BE A FRUGAL MOTORHOMER!

Motorhoming doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby, and there are lots of ways to reduce your holiday costs and enjoy great value touring. Peter Rosenthal has some top tips

If you have already invested in a motorhome, then you’re already winning the holiday value game, mainly thanks to their low levels of depreciation compared to a car.

The longer you keep the ’van, the lower the cost per year will average out, too. So if you typically replace your motorhome every three years or so, extending this period by a year or so will reduce your average yearly depreciation cost.

Clearly, other factors, such as the cost of finance and interest rates, are also in play when you’re making these calculations, but you take the point.

CHOOSING A MOTORHOME

If you’re planning to buy a new motorhome, the key thing to look for is the design of the body. The larger the frontal area of the vehicle, the worse its economy tends to be. So taller vehicles almost always deliver worse economy that lower-profiles.

I can speak from experience on this aspect – I was involved in economy testing a group of motorhomes a few years ago, and the bodyshape had by far the most significant effect on their economy, much greater than engine size or gearbox type.

So for the best economy, look for the lowest-profile model you can find. The engine choice should be secondary – in real-world testing, we found that lower-power engines tend to need more revs on the motorway or when ascending hills, and engine revs have a direct correlation with economy.

Equally, modern automatic gearboxes have less of an effect on economy than you might actually imagine. In addition, their ease of use will make them highly desirable on the secondhand market, so they can also help with resale values.

Bear in mind that European-style motorhome layouts – such as bunks, and A-classes with single lounge chairs and an office-style fixed dining table – tend to be less popular with UK customers, so are likely to retain less value than others.