Consort Motorhomes Open Week Commencing 22nd October 2024

[Jim]

Consort Motorhomes has decided to skip the NEC show this year. Instead, they're focusing on inviting people to visit their factory, where you can meet the passionate owners, along with their dedicated team, and see the build process up close. They believe this experience will be far more engaging than a static stand at the NEC. They’re hopeful this was the right call, and I've promised Scot I’d help spread the word.

Personally, I’m excited to check out their new fixed bed models—something I've been encouraging them to create for years. If you're in the market for a panel van conversion, make sure to visit their open week and meet Scot and Jane in person.

 

[Otter Spotter]

Peter Vaughan on the utube channel MMM has done a factory tour this week, the vans look very good. Another utube couple ‘ life’s too short’ bought a brand new Consort a few months ago and they are loving it.

 

[Jim]

 

[carolyn]

We are absolutely loving ours. We are now in Vienna after our 6 weeks in Bulgaria and Romania. We then went into Serbia and Hungary. If those roads weren’t a challenge for a brand new motorhome then nothing was. Some were as bad as Turkey.

The build quality is incredible. The clever storage ideas are a reflection of the fact that Scot and Jane are true motorhomers. The kitchen is better than you get in vans far bigger. Even the shower isn’t bad. Yes there is a curtain but it’s only across the door so doesn’t wrap all around you.

We didn’t even have to wait long. Newbury Show til 1st August!

 

[Jim]

Look at the comment under the video from @broadpete on youtube. That sums up Scot and Jane's business model perfectly. Customer Service+

Scott and Jane used to own Vantage vans. My 13 year old vantage van has developed a slight drop on the ceiling. Chatting to Scott at a show, he offered to fix it for free.....on a 13 year old van built by a company they no longer own. Unbelievable customer service!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Nigel L]

We ordered our Oslo in Feb 22, a week prior to the NEC show. We decided to go up to the factory just for a look around, as we had heard that they were not attending the NEC, and ended up placing a deposit. We then went to the NEC show, and honestly couldn’t find anything that come anywhere near the quality and attention to detail that the Consort offer.
We are 2 years in now with our Oslo, and are still thrilled with it. Only a couple of small issues, which after contacting them, where invited up straight away and fixed whilst we waited. Those issues would have probably taken several weeks going through traditional dealers. Their customer service and back up is fantastic.
The only improvement we can see, is that they have now fitted new decals, which are a big improvement (imo). On the 6.3m vans the drivers side was left with a large plain white surface, so we filled ours in ourselves

 

[Jim]

We are 2 years in now with our Oslo, and are still thrilled with it. Only a couple of small issues, which after contacting them, where invited up straight away and fixed whilst we waited. Those issues would have probably taken several weeks going through traditional dealers. Their customer service and back up is fantastic.

Given this thread that's refreshing to read.

 

[Loribet]

I would fully recommend going to the factory open week as we did last year. Apart from Scot and Jane, everyone else present from Consort were the guys that build the vans, and the sense of pride they had in what they produce just shone through. Being able to see vans in their different build stages as well as the finished items really helped, resulting in us placing an order the week after. We have not regretted our decision for a moment.

 

[KeithGill]

We picked up our Reef in July this year having loved our 7.4m coach built from new. Having spent a lifetime in engineering our factory visit sold it for me. We ordered one on the day.
I’m really impressed with ‘Constance’. Her build quality and layout are excellent. Can only recommend a factory visit.

 

[DavidG58]

We are seriously considering a down size so this thread got my attention , looking on the website they do appear very white, there is or it appears used to be a grey option if you take the Fiat option

But really oddly just looking at used models for sale I couldn’t find a single van, auto trader don’t even show Consort in the drop down options and nothing on eBay

Website doesn’t show the fixed bed options yet, so think I will need to visit to satisfy my curiosity

Not having an auto option might rule it out for us though

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Lenny333]

We’ve had our Oslo for around 3 months now (as our first van) and cannot fault it.

It is absolutely brilliant

Scot and Jane were superb during the whole process of ordering, waiting and collection… I say waiting as we had to wait almost two years due to us wanting the Fiat 180hp Auto, of which I think I we got one of the last. The auto box was worth the wait though and were very glad we didn’t change to the manual which would have been available a lot sooner.

We had the factory tour a couple of years ago before they doubled the size of their factory but had another quick look in July when we collected and it is an impressive set up.

I’m intrigued with their new fixed bed set up and am looking forward to seeing some pictures but I don’t think we’d want to swap as the cosy rear lounge layout works fantastically for us.

As a lot of people have said, if you’re looking for a van conversion, have a look at Consort as their vans and (importantly) customer service is second to none IMHO.

 

[Jim]

I monitor a few websites using a service that lets me know when a website changes. I recently got a ping that the Consort Website has changed. I've been busy at the NEC and only just got around to taking a look. Nice new home page, but it was the addition to the models page had got my interest.

The new model with fixed beds now actually exists on the site - no photos yet, I suppose we'll have to wait for the open day for those

Who's going up the open week? Me and Siân will be there on Tuesday

 

[carolyn]

Have a great time. We’re just back from our 7 week tour. 5000 miles on the clock now. We’re knackered . Nick will be busy this week removing all the Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian etc mud.

The van has performed seamlessly. The Auto engine is lovely although that didn’t really get tested until back on decent roads! It says it’s now only available on the 4T. Interesting. Fine for you though.

Not sure if the layout is going to give you the big boot you need though? It will be interesting to see.

 

[Grianan]

Have a great time. We’re just back from our 7 week tour. 5000 miles on the clock now. We’re knackered . Nick will be busy this week removing all the Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian etc mud.

The van has performed seamlessly. The Auto engine is lovely although that didn’t really get tested until back on decent roads! It says it’s now only available on the 4T. Interesting. Fine for you though.

