Bürstner Aviano i 684 - Practical Motorhome

Verdict

Class, class and more class – a truly upmarket motorhome.

Pros

A premium product with great coachwork; upgraded chassis with a top engine.

Cons

Sky-high placement of oven/grill combo in TEC tower.

Living

Ergonomically designed and multi-adjustable, the cab seats are the best in the house. The inward-facing settee would be significantly improved if the backrest were a little higher, though.

The Aviano boasts an extending table, but its design seems potentially unstable as there appears to be no way of locking the extension in place; the combination of a hot cup of tea, an unrestrained swivelling table top and kids does not bear thinking about.

Kitchen

The kitchen has an ‘L’-shaped base unit holding the hob and sink on the offside, with the fridge opposite, across the central aisle.

One of the most precious commodities in a motorhome’s kitchen is the worktop; yet this ’van has none. It does have a two-door domestic-style fridge-freezer, part of a Dometic TEC tower unit, with a too-high-for-comfort combination oven/grill above.

There’s no such thing as a kitchen with too many drawers, and Burstner’s designers agree. There is also an extractor fan with task lighting.

Washroom

The washbasin is located in the forward corner, with cupboard underneath, and there is a bench-style loo at the far rear with the shower area in the middle. It all looks pretty good, with the glazed doors serving far better than a clingy shower curtain, though the windowless compartment is quite gloomy.

The door is one of those grey, plastic, tambour affairs which live-in tests have shown to be of variable reliability.

Beds

There are six quoted berths in this motorhome, but as it only has four dedicated travel seats, perhaps it is best considered as a four-berth ’van with a choice of sleeping areas. The permanent low-level corner-double bed at the rear will be big enough for most folk, and has individually switched reading lamps.

The cab drop-down double bed requires occupants to sleep transversely, which means that one partner might become ‘trapped’ by the other. It has a pleated privacy blind instead of the more usual curtains.

Then there is an additional, narrow, transverse double bed made by converting the dinette.

Storage

There is sufficient storage space here for four to six people, but insufficient wardrobe space for six. You will find storage space under the inward-facing settee, though without slide-out baskets or access flaps. Access to the vast under-bed storage area is by lifting the base (on gas-assisted struts), or via an external access door.

The ’van has exterior access doors for the gas lockers and will accommodate two 13kg cylinders. Burstner has also added more exterior access doors to storage compartments, which will prove handy when putting away levelling wedges, hook-up cables and the like.