red, there are small triangular shelves in each corner that do the job. 

Above the settees, top lockers all around provide plenty of storage for clothes and there is both top and drop-front access into the forward section of each sofa – however, that space was filled with infill cushions for the third berth.

The beds

Beds created from a half-dinette are rarely particularly good and, unfortunately, Auto-Trail has not succeeded in breaking the mould. In particular, the three extra cushions needed to make this bed take up a lot of space.

If you do need to accommodate an extra person on occasion, though, the front bed is at least adult sized. To make it, you slide the bench’s base forward and unfold it, then hinge a support leg into place. Next, the table slots in on a lower rail, with its leg dropping down into the step well. 

With the infill cushions added, the bed is complete but it totally blocks the habitation door (hardly ideal, especially if it’s for a youngster going to bed before his or her parents).

At the rear, things are much more straightforward, particularly if you prefer separate sleeping. As the settees are both over 6ft in length they make near-instant twin beds, once you’ve removed all the backrest cushions (there are nine to stack in the cab). The only downside is the unvented, solid bed bases. 

We’d envisage most owners using the 690L this way, but it’s also possible to make a double bed. We don’t often see caravan-style pull-out slats these days but Auto-Trail retains them here. 

Slide them out and the two shorter backrest cushions go on top to create a 1.38m-wide transverse double bed (with some noticeable joins), or you could sleep lengthways, gaining space at shoulder level but with a gap at the foot of the bed. It seems a shame that bed frames don’t extend from each settee to make a king-sized bed.

To keep you cosy at night, the Excel comes with a Whale blown-air heating system that operates from gas and mains and has a 4.7kW maximum combined output.

The kitchen

In a British motorhome you expect a well-appointed kitchen and you’ll not be disappointed here, despite the Excel’s more compact size. Nor does it suffer the narrow aisle between the washroom and the galley that you find in many campervans.

Key features of this space are the Thetford Triplex cooker with three gas rings and a combined oven and grill and the tall compressor fridge (149.5-litre capacity) that is also from Thetford. 

We’re starting to see compressor coolers (instead of three-way absorption fridges) in some coachbuilts now and I, for one, welcome the move as they seem so much more efficient in hot weather.

The 690L’s galley also has a decent amount of worktop, thanks to a slot-in, flush-fitting cover for the sink and a large lift-up flap at the forward end of the galley. The latter has the kitchen’s only 230V socket close by, but, when deployed, the extension does block the entrance even for all but the skinniest of motorhomers.

Storage is provided in abundance, with an extra-large, soft-closing drawer complete with cutlery holder, a double-door cupboard under this and more large cupboards below the oven and fridge. Of course, there’s a big top locker, too, and a waste bin is fitted on the habitation door.

If there’s one area of storage that’s not so generous, though, it’s the wardrobe, which has decent hanging height but is just 25cm wide. A similarly slim shelved cupboard sits beneath the wardrobe, immediately aft of the washroom.

The washroom

Opposite the galley, the ablutions zone seems aimed at those using full-facility campsites more than the boondockers. Open the door (with towel ring and robe hook) and first impressions are of white, wipe-clean walls and a space that’s a lot larger than you’d find in a campervan.

However, it’s not an elephant in this room (a newborn one might just fit) but the shower curtain that’s the downside. Pull it around to protect the loo and door and the space to shower is not too confined but it’ll never be as appealing as a separate shower cubicle. 

Not only that but the tap that becomes the showerhead offers only a very slow flow of water and the single outlet in the tray means extra mopping out afterwards.

However, if you shower in the campsite block instead, then this little room has plenty of redeeming features. There’s good leg and shoulder room on the swivel cassette throne, an opening window lets out niffs as well as shower steam, the mirror is large and there’s room to splash your fizzog over the moulded plastic basin. 

Best of all, the small black shelves are perfect for all your shampoo, shower gel, deodorant, etc.

Motorhome supplied by Auto-Trail VR Ltd
Tel: 01472 571000
auto-trail.co.uk

Insurance: £562.24
Tel: 0800 975 1307
shieldtotalinsurance.co.uk
For quote details: motorhome.ma/QuoteInfo