AUTO-SLEEPER NUEVO

Each month Gentleman Jack focuses on a great secondhand mainstream motorhome, then reveals the best of the bunch, what to pay and which problems to look out for

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Auto-Sleepers is the UK’s longest established volume motorhome producer, and is now part of the Trigano SPA group.

Originally just converters of panel vans, they proceeded to massively increase their market share by building a range of GRP monocoque coachbuilts which sold in huge numbers. But they became very costly to manufacture.

Auto-Sleepers’ response was to develop a more affordable (and lighter) range of coachbuilts using bonded-sandwich panels. These were named after Italian resorts: Pescara, Polensa and Ravenna. They were successful but lacked a compact model — hence the launch of the Nuevo on the short-wheelbase Boxer chassis-cab.

Auto-Sleepers’ brand loyalty has always been high and back in 2002 the Nuevo was originally aimed at those wishing to change from one of the company’s Boxer-based panel ’vans to a coachbuilt — but to one of comparable size. I tested the original launch model and called it “a coachbuilt with a panel van-sized footprint”.

The launch model had what became the most popular layout, later named Nuevo EK. The entrance door is on the nearside towards the rear. Most of the kitchen is along the rear wall with just the fridge and additional worktop on the nearside just ahead of the door.

The kitchen is well-equipped and is a pleasant place for preparing meals. Artificial task lighting is good, as is the amount of natural light, the latter thanks to the windows in the rear wall and entrance door. A wardrobe is ahead of the nearside rear-corner washroom. The forward lounge consists of a brace of two-seat inward-facing settees and swivelling cab seats.

Originally, the default option for sleeping was in a (generously proportioned) transverse double bed converted from the lounge settees.