We just spent the weekend with two couples who are old friends who both purchased new coaches in the past 8 months.
Couple #1: After months of research purchased their third m/h, 2005 Monaco 34' La Palma, $135,000 or so list price coach. Spent last fall making several frustrating trips to Monaco dealer here in the Puget Sound area, met with Monaco at FMCA last summer in Redmond who promised to get it fixed. They left last December to head south for the winter and spent the first 10 days at "Camp Monaco" in Coberg to supposedly resolve the outstanding issues at the factory.
Got back two weeks ago-over 50 squawks including three leaks (still), electronics that do not work, etc, etc, etc.
Are going to take the formation of parts down to Coberg again to see if it can be reassembled.
Couple #2: After spending almost a year our friends and neighbors decided against a used coach to make sure they didn't end up with "surprises" and purchased a $260,000 2005 40' Winnebago Vectra that they took delivery of in January. They did everything as right as I know how to, spent a almost a week at the dealer in Oregon getting familiar with the coach and having all issues resolved, first few trips were short weekend jaunts near home (some with us to learn the ropes) and finally after 41/2 months decided to head down to California for a few weeks including a Winnebago Rally in Hemet, CA.
They got home last Thursday and their story is nothing but a combination of horrors and comedy. Window frame taped in to keep it falling off the coach, inverter/charger inop. Cross members broken or loose on two slides, leaks, chassis battery goes dead in three days, instrument cluster went dead in LA, referred to local Freightliner (not an Oasis dealer) by local Winnebago dealer. Kept coach a week, would not let them stay in coach, ordered parts that got lost, ordered wrong part, and 7 days later when the "right" part showed up and did not fix the problem determined that it was a broken wire!
Both of these motorhomes are covered by warranty by reputable companies but who needs to spend that kind of money to be subjected to those experiences.
My wife and I have owned 6 used motorhomes over the past 30 years and I have done everything from dropping an engine 1000 from home with three kids to sitting on I-80 up on the mountain 15 miles west of Cheyenne in February
with a starter that would not disengage (again with three kids) and we still love the lifestyle and would not trade it for anything. The three year old Tradewinds we purchased with 11,000 miles has given us little trouble over the past year/7,000 miles. It will become our home here in a few months.
If our experiences had started out as the two examples above (and all the others we hear about because too much of the RV industry is striving for quantity at the expense of QC) I am not sure Sue and I would still be enthusiasts to the extent we are.
She has decided she NEVER wants to own a new coach!
Will they ever learn? ??? ??? ???
Couple #1: After months of research purchased their third m/h, 2005 Monaco 34' La Palma, $135,000 or so list price coach. Spent last fall making several frustrating trips to Monaco dealer here in the Puget Sound area, met with Monaco at FMCA last summer in Redmond who promised to get it fixed. They left last December to head south for the winter and spent the first 10 days at "Camp Monaco" in Coberg to supposedly resolve the outstanding issues at the factory.
Got back two weeks ago-over 50 squawks including three leaks (still), electronics that do not work, etc, etc, etc.
Are going to take the formation of parts down to Coberg again to see if it can be reassembled.
Couple #2: After spending almost a year our friends and neighbors decided against a used coach to make sure they didn't end up with "surprises" and purchased a $260,000 2005 40' Winnebago Vectra that they took delivery of in January. They did everything as right as I know how to, spent a almost a week at the dealer in Oregon getting familiar with the coach and having all issues resolved, first few trips were short weekend jaunts near home (some with us to learn the ropes) and finally after 41/2 months decided to head down to California for a few weeks including a Winnebago Rally in Hemet, CA.
They got home last Thursday and their story is nothing but a combination of horrors and comedy. Window frame taped in to keep it falling off the coach, inverter/charger inop. Cross members broken or loose on two slides, leaks, chassis battery goes dead in three days, instrument cluster went dead in LA, referred to local Freightliner (not an Oasis dealer) by local Winnebago dealer. Kept coach a week, would not let them stay in coach, ordered parts that got lost, ordered wrong part, and 7 days later when the "right" part showed up and did not fix the problem determined that it was a broken wire!
Both of these motorhomes are covered by warranty by reputable companies but who needs to spend that kind of money to be subjected to those experiences.
My wife and I have owned 6 used motorhomes over the past 30 years and I have done everything from dropping an engine 1000 from home with three kids to sitting on I-80 up on the mountain 15 miles west of Cheyenne in February
with a starter that would not disengage (again with three kids) and we still love the lifestyle and would not trade it for anything. The three year old Tradewinds we purchased with 11,000 miles has given us little trouble over the past year/7,000 miles. It will become our home here in a few months.
If our experiences had started out as the two examples above (and all the others we hear about because too much of the RV industry is striving for quantity at the expense of QC) I am not sure Sue and I would still be enthusiasts to the extent we are.
She has decided she NEVER wants to own a new coach!
Will they ever learn? ??? ??? ???