The Motorhome Design Award Results

By William Coleman

This year marked the 20th annual Caravan and Motorhome Club Motorhome Design Award that were held on the 22nd of February at the National Motorbike Museum in Birmingham. The event was sponsored by Avtex Sat Nav and CaravanTimes were on had to film the awards and bring you the results.

The judging process, much like the caravan awards, takes place during the NEC Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show, which is no easy task. Dan, one of our caravanning experts was a judge in October for the Caravan Design Awards and it really is a full on experience not for the faint hearted.

While walking several miles each day at the show the judges had evaluate and grade 99 different motorhomes. I wonder how many steps each judge did over the 5 day show..

The aim of the Competition is to provide the best quality, and quantity, of information to members and buyers.

The judging panel is made of independent industry experts who have no allegiance to any one brand so that they can give a true and informed review of each van thus ensuring the public get the right key info.

Each van is assessed on many levels. It is not just about how pretty the motorhome will look once pitched up, the judging go a lot deeper than that. Each judge will look into criteria including electrics and safety, comfort, kitchen/washrooms, air conditioning, heating and ventilation systems, technical aspects and stowage. Although the judges did not drive the vehicles, the scoring of the vehicles still evaluated driving elements such as seating positions, handbrake positions, visibility, safety whilst travelling in habitation area, front seat comfort and driver ergonomics.

This year saw a staggering 19 entries in the Dealer Special categories. For those who do not know a dealer special is a motorhome that must be badged and named differently to the manufacturer’s model. You can only purchase the stand out models directly from the dealer, or network of dealers.

Grenville Chamberlain, Chairman of the Caravan and Motorhome Club, who announced the results commented, “This competition goes from strength to strength and continues to provide an invaluable source of data for consumers looking to purchase a motorhome or campervan. Ninety-nine vehicles were evaluated during the Caravan, Camping & Motorhome Show by our panel of independent judges. Huge congratulations to all the worthy winners.”

During Grenville’s award opening speech he actually gave the CaravanTimes team a mention as we were there recording the event for the Caravan and Motorhome Club. Very soon you will see a video of each individual winner talking about how important an award win like this is.

So without further adieu here are the winners of the 2019 Caravan and Motorhome Club’s Motorhome Design Awards:

Micro Motorhomes Winners
Winner Wellhouse Leisure Citroën Martello
2nd Lunar Campers Toyota Proace Lerina
3rd Hillside Leisure Dalbury S Tekna

Campervan Under £45k Winners
Winner Hillside Leisure Birchover Classic
2nd Wellhouse Leisure Hyundai i-Camperd Volksleisure Zermatt
3rd Volksleisure Zermatt

Campervan Over £45k Winners
Winner Volkswagen California Ocean 2.0-TDI 199 PS DSG
2nd Wellhouse Leisure Ford Trento
3rd Rolling Homes Volkswagen Transporter Columbus

Van Conversions Under £45k Winner
Winner Globecar Globescout Plus
2nd Benimar Fiat Benivan 120
3rd Auto-Trail Tribute 680

Van Conversions £45k – £55k Winners
Winner Wellhouse Leisure Ford Transit Custom Tellaro LUX-XL
2nd Auto-Trail V-Line 635 SE
2nd WildAx Motorhomes Aurora Leisure XL

Van Conversions Over £55k Winners
Winner Adria Twin Supreme 600SPB
2nd IH Motorhomes Volkswagen Crafter IH680CRD
3rd Auto-Sleeper Peugeot Symbol Plus
3rd WildAx Motorhomes Elara