Dethleffs "Sunlight" subsidiary - any experiences?

[Peli]

Hello all. We're looking at a Dethleffs Sunlight later today and wondered if anyone had experience of this Dethleffs subsidiary?

We're looking for German-made, as "winterised" as possible (as far as that term can be considered a useful one!) as we'll be living in it 11 months out of 12.

This one is on for £55k, 2019 plate, 24k miles.

Any experiences very welcome! TIA.

 

[SeanF1]

We have a Sunlight T60. Absolutely love it. Have used it loads in winter and it is certainly more than adequately insulated. Would highly recommend Sunlight

 

[Peli]

That's only 9k a year.

This is true. I was under the impression that was quite high for a motorhome, but as I'm new to this it's hard to know. It has a solid MOT history and looks very well maintained. Apparently it's not sold sooner as people are put off LHD... wonder if that is the case?

 

[Peli]

Hi Peli. We moved from a Swift Champagne 614 (Brownhills Edge special I think) which was a basic van with a manual drop down bed. We had it for 3 years and whilst we enjoyed it there were limitations in layout... Always is in your first van. Our biggest gripe was making lower bed up for night and then banging head on the cupboards at night that were attached to the drop down bed that was a real pain to get in and out of... My better half found a Sunlight T68 XV at Lowdhams by accident and because its got the two very large single beds at the back we decided that was the way forward. Bought it before we left the shop because we liked the quality and it did not rattle when test driven. This was just after covid restrictions eased proper last year. It was 8 months old and 5k on the clock - it cost £55k same as a new one st that time but no waiting.... glad I made that decision now! They did add solar and rear view/reversing camera though. Also transfered by gas setup over.

We love this van. It is rock solid, build quality is great and no rattles which is night and day to the Swift- but you dont know that until you have tried both. Bed is always made up when we decide enough is enough, kitchen is great, stainless steel sink and cooker, great ventilation, massive garage. Sat TV too. 140bhp 9 speed auto so driving is so much easier than the earlier Fiat Box but that is Fiat not sunlight...
In summary Sunlight seem to have economy with quality quite well nailed. For our budget this has been ideal... now that said, the exact same van on same reg (XV special edition) is in Brownhills this year, admittedly under 1k miles, but now a year older and it is sat at 66k I think! I bet it sells too! Good luck with what you buy though...

Hi ColwynC ! Nice to meet you. Thanks, your post is so helpful. We were impressed with the Sunlights though haven't test driven one yet. Shame about the inflated prices (for us, ha!). Not the best time for us to be buying a van, but needs must.

 

[Peli]

We have a Sunlight T60. Absolutely love it. Have used it loads in winter and it is certainly more than adequately insulated. Would highly recommend Sunlight

Thanks SeanF1 Sunlight do seem to have a lot of fans. A dealer of Chausson recommended Sunlight to me over the Chausson I was looking at, the other day. He said he could be much more frank these days, as there are so many buyers out there!

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[Guffy60]

Not sure how old the advert is, I did search last month there is a 2018 T68 twin beds, for sale on the caravan club site for £40k

 

[Lenny HB]

This is true. I was under the impression that was quite high for a motorhome, but as I'm new to this it's hard to know. It has a solid MOT history and looks very well maintained. Apparently it's not sold sooner as people are put off LHD... wonder if that is the case?

Younger people with Motorhomes often do lower mileages but on here a lot of Funsters are retired and do far higher mileages.
The danger of low mileage vans is they gave often been left sitting around for months at a time which is far more harmful than using them.
A Class vans tend to do higher mileages & LHD drive never a problem with them.
We only buy LHD.

 

[Dutch 68]

I had a question about mileage, if I may, as we have seen a tempting 2014 Burstner at £43k which looks like it would work well for us. However, it has 75k miles on the clock which seems high for an 8-year-old Motorhome. (Our Ford Transit campervan is the same age and same mileage, but we use it as our daily vehicle as well as our camper and it was used as a commercial vehicle before we converted it.)
Does anyone have advice about how to regard high mileage in a used motorhome? We plan to have a habitation check and a check under the chassis and bonnet by a mechanic before purchase, but any advice is welcome.

