Autostar Aryal 9

Autostar? never heard of them you may say. Well they are one of France's biggest motorhome manufacturers, but until recently they have not been officially imported into the UK. All that changed earlier this year with the setting up of The Camper House.

Based in Oxford, they are the sole importers of Autostar motorhomes into the UK, and they invited UKMotorhomes.net to look at their demonstrator - the Mercedes based Aryal 9

Brief specification: Berths: 4/5 Belted seats: 3 Length: 6.72m Width: 2.21m Height: 2.83m Chassis: LHD Mercedes 316D35 Gross vehicle weight: 3500kg Standard vehicle weight: 3085kg Electricaly operated cab windows Dash air conditioning Thatcham Cat 1 alarm and immobiliser Central locking Price as demonstrated [2002]: £54,895.52	day                      night
The demonstrator had the 3800kg chassis and included an additional extractor fan, TV aerial and booster, roof air con, wind out awning and refillable gas bottles, which are all extras to the standard specification. The cost of a standard specification Aryal 9 is £50,808 (3500kg) or £52,117 (3800kg). All prices quoted are valid for 2003.

 We met the proprietor of The Camper House, Martyn Cole, at their base in Oxford and had time for a good look around the vehicle before he drove us north out of the city to our photo location.

I was pleasantly surprised by the way the Mercedes drove (albeit as a passenger this time), there has been some criticism of the Sprintshift gearchange being jerky, but I certainly didn't notice it. Martyn commented that first time users do sometimes experience this, but with a slight adjustment to driving technique it is easily overcome.

The layout of the Aryal 9 is pretty conventional one and one of the most popular with UK users. The entry door is toward the rear of the (UK) offside with an externaly accessible locker and wardrobe immediately to the left. Opposite the door is the toilet/shower room with handbasin, swivel bowl Thetford cassette toilet and a reasonably sized separate shower compartment.

On the right of the door is the L shaped galley with sink, three burner hob, and very small waste bin set into the worktop. We felt that the waste bin was so small as to be next to useless and would have preferred extra workspace. Opposite the galley is the superb Electrolux AES fridge/freezer and above this is a built in Smev oven (an oven/grill unit is available as an option). Below a small worktop alongside the fridge is a useful pull out storage unit with the 'baguette' bag now commonly found in French built motorhomes - perhaps with a bit of ingenuity this could be converted into a more usefully sized waste bin?

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