Atom Core 600 G vs Swift Merlin 174 and Elddis Whirlwind GTV 560: singles over a garage for under £62,000

The Atom Core 600 G is the cheapest campervan Atom sells, and it is also the one with the most practical layout for anyone who tours with bikes, boards or a lot of kit: two single beds at the back, sitting over a proper garage. At £61,940 on the road it undercuts its closest like-for-like rival, and a sale price of £59,995 takes it under £60,000. But cheap only matters if the van suits how you travel. So here is the Core 600 G measured against the two vans a buyer with this budget is most likely to cross-shop, the Swift Merlin 174 and the Elddis Whirlwind GTV 560, plus a quick look at what a Crafter with singles costs elsewhere. All prices are as listed on the makers' own sites on 5 October 2026.

Atom in two lines

Atom is a new UK campervan brand, owned by the Trigano group according to Practical Motorhome, which builds two-berth conversions on the Volkswagen Crafter and sells them directly to customers rather than through dealers. The range has two layouts, the rear-lounge 600 B and the beds-over-garage 600 G, each in a lower-spec Core trim and a higher-spec Element trim.

What £61,940 actually buys

Atom quotes the Core 600 G at £61,495 plus £445 of on-the-road charges, which gives the £61,940 figure. The sale price of £59,995 was live when we checked, though sale prices come and go, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a promise.

The base vehicle is a VW Crafter with the 140 PS diesel and a six-speed manual gearbox, plated at 3,500 kg so it is fine on a standard car licence. It is 5.986 m long and 2.04 m wide, which is the Crafter's own steel body, because this is a panel van conversion rather than a coachbuilt with a wider habitation box. In practice it is no wider than a large SUV across the body, though the mirrors add to that, and at about 6 m it is longer than a standard parking bay.

Standard kit, as listed by Atom:

• Truma Combi Neo 4E for heating and hot water, which runs on gas and can also use mains electric when you are hooked up
• 70 L compressor fridge
• Two-burner hob with an oven and grill, which is not a given at this price
• Separate washroom with shower and toilet
• 200 W solar panel on the roof
• Tracker fitted from new
• 10-inch touchscreen with DAB+ radio
• 95Ah AGM leisure battery, as reported by Practical Motorhome

The weak spot in that list is the battery. A single 95Ah AGM is enough for lights, the water pump, phone charging and the heater fan for a night or two off grid, helped by the solar, but it will not run a lot of 12 V gear for long, and there is no inverter as standard. Atom's answer is a 340Ah lithium upgrade for £899, which we come back to below, because it changes the value equation quite a lot.

The layout: two singles over a garage

The 600 G puts two single beds lengthways at the back of the van, one each side, with a gap between them. Under each bed is storage you reach from inside, and beneath the whole bed platform is the garage, accessed through the rear doors. Atom describes it as a large garage for bikes and kit, and on a 6 m high-roof van that is realistic. This is the layout people choose when the bikes travel inside rather than on a rack, or when the surfboards, wetsuits, walking boots and folding chairs all need a home that is not the living area.

One honest caveat. Atom has not published the bed lengths, bed widths or garage dimensions. Rear singles in a 6 m panel van are usually long enough for average adults, but a tall sleeper should lie on them before signing anything, and if you plan to stand two bikes upright in the garage you need a tape measure, not a brochure. Ask Atom directly, or see the van at its showroom near Hull.

Atom has not published a detailed floor plan for the front of the van either, so check how the lounge and table work when you see it. The other thing to be clear about: the Core 600 G carries two people. Two belted seats, two berths. That is the whole brief, and it is why the interior can give so much space to the beds and the garage. If you ever need to carry a third person, this is not your van, and both rivals below differ on exactly this point.

Singles versus a transverse double, honestly

Buyers compare these layouts on paper and tend to assume singles are the premium choice. It is more nuanced than that.

Why singles win

• Each person gets in and out of bed without climbing over the other, which matters more as the years go on and the night-time trips to the loo get more frequent.
• Bed length is set by the van's length, not its width, so singles are usually longer than a transverse double.
• Two people who sleep at different times, or who simply like their own duvet, get on better.
• In the daytime the two beds work as two sofas with a walkway between them, so the rear becomes a second seating area.

