Wall to wall motorhomes at the Dusseldorf Caravan Salon.

I would say two themes are clear.

Firstly a lot of attention to new liquid habitation heating systems and winterisation. Secondly, a number of manufacturers seem to be installing sophisticated fold away bed systems above the driver and passenger seats in the shorter motorhomes – say below 6.50 metres and then using the now bedless space to create space and comfort. And then the same bed is left there in the longer models as a second bed with often the main bed now being an island bed.

Both of these themes have been around for some time of course but walking through the vast halls at this enormous show they struck me as themes which, over time, were heading towards being the standard. Which is bad news for me as I cannot be doing with precision mountaineering just to get to bed!!!!

I guess a third theme is the very positive and upbeat atmosphere which is nice to experience and is based on increasing sales levels in Germany and some other European markets. I tried to find people to be grumpy with but failed miserably.

Christopher Macgowan
twitter: motorhomenews