Autosleeper Warwick XL

A bit of an update to begin.

In February this year (2023) for a number of reasons we decided to sell our Elddis motorhome. We got a great price from a trade buyer.

With the proceeds we bought a newer car, replacing our 14 year old Subaru Forester with a 6 year old, low mileage, Subaru Outback and, after a lot of thought, a Swift Basecamp 4 caravan.

The Basecamp is a great little caravan. Well thought out and compact, the Outback towed it with ease. However, after 6 months and a few trips we both came to the conclusion that caravanning was not for us. The hitching and unhitching process and setting up at a site felt tedious when compared with the ease of arriving and leaving with a motorhome. We also missed the ability to pull up easily for lunch or coffee and, indeed, to spend the night.

We found that, with a bit of jiggery pokery, we could afford to buy a new dream motorhome, an Autosleeper Warwick XL. This is an updated version of the Warwick Duo which we bought back in 2010, built on a 37cm longer floorpan. This extra length allows a shower cubicle, separate from the toilet, along with many other updates. With hindsight it appears that this Autosleeper range of van conversions ( ie built within the existing van body. Autosleeper themselves now refer to them as "campervans") are seen as the benchmark against which all other van conversions are measured. Searching around the market reveals that there really is, in my opinion, no other van which quite matches them for quality, layout and equipment.

So, in early August, just prior to a backpacking trip to Sweden, we visited our favourite motorhome dealer, Spinney in Cheshire, where we've bought all our vans including the Basecamp, to view a used Warwick XL, primarily to make sure the layout and detail was what we wanted. And after a chat with the salesman who sold us all our previous vans, we ended up ordering a new one.

Our new van is currently (I'm writing late September 2023) scheduled to arrive at the dealers at the end of November. So I'd expect to be picking it up some time in December. It's coming with fitted habitation air conditioning and Spinney are fitting us an alarm, a towbar for our bike carrier and a satellite dish. It will be in iron grey metallic paint and, a first for us, will be on a Fiat Ducato base, Autosleeper having recently decide to cease using Peugeots.

Here's a few Googled images of a similar van in the same colour ours will be. This happens to be a used one which Spinney had for sale some time ago.

Chrissie in particular has missed our Warwick Duo ever since we sold it and, with hindsight, so have I. So we are both looking forward to having what for us is our dream motorhome. The money it's costing could buy us a much larger coachbuilt with a fixed bed, but we now have enough experience behind us to know that, for us, this van represents the ideal combination of space, comfort and driveability. So, having decided our motorhome adventures were over, it seems they are to begin again.

Roll on December. Life is good!

And then, in October we had a phone call from the dealer to say they, and other dealers, had had a fall out with Autosleepers so wouldn't be receiving 5 vans on order including ours. Bugger. However, all's well that ends well. They had a 2 year old Warwick XL in stock with just 6000 miles on the clock. It was immaculate. So, we bought it, saving us a cool £13000.

Collection is booked for 1st November.

This is our new-to-us van in the showroom. 

All's well that ends well...