Marquis Lifestyle 622 - Practical Motorhome

Loaded with desirable goodies and with a roomy rear lounge, read on to find out how the dealer special Marquis Lifestyle 622 performs for touring couples

Verdict

The Marquis Lifestyle 622 includes a plethora of desirable upgrades over Swift’s Escape 622, led by the black cab, sat-nav, automatic air con, CD player and reversing camera. Lifestyle owners can have their ’vans serviced at any Marquis Leisure dealership, so you can incorporate the likes of a habitation check with your touring plans. Plus, as we went to press, the 622 was available for a special offer price of £42,495 OTR, making a good deal even better.

Pros

End-lounge layout is popular with UK buyers and works well
Attractive external appearance with black cab and pleasing graphics
Built using Swift Group’s upgraded SMART Plus construction
Desirable added extras: sat-nav, automatic air con, CD player and reversing camera
Can be serviced at Marquis’s 11 UK locations

Cons

Dual-fuel hobs would make good addition to overall spec, as would a separate oven and grill
Space-saving washroom won’t suit all users

Swift’s Escape range has been wildly successful since its launch in 2010. Its blend of affordability and value for money, delivered on many popular floor plans, has made it a perennial bestseller. And it’s customisable – those who consider the base spec to be slightly ‘bare bones’ can upgrade to the Comfort Pack for some appealing extras. But if that’s not enough of an upgrade for some buyers, then Britain’s biggest motorhome retailer has something that may be of interest.

Marquis Leisure’s Lifestyle is a dealer special edition range based on the Swift Escape (for anyone unfamiliar, a dealer special is a super-plus version of the vehicle on which it is based). With 11 sites across England, Marquis is able to use its considerable buying power – Lifestyle is Swift’s biggest-selling dealer special edition – to source a package of desirable cab’n’hab upgrades and bundle them together for an eye-catching price.

Including the end-lounge two-berth 622, on test here, six Lifestyle models are available: the five-berth 624 (parallel lounge, end kitchen), the four-berth 644 (end lounge, half-dinette) and the 664 (French bed, half-dinette), plus six-berths 686 (rear lounge, full dinette) and 696 (rear transverse bunks, full dinette). All ’vans ride on the Fiat Ducato and are powered by a 2.3-litre turbodiesel engine.

Over and above Swift’s Escape specification, Lifestyle models carry the following equipment upgrades: wind-out canopy awning, twin-lens reversing camera and Winter Pack (insulated water tanks and fridge vent covers).

Cabs benefit from automatic air con, steering-wheel mounted audio controls and touchscreen sat-nav and CD player to go with the DAB radio with USB and Bluetooth connectivity. Safety system upgrades include ESC with hill hold, and Traction Plus with hill descent.

On the visual side, Lifestyle’s metallic black cabs call to mind Swift’s upmarket Bolero range rather than the all-white bodies of Escape, and are well co-ordinated with Lifestyle’s custom sidewall decals. Inside, a bespoke patterned soft furnishings scheme and grey drop-in carpets round off Lifestyle’s visual grammar.

Mirroring routine spec bumps to the Escape range, Lifestyle’s changes for 2016 have been modest. Swift’s SMART Plus habitation construction is now used (this adds a new sandwich floor skinned with GRP to the timber-free construction method rolled out across Swift Group’s coachbuilt motorhome portfolio in 2015), and the roof-mounted solar panels have been upgraded to 100W, from 80W. These added extras are available for a £5798 price premium over the Escape 622, plus a weight penalty of 31kg.

Like its siblings, the Lifestyle 622 is based on the Fiat Ducato, with a 2.3-litre turbodiesel producing 130bhp. A six-speed manual ’box comes as standard, although buyers can order Fiat’s ComfortMatic robotised gearbox as a £1500 cost option. With two travel seats and two berths, this is a ’van for touring couples only.

The rear lounge is the beating heart of the 622 – a lounge, dining room and bedroom all in one

Living

Accessed via the nearside habitation door and turning right, the rear lounge is the beating heart of the 622 – a lounge, dining room and bedroom all in one. Natural light floods in from three windows and a central rooflight, supported by LED reading lights in the corners.

Although the seating is comfortable and offers good support, taller people may prefer a bit more backrest. Retrieved from its storage position in the wardrobe, a folding leaf table deploys easily into the gangway.

Kitchen

The nearside kitchen is logically arranged and offers extra work surface via a hinged flap extension, next to the habitation door. Equipment provided comprises three gas rings, a combination oven and grill, a microwave oven and a dual-fuel 80-litre fridge with a separate freezer compartment.

Washroom

An all-in-one washroom is sited opposite the kitchen, and fits in a shower area, corner vanity unit and swivelling cassette toilet. An efficient Ecocamel Orbit shower head, which mixes air with water and is new for 2016, will make the contents of the 65-litre fresh water tank last longer.

Beds

For night-times, the rear double bed makes up by pulling slats out from the under-window seat box on the rear wall, then rearranging the seat cushions and backrests. It’ll take a few minutes at most, and provides a generous 2.08m x 1.34m (6ft 10in x 4ft 5in) double berth. The parallel lounge seats can also be used as single beds, where the offside berth will be 2in longer than the nearside one (1.86m x 0.68m; 6ft 1in x 2ft 3in).

Storage

Overhead lockers and seat boxes are where Lifestyle 622 owners will deploy their payloads. These are joined by a large wardrobe with shelves at the bottom, a small cupboard, two cubbies and a cutlery drawer in the kitchen. In the washroom, a vanity unit under the sink will please tidy-minded users.