Blog

When I travelled to Southern Germany last month, I had a full itinerary planned and excitement was high. Having already seen what Bürstner has in store for 2016, we were anxious to meet the Carado team since we had only recently secured the rights to exclusively distribute the brand in New Zealand.

Not only is Germany the home of our partner, motorhome manufacturer Bürstner, but it's undoubtedly the centre of motorhome manufacturing in Europe. In fact, five of the six biggest motorhome manufacturers are headquartered within a few hundred kilometres of Bavaria, Southern Germany.

Following the success of our inaugural event last year, the SmartRV team is excited to announce our 2015 Oktoberfest Open Day at our Auckland sales centre on Saturday 17 October from 9am to 4pm. This year’s event has been expanded to a full day giving guests ample opportunity to come and join the German festivities.

"A class above, without the price tag of an elite vehicle." 

That is the low down from NZ Motorhome, Caravans and Destinations reviewer Bill Savidan, who test drove the latest addition to the Bürstner family, the Viseo i690G recently.

Bruce and Tina Higgs don't have your typical story of being long time motorhomers - they are relatively late entrants. In 2007 a chance visit to a motorhome sales yard and a look over a Bürstner T585 changed their minds. Based on a Fiat Ducato cab chassis, the B class motorhome had a dinette behind the passenger seat and a small kitchen behind the driver's seat.

We take safety seriously at SmartRV. In fact our Bürstner motorhomes meet the highest safety standards available thanks to permanent quality controls on one of the most modern test tracks in Europe. Ah, tested in Europe you might say, where they drive on the ‘other side’.

Wilderness hosted the official launch party for the Bürstner Owners Club on Saturday 14 March at the Sofitel Auckland.

Thank you to everyone who visited us at the Auckland Covi Motorhome, Caravan and Outdoor SuperShow over the weekend. We had a great turn out and it was fantastic to see you all!

Our new range of 2015 Bürstner motorhome models are arriving and they are now on display at our Auckland Sales Centre plus we’re featuring them on our stand at the upcoming Covi Motorhome and Caravan SuperShow in Auckland. We’ve got a range of new models including the Nexxo T690G, Nexxo T740 and Ixeo Time IT726G. Along with the new models, we also have the 2015 models arriving of our popular favourites.

Over the past few months, Wilderness has been investing in new equipment that will enable them to provide a full service for European motorhomes. Their new hoist gives them the capability to take motorhomes up to 10 metres in length whereas most local garages can take motorhomes up to a maximum of seven metres, if at all.  According to Wilderness Service Team Leader, Patrick Frick, the service team can now get a much better look at the underside of the longer motorhomes they are servicing. “We can find issues before they cause a problem that could lead to a breakdown on the road which saves our customers time, money, and mostly importantly the inconvenience of losing valuable holiday time.” The hoist also allows them to modify the water tanks on imported motorhomes to meet self containment rules.

Fiat's Ducato underpins about 75% of the European motorhome market. However, in this country, there is a strong perception that front wheel drive is not suited to many local road conditions. We asked Wilderness customers John and Barbara Maddren how their new Bürstner Aviano i727 motorhome fared on its first major road trip which included rough road travel.

Recently our directors visited the world’s largest trade fair for motorhomes and caravans, the Caravan Salon, in Düsseldorf, Germany. Here’s an update from Mary about the show.