Home-Car Devotion IB

Home-Car Devotion IB 2011

Home-Car’s new Devotion packs in refinements associated with more expensive models...

The appeal of a proper separate bedroom continues to endure, with most mainstream manufacturers, both domestic and Continental, offering an island bed option across their ranges – the wide range of choices were shown in our special feature last month. And the benefits are obvious – no cushion-shuffling come bedtime and easy, independent access for both partners – small wonder the island bed is such a popular choice on the Continent.

While some island bed models are huge, though, at a shade over seven metres, the Home-Car Devotion is a manageable length, yet offers plenty of room inside and benefits from a double floor atop the standard Fiat Camper chassis.

The chunky habitation compartment is quite blockish, but still qualifies as a low-profile thanks to the streamlined overcab with its distinctive twin sunroofs. The wheels are steel, but the Devotion does get a body-coloured bumper and a neat double awning light with integrated LED spotlight just behind the habitation door. At the rear of the ’van, a large hatch on the nearside offers access to the spacious but quite shallow storage, which also has access via a smaller hatch on the offside. This void under the bed will accommodate a full-size bicycle laid flat and a considerable amount of outdoor living gear such as an awning, table and chairs – and the nearside section can be made deeper by removing the upper panel of the double-skin floor.

In front of the habitation door, the gas locker is nice and low-slung to ease extraction and installation of the bottles, while the Hartal habitation door has an oversize opening window with integrated flyscreen – although there’s no flyscreen inside the door. Access inside is via a double step recessed into the double floor and although it’s quite a steep haul up into the living area, a chunky handle makes access and egress reasonably straightforward.

The cab remains unadorned with wood veneers, and with the Comfort Pack fitted, benefits from electric windows, cruise control, cab air-con and central locking. The cab seats rotate almost fully and loose-lay carpets are also fitted. Overhead, the twin sunroofs let in plenty of light.

With more than seven metres of length available, the lounge is significantly more spacious than those found in more compact ’vans. The travel seats are necessarily upright, but the cab seats are comfy enough and there’s an additional short bench on the nearside. Five adults can be seated in comfort – six at a squeeze – and the wall-mounted table can be extended to reach almost all the way across to the bench at mealtimes. Come night-time, the table can be dropped down to the same level as the seat bases and together with a pull-out extension from the travel seat, forms the base for a third berth.

The kitchen is a simple affair with a large circular sink, combi oven/grill, three-burner hob and 107-litre Thetford fridge. The cutlery drawer is awkwardly located beneath the oven and there’s little else in the way of storage other than the two lockers overhead. In fact, interior storage throughout the ’van is restricted to five quite narrow lockers above the lounge and three more above the head of the island bed – plus his ’n’ hers wardrobes either side of the bed. But there’s plenty of space under that bed, accessible by lifting the slatted bed base. Given the Devotion’s payload of just 323kg, maybe the modest amount of internal storage is no bad thing.

The bed itself is comfortable and long enough to accommodate six-footers – although they’ll need to watch their heads when ascending into the boudoir, which has a foot-high step up into it – seriously compromising the headroom. Access around the bed is a little tight on the offside, where the washroom bulkhead almost meets the foot of the bed, but is otherwise good. Independently switchable spots offer light for reading, but there isn’t quite enough headroom beneath the lockers to sit upright in bed. Shutting off the bedroom from the rest of the ’van isn’t an option and a concertina partition extending from the washroom to the nearside wall would be a desirable addition.

The washroom is quite compact, but still finds room for a separate shower which is cleverly separated by a flexible, plastic partition extending from behind the offside wall of the washroom.

With that desirable island bed, a good level of standard equipment and a nice roomy, lounge, the Devotion has unmistakable appeal, and makes a very practical ’van for couples, but the interior finish falls some way short of its continental cousins and the payload is on the low side.


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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The island bed and spacious lounge can’t get around the fact that the payload isn’t that high and the interior finish is dissapointing.