Mercedes-Benz V-Class vs Jayco Hawk

What's the difference?

The Mercedes-Benz V-Class, and in particular the Mercedes-Benz V220d, lives up to the notion of a luxury people-mover – for the most part. The leaking door is a concern, but may be confined to this vehicle only.

But in most every other way it has the whole prestige bus thing sorted. There is no denying that a more affordable van from a less, shall we say, desirable brand would do just as good a job.

But if you need to be seen to be offering the most luxurious people-mover you can buy in Australia, then you really ought to be looking at the V-Class…. just maybe go for the V250d, if the budget can stretch that far.

The Jayco Hawk Outback is a solid, feature-packed camper-trailer without being flash about it. It looks good – checker plate is always a nice touch – and it is easy to tow and set up. Sure, it may not be as gung-ho an off-road unit as its name suggests, but it is more than capable of handling gravel or dirt tracks on the way to your campsite and will be a comfortable camper when you actually arrive there.

With the optional eight-seat setup, it’d be hard to think of this van as impractical. And if you consider that it also has a boot capacity of 1030L in its most downsized form (and 4630L with the rear seats removed), any argument seems null and void.

The fact the boot is electrically operated, and that it has a separate tailgate glass opening section, and that you can open the boot using the keyfob – not to mention the kerbside door – just adds to the pragmatic appeal of this van.

The six rear seat backs can all be flattened down, and you can tumble them forward, too – the kerbside seats in a one-by-one motion, the driver’s side ones tumble two-at-a-time. It takes a bit of muscle to do those ones.

Essentially you can set it up as a parcel van if you want, or even as a mobile office – the rear seats can be configured to face each other, in ‘conference’ style. But you need to know that this isn’t an easy process, and once you’ve got it set how you want it, you’ll probably end up just leaving it as is.

Loose-item storage isn’t great, but at least the door pockets are large enough for some bottles and documents.

No matter which way you like it, those in the back will have good ventilation (it has a three-zone climate control system with a separate fan controller in the back above the second-row seats), and a decent amount of space. Crucially, there are no cup or bottle-holders, nor any loose item storage in the back two rows – there are mesh nets on the backrests of the very front seats, but that’s it.

If you plan to use this as a mover of smaller people, the V-Class’s child-seat anchor-point game will not disappoint. It has four ISOFIX anchors (two in each row) and six top tether points – yep, every spot in the back!

Up front there’s a problem with the cup-holder situation, too – there are two, but they’re way down on the floor, meaning it’s hard to access your cuppa on the move. In fact, loose-item storage isn’t great, but at least the door pockets are large enough for some bottles and documents. There’s a sunglass holder, too. The little media screen is a bit disappointing in its size, and the Comand controller codpiece that juts out from the centre console can take some getting used to.

Connecting and reconnecting a phone isn’t too difficult (although you have to pair audio streaming separately to phone streaming – which is weird), and there’s no extended smartphone capability such as Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Using the navigation system is very simple, but the graphics are extremely aftermarket looking – that’s no bad thing, because Benz’s maps always looked a bit 1990s, but these ones are somewhat cartoonish.

Jayco camper-trailers have a nice touring-friendly floor-plan but where the Hawk Outback deviates from the line-up norm is that its kitchen is positioned to the left of the door as you step inside, rather than in front and to the right of you as you step inside on other models.

The interior height tops out at 2070mm high – pretty standard for these campers – and inside is roomy enough not to feel like a confined space, although it will get squeezy if all four adults and two kids are in here and milling about at the same time.

Looking from the door, to the left is the four-burner stove, then, as you look to the front, the extended lift-up bed and storage, and, swiveling to your right, the Dometic 95-litre fridge (Touring models get the 90-litre fridge), then stainless-steel sink, dinette seat, table, club lounge, double bed, then TV cabinet.

Drawers are all Ezi glide pull-out style. The pop-in/pop-out button on each handle – to lock it in place and unlock it – is generally a good system but can be prone to becoming fiddly, even sticking. This is a minor problem and can be found in many campers with a similar mechanism on their drawers.

Interior lighting includes overhead LEDs for the main area and reading lights for the beds. There’s a fan for the beds.

My drive saw me chauffeur my partner and our dog down to Cooma, where we then took my parents down the coast. We put the V-Class’s flexible seating to the test, as we had to buy a massive bathtub and bring it back with us. This proved that, although this thing is a luxury van, it can also be a hugely practical delivery van.

The comfort on offer was perhaps the biggest advantage for my passengers – with superb suspension composure, ride comfort and body control, the V-Class is like a big boxy limousine.

It won’t set your heart racing in corners as there’s quite a lot of body roll to contend with, but the steering is direct and very nicely weighted, making for easy progress whether you’re piloting it down a mountain pass or dealing with roundabouts or parking lots. The turning circle is small, which in turn makes the van feel smaller than it actually is.

The brakes can feel a little numb underfoot, meaning you might find yourself pushing a little harder on the pedal than you think you ought to. The response is good, though, even with weight on board.

The extra, effortless grunt of the V250d would be advantageous.

What was a little surprising was a lack of torque at higher speeds for overtaking moves. On a slightly sloping country back road with four adults on board, I expected there to be well and truly enough for a quick overtaking move – but the drivetrain didn’t quite have the grunt to get the job done. At least, not in the Comfort drive mode.

By using the ‘Dynamic’ drive selector and choosing Sport mode, there was extra push on offer – the gearing changed, and so did the throttle response – and that made overtaking moves a little easier. But still, the extra, effortless grunt of the V250d would be advantageous, and I know I wouldn’t like having to play with the drive-mode switch every time I overtook. Just leave it in Sport mode? You’ll pay the price on fuel use. 

Around town the seven-speed auto went about its job really well, offering smooth shifts in all situations. The transmission can clunk when you engage park or shift to reverse, though, which isn’t overly premium, and there is some turbo lag that you’ll have to remember when you prepare to take off from traffic lights. Another thing that didn’t necessarily persuade my passengers of the premiumness on offer was the fact that the kerbside door leaked when it was raining. Not good.

Because of its compact size – especially relative to caravans which are, by their very nature, generally bigger and bulkier than camper-trailers – the Hawk Outback is a very easy thing tow as it sits low and stable on all surfaces and well within the confines of even narrower bush tracks.

The single-axle camper – 5060mm long (including drawbar), 1910mm high, 2240mm wide, and with a 1285kg tare weight – hardly registered behind our tow vehicle, a 2019 Ford Everest, with the new 2.0-litre four-cylinder bi-turbo-diesel engine (157kW/500Nm).

It always felt secure on the towball (with a 145kg download) during highway, gravel track and undulating dirt-road driving.

The Hawk Outback, like other Outbacks, has a hot dip galvanised Endurance chassis on Jayco’s JTech coil-spring suspension set-up. (Note: Jayco’s Outback models are designed and engineered for, at worst, dirt roads and gravel roads, not 4WD tracks. They are not built for hard-core off-roading.)

Another bonus: visibility is clear and open along both of its sides and even over the top – no need for towing mirrors here.