Discoverer Pregio pop-top campervan 2005 Review

By Malcolm Street

Discoverer Campers is a name that seems to have been around forever in the campervan market, as indeed the company has been for many years. A couple of years ago Discoverer changed hands and became part of the Tyson Group, a company well-known for its vehicle accessory supplies.

Tyson has kept many of the original Discoverer designs, albeit in updated versions, and has been adding to them as well – the fact that it has produced a camper conversion based on the popular Kia Pregio van is no surprise at all.

Equally unsurprising is the popularity of the little Korean van with many tradesmen and delivery businesses, given the price tag when compared to its Japanese and European equivalents. Admittedly, you don’t quite get the sophistication of the latter but the Kia is certainly proving to be a reliable little van.

Tyson offered CW the opportunity to look over one of its Pregio van conversions and we went along to its recently appointed Sydney motorhome dealer, Western Sydney Winnebago, to check it out.

Somewhat ironically, it was John Wright, a name not unknown to Discoverer owners, who showed us over the latest model.

The van
Kia’s Pregio is a funny-looking van in a way: it has a snub nose bonnet which gives it a distinctive look, but curiously, when the bonnet is lifted there isn’t much of the motor to be seen – only the washer water filler, screw jack and not much else. Anything extra to be stored in this area must be strapped or bolted in!

In keeping with the diesel motor trend of many of its larger contemporaries, the Pregio comes with a 2.7 litre diesel motor driving through a five-speed manual gearbox.

The motor is not going to set the world on fire with its performance, but it’s not a slug either, and will certainly get you comfortably from A to B in reasonable time.

Sitting behind the steering wheel, all necessary items are to hand: wiper controls on the left, indicator stalk on the right and floor-mounted gear shift. In front of the driver are the usual controls – speedo, tacho, temperature and fuel gauges.

‘Comfort’ items, even in a van like the Pregio, include remote-controlled external mirrors, power windows, central locking and spotlights above both driver and passenger seats.
Outside on the rear window is a convex mirror that takes all the guesswork out of close parking.

General cab storage consists of map pockets on the doors, a centre console when the middle seat is not being used and a small glovebox.

The camper
Apart from the Fiamma awning, there isn’t much in the way of external features to indicate that the Pregio is a campervan. The pop-top roof is quite streamlined and doesn’t give much away, but along the offside the power inlet socket, water filler and gas compartment for the 4kg gas cylinder offer some clues.

The latter might appear to be too close to the fridge but its vent pipe outlet has been placed away at the required distance. At the rear, the bumper bar has an aluminium step fitted on it. Mounted internally, but for external use, at the end of the offside rear seat is a flexible hose shower.

Opening the sliding door reveals a simple but practical camper area in the rear of the Pregio. Once inside the van, to lift the pop-top roof you need to undo four internal straps, then gently push up the roof – it elevates into position quite quickly.

Internal décor is clean and unfussy; in our test van light blue cushions were supplemented by light grey velour-covered walls and light timber laminate on the cabinets. All windows have tracked green/yellow curtains.

In the pop-top gusset, three large, screened windows add greatly to the light and airflow inside.

Sitting behind the passenger seat is a Cramer two-burner cooktop with Black & Decker microwave oven underneath.

The whole unit swings around and can be used inside or out, but given that the microwave oven is so low, it is going to be easier to use from the outside.

Opposite the cooking unit is a 55 litre Dometic three-way fridge with stainless steel sink above. Twelve volt pumped water supplies the sink, and a very useful, hinged benchtop at the end of the cabinet helps with the limited bench space. (It’s also a useful bedside shelf as well.) Above the sink is a twin fluorescent light plus twin powerpoint and TV antenna – if required, the TV may sit atop the adjoining cupboard.

Between the driver seat and kitchen sink is a relatively large cupboard with a drawer above. In the cupboard are three removable shelves, which could be used for general storage or as a hanging cupboard.

The dinette/bed occupies most of the rest of the campervan. With two sideways-facing lounges, the dinette can either be made into two single beds (6ft 1in x 1ft 9in – 1.85m x 0.53m) or a large double bed (6ft 1in x 5ft 1in – 1.85m/1.6m).

Making up the bed is easy – the table with leg removed forms part of the bed base, with two other pieces of ply making up the rest. The two side cushions fill most of the gap in between, with a smaller cushion filling in the rest.

Sitting between the two lounges is a centre-mounted table which, at 2ft 6in x 1ft 6in (762mm x 681mm), is a reasonable size, and when not required, the table lifts out of the way. The high density foam lounges are relatively comfortable to sit on but by nature of their design, have quite low backs.

Under both seats is a general storage area, with piano hinged ply timber covers. Part of the nearside seat is taken up by the timber pieces for the centre of the bed and the forward part of the offside seat is occupied by the house battery.

The power system is relatively simple in this little campervan. Lighting is all 12V, with two fluorescent lights fitted in the pop-top roof, one above the kitchen, and two halogen reading lights in the rear above each lounge.

Behind the passenger seat is a second 240V powerpoint and for any 12V devices, there’s a socket beside the fridge.

The bottom line
Although it lacks some of the sophistication of its Japanese and European contemporaries, the Kia Pregio doesn’t have the same price tag either. That’s what makes this little campervan an attractive proposition for people who really like the campervan lifestyle but have a restricted budget.

One slight disadvantage it suffers, along with most front-engined vans, is that effective use of the entire unit, ie, the cab swivelling seats, cannot be achieved.

On the road, the Pregio drives quite well although, as someone who thinks turbo and diesel go together, I found the diesel to be a little slow. However, it will certainly get you to where you are going and with good fuel economy to boot.

Discoverer has produced a neat little job from this conversion and the Pregio has a few features, such as energy-efficient lighting, that more expensive units do not.
 
If you are looking for a new campervan, but one that is not too expensive, the Discoverer Pregio should certainly be on your shopping list.

We liked:
• Simple, uncluttered layout – items like the swing-out cooktop make camping more pleasurable
• Decent, all-12V lighting
• With a van of this size, the awning adds greatly to the usable space and is ideal in the rain when going to and from the sliding door

We would have liked:
• Turbo on the diesel makes a considerable difference
• Drawers under the bed make it easier to use underseat storage – there is only one in the kitchen