Mobility with Attitude – Million-dollar motorhomes and classy caravans of the 2018 Caravan Salon

“Most expensive” does not always mean “most impressive,” but we’d say the two matched up pretty closely at this year’s Caravan Salon. With its stretched bodywork and near-full length expansion slide-out, the Volkner Performance S is a lavish jaw-dropper on its own. But slide a Porsche 911 GT2 RS, the one-time Nürburgring champion, into the slide-out garage betwixt its axles, and you have one of the most memorable vehicles of the show.

The €1.47-million (approx. US $1.7-million) Volkner Mobil Performance S was the most expensive vehicle of Düsseldorf, according to a press document put out by the show’s media department. We weren’t so happy about that fact when we first came upon it and its weighty sticker, since we had just spent some serious time photographing the €1.37-million ($1.6-million) Vario Mobil Perfect 1200 Platinum for this spot, prematurely naming it the price tag champion. But it didn’t take long for the spacious Volkner showcasing the world’s fastest 911 to win us over.

Beyond that, those customers will enjoy one of the most luxurious, comfortable vehicles to ever touch highway pavement, a 454-hp (339-kW) live-in bus with five separate heaters, air conditioning, 1,800 watts of solar power feeding a 1,800-Ah battery bank, an induction cooktop, oven, dishwasher, Dolby surround sound system, super-roomy floor plan opened up by that large wall-out, and plenty of other comforts and technologies you wouldn’t expect to find anywhere outside of a sprawling home.

Those willing to forego some of the Performance S’ optional luxuries can buy in at a base price of €989,000 (US$1.2 million), but we’ll bet the average Volkner customer isn’t looking for “entry level.”

We didn’t spend quite as much time looking at pricey, stretched caravans as we did other large camping vehicles, so we might have missed an even fancier show model than the Tabbert Cellini 750 HTD 2.5 Slide Out. But no matter how you look at it, this 33-ft (10-m) caravan brings some serious style and comfort.

Much like the Performance S, Tabbert’s flagship caravan features a near-full-side slide-out, creating a much roomier interior. The trailer’s exterior curves and edges are nearly as smooth and sleek as Bürstner’s Harmony 3, but the Cellini Slide Out is a production camper available for purchase. Run the €96,862 show model price tag through the conversion calculator and it easily leaps into six-figure territory at $112,570 … without a powertrain or driver cab.

The Swiss-designed Starliner by Mauer SL 20 Desert Falcon was one of those compact, neatly integrated small motorhomes you could easily mistake for a camper van – in this case, a 6×6 off-road camper van. We’re used to seeing six-wheelers in the off-road expedition vehicle market, but usually they’re big boxes on top of military truck chassis. We did a legit double-take at this fiberglass plus-size camper van with dual axles at the back and bull bar up front. It’s a very different look compared with other camper vans and expedition vehicles we’ve seen.