Cut-price Golf caravan released

When the first ‘Golf by Avan’ caravan was shown at the Melbourne Caravan Show in March, the ‘special show price’ of $79,990 for the fully-equipped 21ft Savannah 637 had a few eyes watering.

But Golf’s second hard top van unveiled recently at the Queensland Caravan & Camping Show should get fans of the 38-year-old brand smiling again, with a much more market-friendly $56,990 tow away (Queensland) sticker on the new 16ft 6in single axle Savannah 499 HT.

Expect that to trickle down to closer to $53,000 tow away in Golf’s (now) home state of Victoria.

Priced $4000 above the existing Savannah 499 pop-top, with which it shares a similar layout, spes and features, the 499 HT is not as luxuriously equipped as the tandem axle 637, but based on its reception with showgoers in Brisbane is likely to garner many more friends.

True it doesn’t have the 637’s full ensuite, but some who inspected it indicated that they would accept the 499 HT’s combined shower/toilet beside its north-south front-mounted queen bed to gain access to a rough-road capable caravan wearing the respected Golf nameplate.

The Savannah 499 HT’s 1550kg tare weight (just 50kg more than for the 499 pop-top) and identical 130kg ball weight are certainly in the van’s favour, putting it right amongst the lightweight British and Euro caravans and within the capabilities of large family cars and even compact SUVs with a braked trailer tow rating of 2.0-2.2 tonnes.

The Savannah matches most of its overseas rivals on size and equipment, such as standard air conditioning and a four-speaker TV and entertainment system, but adds a number of Australian-friendly features of its own to sweeten the deal.

Like other Golfs, it sits on a high-riding Australian-built galvanised steel chassis with a heavy-duty hitch and has independent (rubber) suspension, a slide out kitchen (with fridge drawer) to supplement its internal kitchen, a checker-plate toolbox and stone shield on the A-frame, a 120 Watt roof-mounted solar panel, an external shower (with shower tent) and a standard Prostor wind-out awning.