Compass Avantgarde 100 - Practical Motorhome

Verdict

Compromised beds and a disappointingly small washroom may limit the appeal of this small, yet handsome, motorhome.

Pros

Nicely built, with an excellent, handsomely detailed lounge.

Cons

The beds aren’t big enough for taller people.

Living

The Compass can only seat four for dinner, but the dinette is comfortable to sit in. There are only front-facing three-point belts, but this is likely to be adequate for most families of four.
Despite being small, the six people choosing to lounge in the Compass will enjoy a good degree of comfort, with plenty of lighting and a dedicated television shelf.

Kitchen

Compass makes the most of the small amount of worktop space available, as the Avantgarde has a pair of well-designed, fold-out extensions in its corner kitchen. In terms of cooking equipment, the ’van is compelling. It has a Spinflo floor-to-counter oven unit with a separate grill and a four-burner gas hob. With a 77-litre fridge it’s bursting with food storage space. The dedicated cutlery drawer is also welcome. There are two fluorescent lights over the kitchen area, plus a window and rooflight, so the kitchen is bathed in natural, as well as artificial, light.

Washroom

The washroom in the Compass is, frankly, tiny. It occupies a small area in the rear corner of the ‘van, but isn’t short on equipment. The bi-fold wooden door is novel and certainly saves space, but once you are locked inside, the tip-up sink and bench-cassette toilet are more reminiscent of a ’van conversion than a coachbuilt motorhome. On the plus side, everything is accessible and usable and if you tend to stop on sites with wash facilities (rather than aires), the washroom may just be a place to hang your coat and brush your teeth. Another positive point is that the entire compartment is very well built throughout.

Beds

Sleeping arrangements are compromised because there is only a dinette and an overcab bed from which to choose and, unfortunately, both of these are limited. The overcab bed is small and made from several separate pieces of foam that slot together to form a reasonably-sized bed (just over two metres by 1.3 metres). However, with a mattress thickness ranging between six and eight centimetres, it is only suitable for children, particularly given the lack of headroom.
The biggest failing, though, is the dinette bed. As the main berth in the Compass, it’s simply too small for anyone over about five feet ten inches tall. On paper, the 1.88 metres by 1.44 metres bed seems okay, but by the time you factor in the intrusion of the seat belts, you’re very short of space – it is a case of ‘try before you buy’.

Storage

The Compass has to take it on the chin when it comes to storage space. The ‘little Englander’ is brimful of nik-nak storage space with trays under the cab seats, the regular Fiat cab cubby holes, a television shelf and six modest overhead lockers in the main living area. However, there is no externally accessed storage space, meaning that mains cables, hose pipes and other campground paraphernalia need to be stowed inside the ’van. Also, the under-seat storage areas are small and tricky to access.