Not high at all, should do a few hundred thousand as a minimum, much better then a van with very low mileage, nothing is worse then not being used for a vehicle

 

[gpat]

Hi Peli. We moved from a Swift Champagne 614 (Brownhills Edge special I think) which was a basic van with a manual drop down bed. We had it for 3 years and whilst we enjoyed it there were limitations in layout... Always is in your first van. Our biggest gripe was making lower bed up for night and then banging head on the cupboards at night that were attached to the drop down bed that was a real pain to get in and out of... My better half found a Sunlight T68 XV at Lowdhams by accident and because its got the two very large single beds at the back we decided that was the way forward. Bought it before we left the shop because we liked the quality and it did not rattle when test driven. This was just after covid restrictions eased proper last year. It was 8 months old and 5k on the clock - it cost £55k same as a new one st that time but no waiting.... glad I made that decision now! They did add solar and rear view/reversing camera though. Also transfered by gas setup over.

We love this van. It is rock solid, build quality is great and no rattles which is night and day to the Swift- but you dont know that until you have tried both. Bed is always made up when we decide enough is enough, kitchen is great, stainless steel sink and cooker, great ventilation, massive garage. Sat TV too. 140bhp 9 speed auto so driving is so much easier than the earlier Fiat Box but that is Fiat not sunlight...
In summary Sunlight seem to have economy with quality quite well nailed. For our budget this has been ideal... now that said, the exact same van on same reg (XV special edition) is in Brownhills this year, admittedly under 1k miles, but now a year older and it is sat at 66k I think! I bet it sells too! Good luck with what you buy though...

We moved from a benimar to our Carado. Night and day is a good description. The benimar used to rattle and squeak like crazy. I used to feel worn out after a journey. I have said it on here before but the Carado is silent on the road. Only our own bottles and cups rattle. I couldn't believe the difference. After 4 years its just the same.

In summary I would say the differences are

Hymer vs Sunlight/Carado - Same build quality (screwed together well) but Hymer has much better and posher materials and a higher spec generally

Carado vs Sunlight - The Sunlights are like Carados but with the contrast knob set higher (brighter colours inside and out)

 

[pagey]

had mine for 5 years now and still solid only problem ive had was the thetford fridge

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[Dutch 68]

This is true. I was under the impression that was quite high for a motorhome, but as I'm new to this it's hard to know. It has a solid MOT history and looks very well maintained. Apparently it's not sold sooner as people are put off LHD... wonder if that is the case?

Love LHD, way to go

 

[huck999]

If you are interested in LHD dont forget the german equivilant of autotrader Autoline24

Our van is LHD. Much better for continental driving. Only drawback in UK is t-junctions where you really need a co-pilot to tell you if road is clear, but even that is overcome with a blind spot camera.

If you fancy a nice day trip in this lovely weather, I suggest a trip to DICAR. (What3Words - disables.cashiers.masses ) Hundreds of vans to look at and knowledgeable staff.
Even if you dont buy from them, the trip will enable you to compare many vans in a short time, easily rooting out the layouts that do not suit. They even have a cafe and seating area for when you get tired

 

[Peli]

You are all wonderful, thanks for the advice!

I know I started this thread about Sunlights but we have since got a bit obsessed with Burstners! Tomorrow we are going to look at a 2014 LHD Burstner Nexxo. The bed layout is not the most ideal for 6'4" hubby (rear island) but it's pretty big nonetheless, and for the price in the current market we are quite excited to see it. He of course learned to drive LHD in Denmark but has since had 20+ years of RHD in the UK so we shall see! We are also hoping to see a Burstner Nexxo T690.

huck999 nice tip about DICAR! We may well pop over to have a look. Thanks for letting me know about Autoline, too.

gpat we just missed out on a Carado recently! It was LHD and the perfect layout for us, with twin rear beds making a big king size. I will keep my eyes open for them as it did look fab.

This is a whole new world, but it's very fun.

 

[Dutch 68]

You are all wonderful, thanks for the advice!

I know I started this thread about Sunlights but we have since got a bit obsessed with Burstners! Tomorrow we are going to look at a 2014 LHD Burstner Nexxo. The bed layout is not the most ideal for 6'4" hubby (rear island) but it's pretty big nonetheless, and for the price in the current market we are quite excited to see it. He of course learned to drive LHD in Denmark but has since had 20+ years of RHD in the UK so we shall see! We are also hoping to see a Burstner Nexxo T690.

huck999 nice tip about DICAR! We may well pop over to have a look. Thanks for letting me know about Autoline, too.

gpat we just missed out on a Carado recently! It was LHD and the perfect layout for us, with twin rear beds making a big king size. I will keep my eyes open for them as it did look fab.

This is a whole new world, but it's very fun.

Did you look at Frankia’s they are quality, double floor, nice big garages ?

 

[Peli]

Did you look at Frankia’s they are quality, double floor, nice big garages ?

Hi Dutch 68 yes we've been looking at those, they do look quality. Outside our budget, unfortunately, as we want nothing older than 2014.