Not sure if the layout is going to give you the big boot you need though? It will be interesting to see.

I’m interested … do you have the Reef or the Oslo or something else? How comfy is the bed? Do you find there’s enough storage for a longer trip?
We always said we’d not go back to make up beds after the caravan but I’m now wondering if the trade off with a bigger lounge is worth it.
I’m also not sold on a cooker as we’re used to just a 2 burner on the continental vans.

 

[carolyn]

I’m interested … do you have the Reef or the Oslo or something else? How comfy is the bed? Do you find there’s enough storage for a longer trip?
We always said we’d not go back to make up beds after the caravan but I’m now wondering if the trade off with a bigger lounge is worth it.
I’m also not sold on a cooker as we’re used to just a 2 burner on the continental vans.

I thought I must have already bored everyone rigid singing the praises of our Consort Oslo! We collected it on 1st of August and the headed off on the 26th August. We mainly tried it out on the drive as we had our daughters’s wedding on the 10th. Mad I know.

It’s a U shaped lounge which we make up into a massive king sized bed. You can leave it as 2 singles but we haven’t reached that stage yet! It’s very easy, much easier than our IH. Well under 5 mins with all the bedding. It is quite firm and I did get a Silentnight mattress topper from Argos. Only a cheap one and that has worked well. We hated our expensive Memoryfoam one from years ago.

There is a small oven/grill combo with 3 rings. We went for the Lithium pack as it has a Compressor fridge. I notice a 105a lithium is now standard. We have a Roamer 240 under the drivers seat.

I do like my Remoska. I got a bit carried away and bought a Vango Sizzle single induction hob which I used quite a bit on the inverter as well. It’s a 1000w inverter.

We have the 90L fridge although 140L is standard for the Oslo. We wanted the bigger cupboard.

The storage is much better than the IH. Really well thought out. I thought Scot was joking when he said he’d designed the boot around the Dukdalf chairs. He wasn’t. It’s so great to have comfy chairs at last. Under one of the bench seats we had quilts, 4pillows, mattress toppers, 2 spare sets of bedding plus towels. The other side has some heating pipes so you can’t put bedding in it but there’s plenty of room for a few bits of stuff like tools that don’t mind getting warm. Obviously with plenty of room for airflow.

There’s a big wardrobe that we had shelved plus overhead cupboards all around the lounge area. You can have a hanging bit but I don’t do ironing so fold neatly.

We have an extra solar panel. We chose the diesel heating option, future proofing plus we’re going to Iceland next year.

We were mainly on hookup on our tour but we tested out our lithium set up by not bothering with it to see how it coped. It was great. It was just us when after 3 day of poor weather off hookup the battery had gone down to 68% !! It takes some getting used to. Daft I know.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[yorkiebar]

Yes, 105Ah lithium, b2b and MPPT solar all now standard. Previously Consort were using a split-charge relay and el cheapo PWM solar controller. Good to see they've got with the programme!

 

[Grianan]

I thought I must have already bored everyone rigid singing the praises of our Consort Oslo! We collected it on 1st of August and the headed off on the 26th August. We mainly tried it out on the drive as we had our daughters’s wedding on the 10th. Mad I know.

It’s a U shaped lounge which we make up into a massive king sized bed. You can leave it as 2 singles but we haven’t reached that stage yet! It’s very easy, much easier than our IH. Well under 5 mins with all the bedding. It is quite firm and I did get a Silentnight mattress topper from Argos. Only a cheap one and that has worked well. We hated our expensive Memoryfoam one from years ago.

There is a small oven/grill combo with 3 rings. We went for the Lithium pack as it has a Compressor fridge. I notice a 105a lithium is now standard. We have a Roamer 240 under the drivers seat.

I do like my Remoska. I got a bit carried away and bought a Vango Sizzle single induction hob which I used quite a bit on the inverter as well. It’s a 1000w inverter.

We have the 90L fridge although 140L is standard for the Oslo. We wanted the bigger cupboard.

The storage is much better than the IH. Really well thought out. I thought Scot was joking when he said he’d designed the boot around the Dukdalf chairs. He wasn’t. It’s so great to have comfy chairs at last. Under one of the bench seats we had quilts, 4pillows, mattress toppers, 2 spare sets of bedding plus towels. The other side has some heating pipes so you can’t put bedding in it but there’s plenty of room for a few bits of stuff like tools that don’t mind getting warm. Obviously with plenty of room for airflow.

There’s a big wardrobe that we had shelved plus overhead cupboards all around the lounge area. You can have a hanging bit but I don’t do ironing so fold neatly.

We have an extra solar panel. We chose the diesel heating option, future proofing plus we’re going to Iceland next year.

We were mainly on hookup on our tour but we tested out our lithium set up by not bothering with it to see how it coped. It was great. It was just us when after 3 day of poor weather off hookup the battery had gone down to 68% !! It takes some getting used to. Daft I know.

Thanks for this I’ll search your old posts too - we have shelved the wardrobe under our fridge in the Campscout - being non-ironers as well it makes sense.

 

[Lenny333]

We have an Oslo as well and absolutely love it.

We had the hanging rail fitted in the wardrobe but also have the shelf pieces and the fitting blocks on either side so we can slide the shelves in when we want shelves and take them out when we want to hang… best of both worlds

 

[carolyn]

We have an Oslo as well and absolutely love it.

We had the hanging rail fitted in the wardrobe but also have the shelf pieces and the fitting blocks on either side so we can slide the shelves in when we want shelves and take them out when we want to hang… best of both worlds

Ooh I’m jealous! Just on the off chance I wanted to take my ballgown and Nick’s suit off somewhere. Not that I actually have a ballgown but you never know.

 

[steve 6644]

That looks a bloody good van

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}