Verdict
The Adria Coral Plus 690 SC feels like a lot of motorhome for the money. Adria is a renowned manufacturer with a track record of genuine innovation. Its ’vans appeal to a wide range of buyers.
Updates to the Coral for the 2014 season made an appealing proposition even more attractive – we welcome the arrival of the multimedia wall, and the provision of five belted travel seats will appeal to motorcaravanners keen to take children on tour. To be picky, there’s a trade-off between bedroom and living-area space, and UK buyers will miss a separate oven and grill and microwave in the kitchen. However, in every other area, at the end of the Practical Motorhome Adria Coral Plus 690 SC review, we feel that this motorhome will give owners many years of happy touring.
Pros
It has a good sized island bed
There’s a multimedia wall
It has five belted travel seats
Cons
There are just three beds
There’s no microwave
The oven and grill aren’t separate
The range received a substantial update for this season, and the main changes included lower, narrower habitation bodies, which are 2.29m wide and 2.58m high at the front of the low-profile section. Despite this reduction, the internal area was boosted by half a cubic metre.
Coral interiors are smart and modern, with clean lines. Because Adria exports 98% of its total production, its internal design has to appeal to as many buyers as possible. The styling of the Coral wouldn’t look out of place in a boutique hotel, with its clean cabinetwork and matching soft furnishings adorned by quality fixtures and fittings.
The Adria Coral Plus 690 SC is a three-berth with a luxurious island bed in the rear and half-dinette in front. It will appeal to touring couples who want the flexibility for accommodating guests or occasional family members who join them on holiday.
The styling of the Coral wouldn’t look out of place in a boutique hotel
Living
This motorhome is aimed at touring couples, but the 690 SC will happily seat five in its half-dinette, which can be made into L-shaped seating by deploying an extra seat under the nearside lounge window. Simply extend the hinged seat support from its stowed position flat against the seat box, insert the squab and backrest, and attach the latter using Velcro pads.
With the two cab seats rotated and the adjustable table extended towards the offside single sofa, five seating positions are available for mealtimes – six if two people share the dinette bench.
Natural light floods
into the dinette from the nearside window and skylight, augmented by
LED lighting in the skylight surround and mood lighting above the lockers.
One major addition to 2014 Coral models is a multimedia wall on the left-hand side of the habitation door, which will please fans of digital technology. This has two tablet computer-sized recesses; the top one
has USB and mini-jack
audio connections.
Viewing a tablet screen located here could be difficult from the dinette, but an optional flatscreen TV mount (£165), which drops down from the offside overhead locker, offers a much better alternative for watching TV.
Kitchen
The Adria Coral Plus 690 SC has a compact, L-shaped kitchen sited on the nearside behind the dinette bulkhead. Cooks get a combination oven and grill, deep sink and tall fridge-freezer unit that will swallow lots of provisions. The galley layout makes good use of available space, with the cooker to the left and the sink to the right.
Work surface is at a premium, though, only viable when the sink and cooker covers are in place. A drainer is included, and rests on the lowered kitchen cover.
The hob has three gas rings, arranged in a line for optimum access, with substantial control buttons to the left-hand side. The largest ring is to the right. A splash guard is located to the cooker’s right, next to a small rail behind the sink, presumably for tea towels but without a great deal of drop space.
The fridge-freezer is opposite on the offside. A cupboard above it would be the obvious place to house a microwave oven, but there’s no power point inside.
Washroom
The 690 SC’s washroom is split across the width of the ’van, with the shower compartment on the nearside, and the toilet and vanity unit opposite. The nearside shower has a semi-circular door that rotates to meet a bi-fold door. Two sides of the shower are lined with wallboard, with a moulded plastic unit behind where the showerhead attaches. The floor is also moulded plastic. There’s a small shelf for soap, and the intrusion of the nearside wheel arch makes a shelf for shampoos.
The showerhead can be set high enough for tall people; a wooden board is provided for added comfort. A towel rail beneath the shower rooflight won practicality points from our test team.
The toilet compartment is on the offside, sectioned off via a grey sliding tambour door. A basin sits below a window to the right of the swivelling cassette toilet. Above is a cupboard, ideal for lotions and potions, with a mirrored sliding door.
Another cupboard is found under the rectangular basin, accessed via a positive catch. The counter to the left-hand side has a small shelf beneath.
Beds
It’s hard to beat the convenience of an island bed. It offers unimpeded access to the washroom for both occupants during the night and can be left set up all day.
The Adria Coral Plus 690 SC’s island bed measures 1.95m x 1.46m, so it’s plenty big enough for a couple. It is accessed easily via steps on either side, but ascending each level reduces the overall headroom, which will affect taller people.
An articulating headboard offers a comfortable reading position – simply push a handle under the foot of the bed, the frame slides into the rear wall and the headboard rises. Reading lights are set in the middle of the headboard, but Practical Motorhome’s testers felt they’d have been better at each end.
Mood lighting above the overhead lockers and side windows takes care of illumination. Windows on either side of the bedroom and a small rooflight let in plenty of natural light.
The Truma Combi heater unit is located under the foot of the bed, but our testers didn’t find it too noisy.
A substantial sliding bedroom door offers privacy from anyone sleeping in the third berth in the lounge. This makes up by dropping the dinette table’s telescopic leg and inserting cushions to form a 2.1m x 1.1/0.6m single bed across the motorhome’s width.
Storage
The Adria Coral Plus 690 SC’s layout offers a compartment under the foot of the bed and a voluminous rear garage. This is rubber-lined and heated, with hooks for tying down leisure gear, and it’s spacious enough to take cycles.
Underbed storage can be accessed in two ways. The bed lifts out of the way on gas struts and can be secured with a supplied pole, or you can access the compartment from the front via a pair of cupboard doors.
The bedroom’s double floor has one storage cavity between the shower and vanity areas and one on the nearside, in a compartment that houses the heater’s boiler dump valve.
There are three overhead lockers in the lounge, two in the kitchen and three in the bedroom. Two wardrobes flank the bed.
More kitchen storage comes via three soft-closing drawers (cutlery at the top, a deeper one at the bottom), plus a small cupboard under the oven-grill. A large drawer under the fridge is ideal for pots and pans.
Two cubbies flank the lounge skylight – useful for items you need quick access to – and there’s a shelf above the habitation door.
Technical Specifications
| Payload | 557 kg |
| MTPLM | 3500 kg |
| Shipping Length | 7.38 m |
| Width | 2.29 m |
