Carthago option

[Just us on Tour]

Hi All
I am seeking your advice yet again. Having just returned from the show ( like hundreds of others ) we are seriously considering ordering a new van . After much searching we have decided on a Carthago Chic C line A Class. This will be our first A class and our first European van . We have always had Autotrail.
The options list for Carthago is huge and can be very costly . I am interested to get your opinions as to which options are desirable and would be essential and those which are not . For example a coffee machine and inverter is £1800. Carpet set £600 ish , silver paint £3500 ish ……full leather £3500 ish.
Advice please as to which options you would consider are key to retain good resale value.
Thank you

 

[Lenny HB]

I wouldn't bother with the coffee machine & inverter, they fit a crap Waco inverter & you can make much better coffee in a Moka pot. Also I don't think you can have that option without a second gel battery and no way are 2 x 80ah gel batteries cabable of running that size inverter.

Silver & leather not bad options if you like them.

I wouldn't have the oven option they fit them in a centre kitchen draw position without an outside vent, not impressed by that, that's why we didn't have one.

There Lithium option is quite a good price but it's only 150ah but it is a Super B battery which are horrendously expensive. You can but good quality lithium batteries for a ¼ to a ⅓ of the price.

If you are not planning on having full 4c air fitted it's worth having the uprated front springs as they fit VB.

For an inverter and electric upgrades you are better off contacting RogerIvy or nigelivy at Off Grid Power Solutions.

 

[cliffanger]

Our carpets are in the loft and will only come down when we sell the van. We use the striped office type strips - they are hard wearing, easy to vacuum and clean and don’t move.

Pack your own coffee machine if you really think it’s necessary.

There’s a wealth of advice on here about batteries and inverters. Cliff fitted his own as many on here have, so no need to buy what they’re offering.

I wish our van had leather upholstery, but only because our ‘suedette’ is cream - a totally ridiculous colour.

Perhaps that’s the good thing about buying ‘used’ - the choice is taken away!

 

[Lenny HB]

Wouldn't have central locking on a Carthago as ours on our Malibu drives me mad, locks all the doors one minute after you've opened it, have to make sure you have the keys on you at all times. Fiat problem not Carthago I suppose.

Agree, ours locks anything between 15 sec & 1 min completely random.
We leave the hab door open until it locks then only the cab door locks.

Spoken to dealer he said they can't do anything about it even though it says in the manual the relocking is disabled.
I've checked the Fiat setting and it's off, spoke to Fiat professional they say its a setting that they don't have access to only Carthago do.

I'm going to fit a switch on the hab door to disconnect the solenoid, so I can unlock then flip the switch and the hab door will remain unlocked.

 

[Northernraider]

We love island beds

Usually sacrifice a decent lounge to have one though unless going to 9 metre plus in length.

The focus for many seem to be the bedroom which most of the time your asleep. I prefer a decent comfortable lounge

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[Northernraider]

I've never bought a new van but i think if I did I wouldn't have any of the electric upgrades from the dealer or factory you can always fit better cheaper yourself.

I wouldn't bother with the fitted carpets either as removable hard wearing matts are much easier to keep clean and to replace. .

Coffee machine and inverter ....nope definitely not.

Leather , yes if its a sensible colour and decent quality . Not vegan leather ( plastic ) or white/cream/biege in colour


Silver paintwork is always a bit nicer than boring white I think but would depend on the cost ....and whether the plastics matched the rest of the body as I notice a lot of older vans that are silver or gold have multiple shades after a few years old. Burstner is really bad for it.

That said if you ever sell it the second or third owner may appreciate the extras they get free .

I do appreciate the many boxes the first owner ticked on my van when they ordered it.

 

[Pausim]

My Carthago didn’t have central locking on the hab door and frankly I never saw the need for it. We only ever used the one door and a key was not a great inconvenience, we always left the cab door locked. I did devise a rolled pad to prevent the hab door being locked by an accidental bump.

My Malibu Van has central locking and with 4 doors to lock this is very useful. It seems to be part of the standard Fiat fit and once a door has been opened I have not experienced any relocking.

 

[Northernraider]

My Flair has central locking but activated by turning a key rather than a fob , it's been unplugged by previous owner and I've not tried reconnecting it yet. Part of me thinks it would be handy as there are 10 locks on this not including the gas locker , cassette locker etc .. but all the external lockers have activators on them . But on the other hand I've heard stories of people being locked out the van.

And I like to have everything locked while driving etc .

 

[DandJ]

If I bought a new van and was looking at up-speccing it...I'd be 5% with a view to resale and 95% thinking about exactly how I want it. I can quite imagine a salesperson telling me that the £5k silver option will definitely retain its value come sale time.....only for a salesperson in 5 or 10 yrs time, come part ex time, telling me (thru sucked teeth) that "silver is Soooooo last year...no one will pay extra for it...sorry".

