TESTED
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CMC HEMBIL TOUR-CL
Price from: £67,000
Berths: 4 Travel seats: 4
Base vehicle: Renault Trafic
Length: 5.48m
Gross weight: 3,070kg
Pop-top campervans are all Volkswagens, right? Or, if not, they're based on the increasingly popular Ford Transit Custom, which in new-generation form (on sale later this year) will be a very close relative of the next VW Transporter (expected in late 2024).
There is, however, another van that should not be ignored. A van so good to drive that, at its Copenhagen launch back in 2014, we reckoned it was more like an MPV than something designed to carry bricks and cement. A van that won a comparison test in our sister magazine, What Motorhome, against Ford and VW-based campervan rivals – and caused one of MMM's contributors to go straight out and buy one. We're talking about the Renault Trafic.
Belatedly, the French van might be about to have its day as a camper. Bürstner launched its new Playa at the Caravan Salon Düsseldorf last August, while Adria is about to finally start selling its Active model in the UK. Both are based on the shortwheelbase Trafic and both are pop-top models with a side kitchen.
There's another constant – the classic campervan format of a galley along the offside. But this new conversion fromhowever, has the advantage of being available now – and at a price that undercuts an equivalent-spec current T6.1 conversion by around £6,000.
