Auto-Sleeper Midas EL - Practical Motorhome

If size matters, be sure to read Practical Motorhome's review of the Auto-Sleeper Midas EL

Verdict

This is a classy motorhome, built to impress and entertain your friends on the rally field. Despite its six berths, though, it seems made for a couple with the time and money to tour in comfort and luxury. If you did want to travel as a family there is plenty of room, and the all-important forward-facing seats, with seat belts, make it easy to tour with two grandchildren.

Pros

Driving characteristics; huge rear lounge; kitchen

Cons

Wind noise; small fridge

The Midas is the largest ’van Auto-Sleepers has ever produced. The £47,495 price tag may seem a bit steep, but it reflects the quality of materials used and the inclusion of original, well-designed equipment.

Inside, it has all the classic elegance you would expect in a motorhome from this Cotswold-based company. Outside, the lasting impression is the sheer size of the Midas. Happily, the minimal, understated, graphics and pleasant, simple, styling result in a very smart-looking leisure vehicle.

Living

The huge, U-shaped, rear lounge was just as comfortable for using a laptop PC as it was for watching the wall-mounted TV that is part of the standard equipment. It was so comfortable, in fact, that we ate all our meals in this space.
The lounge would provide an ideal space for hosting a dinner party for four people, but it could accommodate even more for drinks at a club rally. When entertaining, the Midas benefits from plenty of natural light, which floods in through the extensive offside, and large rear, windows.
The diesel-powered warm air system quickly heats up the whole motorhome, even if you do need a degree to work the over-complicated electronic programmer. Our only other criticism of the heater is that it’s noisy, but at least most of the noise stayed outside the ’van.

Kitchen

Only the disappointingly small fridge and a badly designed cutlery drawer – which removed the sink waste pipe at regular intervals – stopped this from being a five-star kitchen. It has a great hob with three gas burners as well as an electric hotplate. The oven and grill also seemed reliable and sturdy.
The storage space is nicely arranged and the Midas provides some interesting pull-out and flip-up extra worktop space. A large roof light gives plenty of ventilation and natural light.
The cover for the sink and draining board is made of special Chinchilla glass that is so strong it can be used as a chopping board. The cooker rattles on the road but then in what ’van does it not? Keep buying those tea towels…

Washroom

At first sight, the washroom looked small for the size of the ’van and this proved to be the case as the swivel toilet and large washbasin intruded slightly into the shower space.
On the plus side the room has multiple shower drains, which result in a dry tray even if the ’van isn’t perfectly level, and the waterproof lockers mean you can really splash about.

Beds

The rear lounge is easy to convert into an extraordinarily large and comfy king size double bed. However, we were surprised that there is no privacy curtain to section it off from the rest of the ’van’s living accommodation.
The dinette opposite the kitchen makes a large single bed while the overcab sleeps two in a good-sized double.

Storage

The ’van has lots of interior lockers but the ones under the seats are accessed from the top, via hinged seat bases, rather than from the front.
The overhead lockers held most of our kit and food, and the large locker under the front-facing rear seats proved particularly useful. There is also a drinks cabinet filled with fine crystal glasses.