 

[cyberyacht]

The actual value of options versus non-options dwindles with time anyway. Put £10K of options on and the price differential between that and a basic will probably be no more than £1-2K. May improve its attractiveness to a purchaser but will hardly affect price.

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[G1969]

We were fortunate our van via previous owner had lots and lots of additional options. Plus a few we had changed/ added.

List below and would I spec if buying new.

Increase payload - yes
Sat dish and extra tel upgrade- yes
Hab locks- yes
Awning & light- yes - now upgraded to electric
Rif door- no(rfi) but door good and good lock
Gaslow - yes
Mifi- yes
Carthago inverter and coffee pack- no retrospective installed lithium and victron multiplus system
Garage floor Aluminium- yes
Garage shower- yes
Hab aircon- yes
Twin lens camera- yes
MB Mbx upgrade- yes
Oven- yes
Light/white cupboards- yes
Carpet- no only use one by door, rest in loft
5 seat belts- not currently but may come in for any future grandchildren
Sleep 5 - as above
Sliver- yes
Tow bar- not used but handy to have, again if want to put extra bike rack on
Extra sockets- yes
Spare wheel - yes
Mb adaptive cruise control- yes
Heated seats - no
Gas bbq point- yes
Phantom alarm and s5 tracker- yes
Alde heating exchanger- yes
Performance leather- yes

I think that is it.....

Still got extra solar to add yet and ceramic coating

 

[Bustup15]

If doors relock randomly, I would be hiding a spare key somewhere along the chassis with a magnetic mount. It's bound to happen when you forget to pick up a key!

 

[1090alex]

Wouldn't have central locking on a Carthago as ours on our Malibu drives me mad, locks all the doors one minute after you've opened it, have to make sure you have the keys on you at all times. Fiat problem not Carthago I suppose.

Your right, the auto central locking is absolutely ridiculous.
I've a Liner for Two. By the time I open the hab door to get out to go to the rear garage the central locking has locked all the doors. Unlock the central locking to get into the rear garage, by the time I close it again and go round to the other garage door it's locked again. Finally by the time you close the garage door and head back to the hab door to get back in the van it's locked again.
A hard learned lesson is double. double check you've got the keys before you get out of the van

 

[Pausim]

Your right, the auto central locking is absolutely ridiculous.
I've a Liner for Two. By the time I open the hab door to get out to go to the rear garage the central locking has locked all the doors. Unlock the central locking to get into the rear garage, by the time I close it again and go round to the other garage door it's locked again. Finally by the time you close the garage door and head back to the hab door to get back in the van it's locked again.
A hard learned lesson is double. double check you've got the keys before you get out of the van

I agree that is absolutely ridiculous. Re locking is only supposed to happen if no doors are opened.

 

[Jwats]

Your right, the auto central locking is absolutely ridiculous.
I've a Liner for Two. By the time I open the hab door to get out to go to the rear garage the central locking has locked all the doors. Unlock the central locking to get into the rear garage, by the time I close it again and go round to the other garage door it's locked again. Finally by the time you close the garage door and head back to the hab door to get back in the van it's locked again.
A hard learned lesson is double. double check you've got the keys before you get out of the van

There’s a patch for that, your dealer should be able to do it if you speak to them

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[LithiumConvert]

Good old Hymer - doesn't have central locking.

 

[enark]

Wouldn't have central locking on a Carthago as ours on our Malibu drives me mad, locks all the doors one minute after you've opened it, have to make sure you have the keys on you at all times. Fiat problem not Carthago I suppose.

Its easily fixable, dealer should be able to sort.

 

[Just us on Tour]

Your right, the auto central locking is absolutely ridiculous.
I've a Liner for Two. By the time I open the hab door to get out to go to the rear garage the central locking has locked all the doors. Unlock the central locking to get into the rear garage, by the time I close it again and go round to the other garage door it's locked again. Finally by the time you close the garage door and head back to the hab door to get back in the van it's locked again.
A hard learned lesson is double. double check you've got the keys before you get out of the van

Is this for the central locking option when you have the garage doors and lockers included . The cab and Hab door central locking comes as a standard feature on the fiat option . Does this play up ?

 

[MichaelT]

Is this for the central locking option when you have the garage doors and lockers included . The cab and Hab door central locking comes as a standard feature on the fiat option . Does this play up ?

It's not playing up its a fiat design. Just have to open hab or cab door until it locks then you're fine.

 

[Pausim]

It's not playing up its a fiat design. Just have to open hab or cab door until it locks then you're fine.