Why a transverse double wins

• It takes less floor length, which frees space for a bigger kitchen or a second seating area up front. That is exactly how the Elddis Whirlwind GTV 560 fits four seats and a lounge into a van the same length.
• Couples who want to sleep together do not have to buy an infill cushion to bridge the gap.

The trade-off is the climb. On a transverse double the person at the back of the van has to clamber over the person at the door side, every time. And the bed's length is limited by the width of the van. Elddis quotes 197 cm for the Whirlwind, which is comfortable for most people but tight for anyone around six foot three or taller.

If you are a couple in your fifties or beyond and you tour for weeks at a time, singles are the layout you will thank yourself for. If you are a couple who sometimes takes a friend or a grown-up child, the transverse double with four seats is the one that still works.

Weight: 780 kg on paper, less once the garage is full

Atom lists the Core 600 G at 2,720 kg in running order against the 3,500 kg maximum, so roughly 780 kg of payload. For a 6 m panel van that is a good figure.

But a garage layout invites you to use it, and that is where the number drains away. Two electric bikes can be 50 kg together before you add locks, chargers and a floor-mounted rack. Full fresh water, a full gas locker, two people, food, clothes, a folding table and chairs, a barbecue and a toolkit are easily another 300 kg. Factory options shrink the margin further: an awning, a towbar and an automatic gearbox all add weight before you have packed a thing.

None of that makes the Atom unusual. It is the same arithmetic on every 3,500 kg van. The point is that 780 kg is the start of the conversation, not the end, and the sensible move with any garage van is to weigh it loaded on a public weighbridge before your first long trip.

Core 600 G against the rest of the Atom range

Core 600 B: £660 more for a rear lounge

The 600 B swaps the beds-over-garage for two facing benches at the rear, which make a sociable lounge by day and make up into beds at night. It costs £660 more than the 600 G. There is no garage, so bikes go on a rack and bulky kit lives wherever you can fit it. Choose the B if evenings in the van matter more than the gear you carry. Choose the G if the opposite is true.

Element 600 G: £6,320 more, and roughly what the options cost anyway

The Element 600 G is the same layout with a much richer standard spec. Atom lists a 340Ah lithium battery, a 3,000 W inverter, a roof rack, an awning, Wi-Fi, a reversing camera, LED headlights and alloy wheels. That bundle costs £6,320 over the Core. Ticking the equivalent options on a Core comes to about £7,000, so if you want most of that list, the Element is slightly cheaper and arrives with it all fitted. If you only want the lithium, the Core plus the £899 upgrade is the better deal by a long way.

The rivals

Swift Merlin 174: the closest layout, at £67,190

The Swift Merlin 174 is the van most buyers will put next to the Atom, because it shares the same core idea: rear single beds and a two-berth brief. Swift lists it at £67,190, on a Fiat Ducato with a 140 hp engine, and it comes with a 100Ah lithium battery as standard. Crucially for a fair comparison, it also comes with an automatic gearbox as standard, according to Swift's own material and dealer listings, whereas the Atom's VW automatic is a £2,628 option.

The differences that matter:

• Gearbox. Because the Swift is automatic as standard, the like-for-like Atom price is £64,568 once you add the automatic. That narrows the gap from £5,250 to £2,622. If you would only ever buy an automatic, that is the number to compare.
• Length. The Merlin is 6.36 m long against the Atom's 5.986 m. That extra 37 cm is useful inside, but it makes the Swift harder to place in tight lanes, on narrow campsite pitches and in car parks.
• Seats. The Merlin has four belted seats with a front dinette, so it can legally carry four people even though it sleeps two. For grandparents who collect the grandchildren, or couples who occasionally give a friend a lift, that is a real advantage the Atom cannot match.
• Battery. Swift's 100Ah lithium is better than the Atom's 95Ah AGM, because lithium gives you most of its rated capacity rather than about half. But an Atom with both the automatic and the £899 lithium upgrade has 340Ah of lithium and comes to £65,467, still £1,723 less than the Swift.

In short, at list price the Swift costs £5,250 more, but part of that is an automatic gearbox the Atom charges extra for. Compare them both as automatics and the Swift gives you a longer van and four seats for £2,622 more, while the Atom gives you a shorter, two-seat van and, once optioned, a far bigger battery for slightly less money.

