SPRITE’S MAJOR 6 TD launched at the Manchester show and it was immediately obvious that it was a lot of caravan for the money.


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New Major 6 TD is a close relative of the Swift Challenger Sport 586

 

It offers six berths, with fixed bunks, a rear-dinette and a generous side washroom. It is based on the Swift Challenger Sport 586 model so offers a lot of the same things that we like about that. Namely, it looks great, the layout works and the weights are sensible, given the amount of accommodation on offer.

 

But there is a problem

 

Sprite ideas

A quick look at the Sprite reveals that it is pretty good. With a maximum weight of 1480kg and list price just under £13500, it looks a lot of value. Conspicuously, it makes the Sport 586 look expensive. It also makes it look a bit on the heavy side too.

 

Swift would no doubt point potential Challenger Sport customers at the list of extra equipment that you get over the Sprite. If you get the Diamond Pack option, that adds £410 to the cost of the van and adds a hitch stabiliser, door flyscreen, CD player, cushions and alloy wheels. Add another £325 and you get the posh sunroof. Top up another £459 and you can garnish the whole ensemble with Al-KO’s excellent ATC system. That lot adds up to around £1200 on top of the list price and takes the total cost of the Sprite to just shy of £15000.

 

So what do you get extra in the Challenger Sport for your extra £2000? A quick scan through the brochure is not terribly revealing, but on closer inspection, I managed to spot that you get analogue (not digital) heater controls for the Truma Combi system, no electric hotplate on the cooker and no microwave.

 

And the exterior graphics are simpler.

 

And it has one big front window, rather than three small ones.

 

And that’s about it.

 

All of which left me thinking that the otherwise very lovely Sport 586 is now a very difficult caravan to justify buying.

Not that it is isn’t good.

 

It is.

 

[tl:gallery size=459×342]Rear lounge and fixed bunks makes Major a comfortable place for kids

 

It’s just that these 2013 Sprites look great, weigh less than their Swift and Sterling cousins and give little away in terms of kit. And in models such as the Alpine 2 and Major 6 TD which mirror exactly models in the ranges above, they make the posher, dearer and heavier Sport models very hard to justify.

 

These Sprites are just a bit too good.

Written by Nigel Donnelly