Frankia F-Line I 680 Plus

The baby of the Plus range

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Tjust over 7m long, the 680 Plus proves the you don’t need to compromise on comfort or quality just because you want to drive a relatively modestly sized motorhome – or, perhaps, because you don’t have room for anything bigger on your drive. The only compromise as far as Frankia is concerned is that, at this size, you can’t choose your chassis – it’s Ducato only, although that is much less of a downside since Fiat introduced its excellent nine-speed automatic gearbox (as fitted to this example).

On the outside, this is still a fully fledged Frankia with a deep double floor (housing the optional spare wheel in a clean, dry place on the offside) and built-in services – a mains lead on an automatically retracting cable, a built-in fresh water hose and mains water connection and a large bore drain hose that feeds out through an outlet in the floor when you’re on a fully serviced campsite pitch.

There’s the usual Frankia garage, too, with twin side loading doors and the rear tailgate, which is a great feature. With headroom of 1.05m, this example becomes even more bikefriendly thanks to the Plus Garage Bike Extension (£1,950), with recesses for your cycles’ wheels and brackets and rails to hold your bikes in place. There’s masses of payload, too, even once you’ve added a few options.

Inside, the shorter body means the rear lounge settee is longer on the offside than the nearside, but there’s still plenty of room to put your feet up and this is as comfortable a seating area for a couple on tour as you’ll find anywhere. It feels extra light and airy, thanks to the optional twin Heki sunroofs above and because SMC deletes the German market fixed table and offers a free-standing unit instead.

Also, as part of the UK Pack, there’s a full British-style slot-in cooker with mains hotplate, three gas rings and a separate oven and grill.

There might appear to be a dearth of worktop once you’ve lifted the split lids off the sink, but a slide-out frame supports the larger section of sink lid to create a serving surface.

Of course, this is primarily a two-person vehicle, but a third travel seat – a fold-away Aguti chair – is optional (at £825) under the offside sofa. It’s not somewhere you’d probably wish to sit for a trans-European tour but, for occasional use, it does the job.

More importantly, the night- time arrangements for a couple involve nothing more strenuous than pressing a button. Said switch is mounted over the habitation door, where the main control panel and Truma Combi 6 E gas/electric heating controls are also hidden behind a flap. Press and hold and the bed lowers and then automatically extends forwards. The result is two conjoined singles, or a huge double with split mattress and a cutout at the foot, depending how you look at it. Either way, it’s a full 2m long and 1.93m wide – in other words, absolutely HUGE. And it’s accessed by a pair of slide-out steps that make getting into bed a doddle.

At the foot of the bed is also an en suite that can be separated both from the bedroom and the living area. The shower has a generous 1.96m headroom and comes with glass, not plastic, doors – just like in the bigger, more expensive models. Opposite is the toilet room, with a ceramic bowl toilet (standard across the range, too), and when its door is opened across the aisle to make the full en suite, this bathroom is brilliant.

Specified with the Heavy Chassis Pack (at £5,875 and including the automatic gearbox), alloy wheels, the extra rear travel seat, the UK Pack and SMC’s own Media Pack, this 680 is getting close to £120,000 but, for anyone seeking real luxury on their travels without bus-sized bulk, it would be hard to beat.