I have a Malibu Van which has Fiat central locking and doesn’t do anything daft. I certainly don’t have to open the cab door until it locks. Sorry I don’t think you can lay the blame for this on Fiat design because my unmodified Fiat central locking is working fine. From what has been said above it seems to be a Carthago thing and there is a patch available.

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[AdrianChen]

Good old Hymer - doesn't have central locking.

It has been fine on our current Iveco, and was on our previous Merc based one - handy feature!

 

[MichaelT]

I have a Malibu Van which has Fiat central locking and doesn’t do anything daft. I certainly don’t have to open the cab door until it locks. Sorry I don’t think you can lay the blame for this on Fiat design because my unmodified Fiat central locking is working fine. From what has been said above it seems to be a Carthago thing and there is a patch available.

What year is yours?

 

[BusyBuilder]

Buying....salesman will tell you whatever you want to hear for a sale
Selling.....salesman will tell you your particular motorhome is not a good seller

 

[G7UXG]

Awning & light- yes - now upgraded to electric

G1969 How easy/difficult was the electric motor upgrade please? Interested in doing the same.

 

[1090alex]

Is this for the central locking option when you have the garage doors and lockers included . The cab and Hab door central locking comes as a standard feature on the fiat option . Does this play up ?

On a Liner for Two the central locking works on every door except the gas locker and the toilet cassette locker

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[optimus-prime]

I see a lot of opinions about the coffee maker + inverter so I will also share mine, as it is different to others. When I ordered my liner-for-two (end of 2021), I did not want the coffee maker (as we don't use one) and I had doubts about the inverter, as it was too small. I had already ordered a lithium upgrade and solar from the dealer, and was trying to get a bigger inverter from them as well. But the dealer told me that the factory inverter is already wired to all the sockets (which it is) and if I wanted to order without one then the labour costs would be quite high. Also, the coffee maker + the inverter was at that time the same price as the inverter alone, so he advised me to order the package because at least I get an extra socket in the cupboard, and I can sell the coffee maker. While for the inverter he said that selling the factory fitted Dometic and ordering a bigger one would be cheaper than running the cables for a new install.
For now I'm still running the 1800W Dometic, I just need to make sure I run one big consumer at a time (we have a dishwasher and a washing machine)

 

[Lenny HB]

We are going Fiat . The only reason for this is we get more payload and an extra 120 kg on the train weight. I must admit we have had two Fiat MH so far and had no problems. What glitch did you have with your fiat if you don’t mind me asking ?

The new Fiat 2.2 is much better than than the old 2.3, smoother & quieter very pleased with ours. With Carthago you get the 180bhp and auto box as standard. You will probable get the new 8 speed box by the time it's delivered.

 

[G1969]

G1969 How easy/difficult was the electric motor upgrade please? Interested in doing the same.

I got the dealer to fit, they said it took 5 hours ? and I think they picked up the 240v supply from somewhere above the fridge- sorry I can’t be more help

 

[Just us on Tour]

The new Fiat 2.2 is much better than than the old 2.3, smoother & quieter very pleased with ours. With Carthago you get the 180bhp and auto box as standard. You will probable get the new 8 speed box by the time it's delivered.

Hi Lenny
Thank you that’s good to know . Yes it will be a series 10 with the new 8 speed auto . I am always a little nervous about ordering something that has not been tried and tested . I have been delighted with my 9 speed auto so let’s just hope the 8 speed is as good.
Mind you , our dealer does not expect to see ours arrive in the UK until the middle of next year !

 

[Pausim]

What year is yours?

2024 Series 9.

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[1090alex]

I see a lot of opinions about the coffee maker + inverter so I will also share mine, as it is different to others. When I ordered my liner-for-two (end of 2021), I did not want the coffee maker (as we don't use one) and I had doubts about the inverter, as it was too small. I had already ordered a lithium upgrade and solar from the dealer, and was trying to get a bigger inverter from them as well. But the dealer told me that the factory inverter is already wired to all the sockets (which it is) and if I wanted to order without one then the labour costs would be quite high. Also, the coffee maker + the inverter was at that time the same price as the inverter alone, so he advised me to order the package because at least I get an extra socket in the cupboard, and I can sell the coffee maker. While for the inverter he said that selling the factory fitted Dometic and ordering a bigger one would be cheaper than running the cables for a new install.
For now I'm still running the 1800W Dometic, I just need to make sure I run one big consumer at a time (we have a dishwasher and a washing machine)

Hi,
I've a Liner for Two which I bought in 2022 from a dealer already fitted with a coffee machine and inverter.
Just wondered if you'd had any issues with the inverter.