Choosing a Motorhome

After years of recreational boating, Peta Stavelli of Motorhomes, Caravans & Destinations magazine, returned to motorhoming. As a potential buyer, you might also be asking yourself — how do these two kinds of recreational investments differ?

Gaining a restful night’s sleep on the road is vital for being able to do what you want to do the next day. However, time spent preparing your bed in the evening, and then dismantling it before breakfast, can zap your energy levels before your day even begins.

German motorhome manufacturer Bürstner have always been a modern, sophisticated company with a desire to innovate — and by creating their drop down beds, they exceeded expectations.

In this article, we’ll explain the background behind Bürstner’s drop down bed while also outlining its groundbreaking design and substantial benefits.

If you’re planning to spend a decent amount on a new motorhome, you’ll have the pick of two types of body construction.

In the more affordable corner is the semi-integrated motorhome — which still retains the front sheet metal parts and cab components of its donor van that provided the platform.

Fiat may have recently lost ground to upgraded European vans like the Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit and Volkswagen Crafter. But the new Series 8 Ducato shows improvements that should allow it to continue its reign at the top of the motorhome platform segment.

Motorhome vehicle transmissions have evolved over time — from the days of manual transmissions to 21^st century automatics.

In this article, we’ll shed some light on what a vehicle transmission is while looking at the pros and cons of various motorhome transmissions. We’ll also offer advice on how to get the most out of your motorhome’s transmission.

Like their battery-powered counterparts in the passenger car, bicycle, and motorcycle sectors, more motorhomes will begin to travel electrically as we wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

That’s despite the many packaging challenges that electric motorhomes present such as substantial changes to existing electronic architecture to hold the huge batteries needed to drive the vehicles. Electric motorhome models may therefore take a little longer to enter the market than electric campervans — but a shift away from diesel power is inevitable.

In this discussion, we take a close look at increasing investment in electric vehicles and how that’s going to affect campervan and motorhome markets. Plus, we chat about range, infrastructure, and the relationship between battery weight and payload.

You’ve invested a lot of your hard-earned cash in your new motorhome. So why leave it parked up in the cooler months? You can savour those cold winter evenings on the road in a toasty warm motorhome.

A motorhome that’s fully winterised has been built for four seasons. It has full insulation, double glazed windows, and a grunty heater that can be used without needing to plug into mains power.

If you plan to use your motorhome in winter, a central heating system is a must. These are now standard in caravans and motorhomes imported from Europe.

Finding a motorhome with the right balance of light, heating and ventilation is vital for your sense of wellbeing and relaxation. Although they’re invisible elements, they can have a considerable impact on your comfort and enjoyment.

Browse through our guide for some useful advice on these three important parts of purchasing an RV.

With such a huge array of campervans and motorhomes on the market, it’s hard to know where to start when you’re new to the game. Don’t be put off by unfamiliar terminology. After all, it’s not rocket science!

We will walk you through the main types of campervans and motorhomes available in New Zealand and the pros and cons of each so you can get one step closer to finding the one that will suit you and your lifestyle.

Before you sink your hard-earned money into the purchase of a new motorhome, you’ll want to make sure that you have a place to store it that’s both secure and minimises the impacts of the elements on it. A lockable garage or shed is ideal or alternatively, a secure carport on your own property.

Cost is usually top of the list for most people when they’re thinking about which motorhome is best suited to them, so it makes sense to ask the question, “Should I buy second-hand and save upfront, or pay more now and enjoy the benefits of an unused vehicle?”

“Price is a key consideration for buyers and this is usually what steers them toward either new or used,” says Wilderness Motorhomes (formerly SmartRV) marketing director Mary Hamilton. “But this does need to be balanced out by other key factors such as layout suitability, ongoing costs, and overall quality.”

“If you look at the market as a whole in New Zealand, there is a bigger market for used than for new. And of course, the market is experiencing unprecedented demand right now due to people not being able to travel internationally.”

Mary says that Wilderness Motorhomes, who sell both new and ex-rental motorhomes, do sell more new than used vehicles, but that’s more to do with supply. “With used sales, we sell only what’s coming off our rental fleet, but we could sell a lot more secondhand if we had them available.”

We can all picture it. A classic VW Kombi van parked up by an idyllic New Zealand beach, a long haired surfer untying his surfboard from the roof and heading into the water to catch the first waves of the day. That’s surely one of the most iconic Kiwiana images around. But while that VW camper has been a familiar sight for a long time, most other German motorhomes have only arrived on New Zealand shores in the last decade or so.

Locally manufactured motorhomes have dominated the New Zealand market since motorhoming became a thing after WWII. 



While a limited range of motorhomes were imported from Australia and the UK in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it wasn’t until around 2010 that the growing popularity of touring by motorhome prompted Kiwis to look to European alternatives.

The German motorhome industry’s reputation for quality, reliability, efficiency and innovation is globally unparalleled – just as it is for its world leading car brands. The country’s leading R&D infrastructure, end-to-end value-chain integration and highly skilled workforce together create an undefeatable international automotive domain. That’s why German motorhomes have quickly become highly sought after in New Zealand.

In the article about the difference between German and New Zealand made motorhomes, we looked at some of the key factors that separate those made in Germany and those made locally. In this article, we will give you an overview of the German motorhome brands available at New Zealand dealerships and the parts of the market that they target.