We ordered our 542GT 60th Edition from Automotive Leisure in July 2017 and we took delivery end of April this year , at time of order we were told it would be about nine months and it was bang on.
We love it

Is there a definitive options list somewhere? Or a build page?

We ordered at the NEC show in Nov and got it late May. It was a little late as it failed the quality test in the factory apparently, with scratches on 2 windows - shame they didn’t notice the defective pan drawer! This is a typical wait and was the same when we ordered our Triton new in 2014. You might find an in stock one you can buy, esp at the end of the season but you won’t be able to have build options like upgrading the boiler.

The 535 comes with just gas boiler as standard. You get it whether you want it or not and you can’t have an electric only one. All you can do is select the combi4e dual fuel instead, which has electric elements that you cannot retro fit onto the gas only boiler that comes as standard. The cost is high at £500. If we spent just a few weeks a year in the van we wouldn’t have bothered but we spend like 4/5 months a year in it (well, if we just spent a few weeks a year touring we would have kept the Triton!).

I contacted Auotomotive Leisure and Cameron sent us a brochure and options list with prices etc We then put together what we thought we needed and then went to see him A few things knocked off and he suggested others which was a great help and we finally agreed on what we needed and ordered.
He was very good .

The options we added to our GT model were:

Mover - we had AL’s fit as that was their offer with a new van at the time, a free mover. The factory one is expensive.
Upgrading the boiler to gas and electric - £500
Factory fit Thule ormistor awning - £1000
Seat fabric upgrade - £250

If you don’t take a GT you won’t get sprung cushions on the rear bed, door bin, stone guard, upgraded chassis erm...trying to think of any others.

Other options include extra plugs, 3 burner hob, erm ..... larger water tank possibly? (535 is 35 litres standard). I’ll dig out the paperwork and see what else there is, that AL offered anyway.

AL is that the lot up at Tebay

Confusingly when Airstream UK in Tebay lost the Airstream franchise and changed their name, they chose, 'Adventure Leisure'. However Automotive Leisure in Bournemouth have been selling Tourings for decades and took over the main English Touring franchise circa 2009, when Eriba UK packed up. They are what's generally referred to as AL and Tebay as AdvL.

Lowdhams sold a few Tourings and still do, but Hymer have widened their network over recent years and Becks in Norfolk as well as Travelworld in Telford have also joined the party. Not forgetting Jandi in Scotland.

AL options (prices may now be different)

63624548-E707-4D77-9FAA-73C476055B06.jpeg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

047D5B41-5BDD-4C7A-B117-244CE37EC21D.jpeg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Whoops, sorry they are upside down!

AL then told me that they would not have any more 535GT in till October 2019!

Well, a lot of the options will have few people opting for them, like the door bin and the alloys, which is why they wrapped up in the GT package. It's all a choice and, at the end of the day, will determined by budget. If we didn't use our van as often as we do, we would have a far more basic van, in fact we wouldn't have replaced our Triton. The factory fitted awning and the boiler upgrade were eyewateringly expensive but will allow us to get greater use and comfort from the new van, and we use it a lot.

I do think things will change over the coming years. We had a discussion the other night about the proliferation of motorhomes in recent years. We think that as final salary pensions with lump sums disappear, along with public sector pension lump sum and redundancy payouts and more parents having to help finance housebuying for all their children, there will be less capital available for the over 55's to spend on vastly expensive motorhomes. Added to that is the changes in the driving licence preventing younger people from easily driving them. Maybe this will affect premium caravans like the Eriba tourings - when I say premium I refer to the price versus what you get rather than the quality. Who knows, but I am gobsmacked at just how many £75,000+ motorhomes are on the roads now!

Sorry, a bit off topic!!

Hi Adventure Ted - an exciting time ahead.

Re #4 above we ordered our Troll 540GT with lots of extras (including the gas & electric hot water system) through AL in October. It was scheduled for a late May delivery but there were delays at Hymer and it didn't arrive in the UK until late July.

The dual fuel boiler was a factory fit with the larger water tank but Hymer neglected to put in a return water valve so it didn't work properly until this was rectified, we just thought we were doing something wrong.

AL fitted our motor mover as part of the deal with them, although we paid a bit extra for a different model to be fitted. Wouldn't live without it as Troll is heavier than you think to move manually.

There have been lots of discussions on the Forum re fixed beds or not. You pay your money and take your choice. We are so pleased we didn't go with the fixed bed and chose the multi-function bed option that gives us so much more flexibility, and can turn into the size of a fixed double in a few minutes.

Just noticed that you have been dealing with Cameron at AL. We dealt with him with our 540GT and have to say that he was brilliant with us and made some interesting and useful suggestions that got us thinking. When we collected the van he spent an age with us ensuring that we understood everything. (I have memory difficulties that got in the way)

MikeT