Dethleffs Premium Liner i 9950 (2011)

The epic Dethleffs Premium Liner is the company's flagship. Is this the ultimate family four-berth motorhome?

This £200k flagship from Dethleffs is the most modern of the whole Liner breed...

This new dream machine from Dethleffs is loaded with virtually every conceivable option, from two air-conditioning systems (three if you include the Iveco’s cab air-con) to a fitted dishwasher. It has nine options packs fitted, with the extras alone costing over £57,000. And all this from a brand more readily associated with the mainstream market.

But the Premium Liner is no pie-in-the sky one-off. It’s a production vehicle that has already established itself on its home market, while the example you see here is in stock at Lowdhams of Nottingham where it makes an interesting contrast with a (slightly less expensive!) £195k Carthago Liner parked alongside.

Liners like these – and others from Concorde and brands we don’t see in the UK, such as Vario and Phoenix – may be an established breed in Germany, but this one re-writes the rulebook. The quality and the technical aspects are all as top-notch as you’d expect, but here there’s an emphasis on more modern styling, especially externally.

Based on the (standard-for-the-class) 7-tonne Iveco chassis (now with a 170bhp Euro 5 engine), the Dethleffs adds striking silver and black bodywork to familiar underpinnings. With its flush-glazed sides, towering 3.5-metre height, and almost RVlike styling, the Premium Liner is a real eyeful, a Lamborghini to the Carthago’s more traditional Bentley-style approach.

Look at the run of coach-style hatches along each side – they shut with the ‘thunk’ of an expensive automobile’s boot and make the Carthago’s caravan-style hatches look primitive. And the Premium Liner is narrower than other Liners, so better suited to UK roads.

But it’s inside that matters most and few will find this Dethleffs anything but breathtaking. Of course, there are air-sprung cab seats (heated, with lumbar support too) to smooth the ride, and there’s leather not just on all the seats, but on the seat bases, the steering wheel, the gearlever gaiter and the dashboard, while both the windscreen blind and the cab bed lower electrically.

There’s full air suspension on the chassis too, so you level the vehicle from inside by remote control. There’s sat-nav in the cab, with a DVD-player linked to the 22-inch flatscreen by the habitation door, while the bedroom has its own separate stereo, as well as an 18-inch TV.

Choose the twin single bed option, rather than this island bed model, and the rear could be an entirely separate zone for the kids; living up to Dethleffs’ ‘friend of the family’ slogan, the Premium Liner is a true four-berth with four belted travel seats.

The Premium Liner family will enjoy a lounge of half-dinette, side settee and swivel captain’s chairs that might seem run-of-the mill until you look more closely at the leather, the lighting and the awesome sound from the Jehnert speakers. What you won’t find is a flaw in the fit or finish, which lives up to the extraordinary price tag. The comfort is a class above too, and the table extension (to cater for six diners) is engineered with that
uniquely Teutonic feel.

But if you can afford this ultimate leisure vehicle, cooking for yourself may not be a priority, so the galley comes with a very smart three-burner hob and a mineral material worktop, an integrated draining board and domestic-style sink drain. But no oven or grill. Instead, there’s an RV-sized compressor-type (more efficient) fridge/ freezer mounted above a dishwasher, though you can opt for a Techno-Tower instead. In that case, you’ll have to wash your own dishes, but either way, you’ll appreciate the huge soft-closing kitchen drawers and the way that they all lock automatically when you start the engine. They even include bins for both waste and recycling.

Further rearwards, the washroom door opens out to create an en suite at the rear, either including or excluding the wardrobe according to your needs. The red/blue lighting behind the tap is a novelty, the washbasin is as big as at home, the loo has a ceramic bowl and both the toilet area and the shower cubicle have Alde radiators.

Meanwhile, behind twin sliding doors, the bedroom has quite the most soporific mattress your Editor has ever sampled, while the built-in vacuum cleaner may appeal more to your practical side.

With a 230-litre water tank, Alde warm water central heating linked to a heat exhanger, double-glazed cab windows, two ginormous 220Ah leisure batteries, a 1500W inverter and full thickness insulated floors on either side of the huge double floor storage, you might wonder what the Premium Liner doesn’t have?

The only thing we could think of was quite enough insulation to subdue the big diesel engine when it’s working hard to get up to speed, though at 50mph it settles down to a much more muted level.

 

It’s looks may be something of an acquired taste, but this is a very capable £200K flagship motorhome from Dethleffs.