Avan lifts its Golf game

Queensland is Golf caravan and camper heartland, so it wasn't surprising that Victorian owners Avan chose the recent Gold Coast Caravan and Outdoor Expo as the public launchpad for several new models.

So seriously does Avan take the Gold Coast Show that the Van Baardwyk brothers, Scott and Jeff, who now run the Pakenham-based business that their Dutch immigrant father started, were both on hand to chat to customers and dealer staff.

The most interesting of these new Golfs was the Savannah Maxxi 603 that, thanks to its Expanda-style drop-down rear double bed, has the useable internal space of a 22ft caravan in a 19ft 7in body.

One of the interesting features about this layout is that when folded, the rear bed doesn’t intrude into the van’s interior space and if you shut the sliding door to the separate shower and toilet that sit opposite each other to the right of the rear entry door, you're left with the internal space of a conventional caravan, with a north-south front queen bed, a cosy café dinette, a 186L fridge and a compact kitchen.

This makes it ideal for compatible and adventurous travelling couples, as the 603 – like all Golf Savannahs – comes with slide-out external stainless steel kitchen and sits on a 150mm hot-dipped galvanised steel chassis with AL-KO Enduro tandem trailing arm independent suspension and twin 90L water tanks, making it well suited to Outback travel and living.

Like all 2019 Golf models, the largest Savannah now comes with the latest European-inspired interior décor that has been working its way through the Avan and Golf ranges over the past 12 months.

This includes new ‘Style Pack’ high-gloss with chrome highlight curved upper cabinetry and the buyer’s choice of light or darker lightweight timber furniture. While the lower cabinet doors and drawers are all finished in cream.

The Savannah Maxxi 603 has a RRP of $73,390, but was competitively show-priced at $66,990, including its front stoneguard, dinette foot rests and shipping to Queensland.

Not as new, but increasingly relevant in today’s hybrid-focussed market, was the Golf Maxxi 390 pop-top that made its first visit to the Gold Coast show.

Featuring a rear entry door with roll-out awning, a separate shower and toilet on either side of the entry and a drop-down front double bed, the 390 – like the 603 – offers travellers the space of a metre-longer caravan in a compact 3.9 metre long and 1530kg tare weight semi-off roader.

Show-priced at $43,990 (RRP $46,390) complete with slide-out stainless steel exterior kitchen, it made an interesting alternative buying proposition to the latest crop of locally-built and imported hybrids currently flooding the market.

Golf expects it to be a winner with couples in the Queensland market, stepping up from camper trailers.