Carthago Liner-for-two 53 motorhome

Berths: 2 Travel seats: 2 Base vehicle: Fiat Ducato Gross weight: 4,500kg Payload: TBA

We tend to think of rear lounges as being a uniquely British phenomenon. Now, Carthago has joined the party with its Liner-for-two. It’s the first time the fashionable floorplan has been seen in a model that’s less than eight metres long.

The model premiered at the Stuttgart show in January and is based on the Chic E-line range. That means it’s based on the Fiat Ducato with an Al-Ko low-frame chassis and 4.5-tonne gross weight. If you’re not concerned about keeping things under 8m, there’s an ‘L’ version that’s 8.53m and five tonnes for around an extra £7k.

Fully fledged liner-style comfort is promised even in the shorter model, with the focus of both being the sumptuous seating group. There’s room to seat six around the table, which moves sideways as well as fore/aft. Not only is this a spacious lounge/diner with the novelty of the settee wrapping around to include a rear-facing section, but here there’s also an electrically extending seat base that turns the sofa into a luxurious recliner. Opposite, a 40in TV can rise electrically from its hidden home in the sideboard.

Forward of the lounge, a bar-style raised counter divides the galley from the seating and, beneath here, a clever slide-out compartment reveals shelved storage and two bins – as you pull out the drawer, the door moves in the opposite direction. There’s plenty more storage, too, in large drawers and in a pull-out eye-level pantry unit. Even a coffee machine compartment is provided and, of course, the fridge is a whopper – 160 litres capacity.

Towards the cab, you’ll find the bathroom. The toilet and the shower can be connected to create a full-width changing room, by opening the toilet door across the aisle (it has a full-height mirror on its inner surface) and deploying sliding doors to the front. A floor-to-ceiling wardrobe and plenty of drawers for folded clothes emphasise the changing room role, while a ‘rain shower’ is a further luxury.

What the Liner-for-two doesn’t do is waste any floor space during the day; your sleeping quarters store against the cab ceiling and are only lowered into place – electrically, of course – when needed. You get two lengthways single beds, too, rather than the more usual drop-down double. This new Carthago still manages to maximise storage, thanks to a full-sized bike garage (room for two electric cycles and headroom of up to 1.15m) and a double floor with full-width basement lockers up to 62.5cm deep.

If you enjoyed this review, you can read loads more like it in What Motorhome magazine. You can get a digital version of this latest issue of What Motorhome magazine here.

To see a more in-depth review of this motorhome, click here, and to see a more recent version, a 2022 model, click here.