ApolloRVsales now offers the Adria Campervan, which is a European import. The 2018 model comes with 150 hp, which is definitely needed for its purpose and it has a great layout. It is more affordable then its Aussie competitors, but it only comes with a European 2 year Fiat Warranty and 100k km's ! We almost bought the van, but the short warranty put us off as Ducatos have or have had problems with water in the engine bay.
Ducato Campervans have a strong presence in Australia, but only in the Owner segment. Rental companies seem to shy away from Ducatos and I wonder if that is simply because they cant be serviced on the West Coast and North Coast of Australia. Hence between Perth and Cairns expect to be on your own. Apollo is as far as I know the only Rental company that has imported a Ducato based motor home, the Euro slider to add to its fleet.
The Fiat Ducato has become quite popular in the UK - top fleet van reported here. And here in Australia Jayco, the largest Camper manufacturer has just added the Ducato Campervan to its line up. It has been shown in Melbourne at the Super Show in February for $99k drive away. For lack of online info in AU, here are is a link to the FD19-1 from NZ . Factory in Dandenong. 2018 vehicles with 180 hp, solar and rear view camera. Fiat has a 48k service interval. See also forum discussion here. Useful Links > More The Ducato Campervan is a B-Class motorhome at the top end of the campervan spectrum.
Comparing the Apollo Adria SP 600 (130 .. 150hp-6m) with the Jayco FD19 (180hp-6.4m) Ducato vans drive very nicely and a lot of the long term motorhome owners here in Australia are very happy, but there are exceptions. If you go to some online complaint websites problems often dominate the agenda, probably due to our human tendency to spend time online when stuff goes wrong. So at the motorhome show 2018 in Melbourne I signed a contract with Apollo for the Adria Twin 600 , and thereafter I read the Ducato forum posts. Many where relating to the 2013/14 model which was dubbed "Motorhome from hell" by its british owner - see Motorhomefromhell.com. Fortunately this problem has been fixed in the current model from 2014/2015 on wards. Rain water cascading into the engine bay can upset the electrical systems and the Fiat patch up fixes introduced during the 8 year life cycle of the affected model where deemed inadequate by some forum members. So if you own the older model check you engine bay often enough for corrosion and blockages. Thanks to my thorough research I could get out of the contract and ended up with the superior Aussie built Jayco FD19 with 180 horse powers and a much longer 5 year warranty ! Adrias Europran warranty was only 2 years. |
>Jayco-FD19 Campervan
Review of the latest addition to the Fiat Ducato based Conquest Motorhome Class 1-Review 2-Specs 3-Hints 4-Q&A see also >CampersAustralia #campersaustralia Conquest FD19 Campervan
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