Elddis Whirlwind GTV 560: cheaper, four seats, a double instead of singles

The Elddis Whirlwind GTV 560 is the budget benchmark. Elddis lists it at £55,527, on a Peugeot Boxer with the 140 hp engine and a manual gearbox, so it compares directly with the manual Atom. Elddis also offers an automatic option if you want one. It is around 6 m long, so it matches the Atom on parking. It also has a rear garage, but above it is a 197 cm transverse double rather than singles, and that saved floor length is how Elddis fits a four-seat lounge up front. Heating is a gas and electric system, and the leisure battery is a 95Ah AGM, the same chemistry and roughly the same size as the Atom's.

So the Whirlwind is £6,413 cheaper than the Atom at list price, carries four people, and still has the garage. What you give up is the single-bed layout and the climb-over-free nights that come with it, plus the Crafter base and the 200 W solar as standard. Whether that is worth £6,413 is entirely about how you sleep and whether you ever need the extra seats.

The Crafter premium: Eriba Car 602 at £74,510

If you specifically want a Crafter with rear singles, the Atom's pricing starts to look very sharp. The Eriba Car 602 is a Crafter-based campervan whose rear seating converts into two long single beds, and it is listed at £74,510. It has an 80Ah lithium battery as standard but no solar panel, where the Atom has 200 W on the roof from the factory. That is a £12,570 gap for single beds on the same base vehicle, though Eriba's are made up from the lounge each night rather than fixed over a garage. There will be differences in finish and detail that justify some of it to some buyers, but it is the clearest illustration of what Atom's direct-sales model is doing to the price.

Options worth ticking on the Core 600 G

The Atom options list is short and the prices are clear, which is refreshing. The ones most buyers should consider:

1. 340Ah lithium, £899. The best-value upgrade on the sheet. It turns an average electrical system into a strong one.
2. VW automatic, £2,628. Not cheap, but a 3.5-tonne van is a lot easier to live with on hills, in towns and in traffic with an automatic. Resale tends to favour it too, and it is what puts the Atom on equal terms with the Swift.
3. Awning, £1,095. A wind-out awning doubles your living space on a dry evening. Remember it adds weight and width.
4. Bike rack, £350. Odd on a garage van, but useful if the garage ends up full of other things, or if you want two bikes outside and the muddy kit inside.
5. Towbar, £810. Only if you genuinely tow or want a bike-carrier platform, because it eats payload and sticks out behind.

A Core 600 G with the lithium, the automatic and the awning comes to £66,562 on the road at the full price. That is still £628 under the Swift's list price, with an awning fitted and a battery more than three times the size.

What we still do not know

Three things Atom has not published that a careful buyer should ask for before ordering:

• Bed sizes. Length and width of each single, and whether an infill is available to make a double.
• Tank sizes. Fresh and waste water capacity decide how long you can stay off grid, and they affect payload too.
• Overall height. It is a high-roof van, so assume it will not go under a standard car-park height barrier, but you need the exact figure for ferries and for your own driveway.

Garage dimensions matter as well if bikes are the reason you are buying this layout.

Bottom line: who the Core 600 G suits

The Atom Core 600 G is the right van for a couple who tour for two, carry serious kit, and want single beds without paying Crafter-singles money. For £61,940 you get a 6 m van no wider than a big SUV, an oven and grill, a shower room, solar on the roof and a layout most people in this position would choose if money were no object. Add £899 for the lithium and it has one of the strongest electrical set-ups you will find on a two-berth below £70,000.

It is the wrong van if you ever need a third seat. The Swift Merlin 174 gives you four belts, a longer body and an automatic gearbox as standard, for £5,250 more at list price or £2,622 more against an automatic Atom. The Elddis Whirlwind GTV 560 gives you four belts, a garage and a transverse double for £6,413 less. Both make sense for different people, and neither is a bad choice. The Atom's case is simply that, for a two-person brief, it gives you more van per pound than either.

And if the two-seat limit is the only thing holding you back, it may be worth waiting. Practical Motorhome reports that Atom is looking at four-berth layouts for the future, which would fill the one obvious gap in the range.