Knaus Sun TI 650 MF

Berths: 4 Travel seats: 4 Length: 6.99m Max weight: 3,500kg Payload: 510kg Base vehicle: Fiat Ducato Camper 2.3-litre, 130bhp

Some motorhomes grab your attention straight away with a low price, a bold colour scheme or a sense of space. Others, like a well-matured bottle of Burgundy, take a little longer to appreciate. And like a good Nuits-Saint-Georges, the Knaus Sun TI is not cheap. But let’s drink it in, for this is a very fine motorhome.

If you’re looking for surprises in the layout, though, you’ll be disappointed. This is a design classic – a seven-metre French bed layout, albeit one that has been well thought through in all areas. If that’s not your cup of Horlicks, then single bed, transverse bed and island bed derivatives are also available.

Up front, the cab has sat-nav, a reversing camera, Bluetooth and steering-wheel-mounted radio/phone controls, and a CD slot has been retained for Luddites like me. The Fiat captain’s chairs swivel easily to face a comfortable L-settee and a surprisingly wide side seat on the offside. The fabric has been chosen especially for the UK and the fixed table never seems to be a hindrance as it twists and slides in infinite permutations. Better still, you won’t get neckache watching telly as the 19in Alphatronics flatscreen simply pops up in front of the offside lounge window.

Like so many continental motorhomes, the oven/grill is mounted rather high above the huge fridge/freezer. The thing is, though, the rest of the kitchen is rather good. There are three large soft-close drawers as well as two slide-out wire baskets in the cupboard under the sink. The three-burners-in-a-line hob has integral ignition and a new diecast pan stand. It looks good and frees up worktop space. And the new deeper sink comes with a new taller tap. Then there’s the folding shelf which comes into play between dinette and galley once the head restraints have been removed; like the Service Box, that’s a Knaus innovation we’ve seen before. Hey, they’ve even fitted tea towel hooks (as well as coat hooks by the door and adjacent to the washroom).

The bathroom hides behind a tambour door but does so without shame. The shower relies on a swing wall arrangement that makes excellent use of space but means you’ll tread through a wet area to get to the loo after showering. Even this is mitigated by the fitment of a duckboard. Whichever way you look at it, this is one spacious washroom with plenty of storage.

This is an abridged version of the full review that appeared in the April 2015 issue of Which Motorhome.

With a double floor for winterisation and storage, plus style and kit aplenty, the Sun TI goes straight to the top of the class. Not cheap, but worth every penny.