Quality Built Motorhomes??

[Fisherman]

Having looked for a long time for my first (and only) van, I took the risk and bought it new with no warranty. I did see that it looked very well put together so decided to take the risk as it was just what I wanted. As things turned out the only work needed in what would have been the warranty period was a small job on the base vehicle so was covered by Renault. I think that it’s more important to go for a quality build than to rely on a warranty to put problems right, especially if buying a long way from home.

Well I never knew you could buy a new Motorhome without a warranty, not something I would do 2cv.

 

[2cv]

Well I never knew you could buy a new Motorhome without a warranty, not something I would do 2cv.

The manufacturer had ceased trading, though of course I still had some legal rights with the dealer and the base vehicle still had its manufacturer warranty. Of course the price paid reflected the lack of warranty, and thankfully it would never have been needed anyway.

 

[Fisherman]

The manufacturer had ceased trading, though of course I still had some legal rights with the dealer and the base vehicle still had its manufacturer warranty. Of course the price paid reflected the lack of warranty, and thankfully it would never have been needed anyway.

I see 2cv.
well I am pleased it all worked out for you.

 

[runnach]

Re reliability if you consider there are probably 20000 components that make up a Motorhome perhaps more including every grommet nail screw and washer ...and production is 99.9% efficient which I suspect non are and would be an inspiration for a manufacturer that equates to 20 faults on any new vehicle things get progressively worse on used ...it makes warranties a good idea ?

 

[Nabsim]

I think luck has a lot to do with it, if you are unlucky to get a bad one then it doesn’t matter what the norm is,that pile of crap Hymer Charlie had shows that. Looked great as a new van that price should but when he had the independent inspection done the guy said it had almost every problem that can be found in a Hymer and a good few were at construction stage.

I bought mine knowing nothing about motorhomes from a trade dealer with 3 month warranty, knew I wouldn’t be going back unless it blew up on the way home. Two years on and more use with me than an average motorhome will ever get and I still love it.

I wouldn’t buy new if I won big on the lottery unless it was something like a MB 4x4 expedition vehicle though. Met loads of folks over the last couple of years who have all sorts of new vans that have some fairly big problems (or smaller ones they can’t get sorted). I think my ideal would be a Luton conversion or some sort of small bus/coach conversion.

 

[mariesnowgoose]

Marie you mentioned buying a new home.

More than half of new-build homes in England 'have major faults'

Shelter survey finds 51% of owners of recent new builds experience problems including construction, fittings and utilities

www.theguardian.com

And that’s homes with major faults, not a chipped kitchen worktop, or a cracked roof tile. My own home had a leak in my roof due to flashing being to narrow on my dormer. But the fault did not show up for 8 years, luckily within the nhbc warranty.

Also you said you would never buy a new Motorhome, but would buy second hand. Well you are far more likely to get a major fault on a second hand Motorhome than a new one, and possibly with no or a reduced warranty. Many people sell their Motorhomes because they have had a lot of bother with them, or they have a nagging fault when they sell them.

All I am trying to say is it’s better to expect a fault because when buying a new home or a new Motorhome the odds are you will either find one initially or after some use. What’s really important is the back up you receive.

Actually, I meant more the older properties for the price of a motor home rather than a modern build, although some might just squeak in at a top motorhome price.

Modern build houses are more likely to be just as much of a nightmare as a new motorhome!

A lot depends on an individual's financial position.

When you're not that well off - I know that statement is always relative - and you have a very limited budget you don't always have much of a choice. You either do without, or take a calculated risk.

But lots of things we all do in life are full of risk, depends where you are personally on the risk-averse scale

Me, I'll take a chance. I might not still be here to risk anything in 5 years time! And neither might you, or anyone else.

 

[harrow]

But lots of things we all do in life are full of risk, depends where you are personally on the risk-averse scale

Me, I'll take a chance. I might not still be here to risk anything in 5 years time! And neither might you, or anyone else.

Now come on Marie think positive !

You might not be here in 5 years, BUT a new motorhome will still be having warranty repairs

 

[Fisherman]

Actually, I meant more the older properties for the price of a motor home rather than a modern build, although some might just squeak in at a top motorhome price.

Modern build houses are more likely to be just as much of a nightmare as a new motorhome!

A lot depends on an individual's financial position.

When you're not that well off - I know that statement is always relative - and you have a very limited budget you don't always have much of a choice. You either do without, or take a calculated risk.

But lots of things we all do in life are full of risk, depends where you are personally on the risk-averse scale

Me, I'll take a chance. I might not still be here to risk anything in 5 years time! And neither might you, or anyone else.

Marie what can I say, other than I hope you are still here in 25 years time and still telling us idiots who buy new motorhomes that we should buy second hand.
I hope you outlive your motorhome, and have some great memorable trips in it in future Marie, I really do.

 

[Martin P]

I guess we all do things our own way. You pays yer money and makes yer choice but at a dealers I would say this
I like this motorhome and would like to buy it. So if you or your engineer would like to take an hour to go through this check list with me and all is satisfactory then you have a deal.
What on earth is wrong with that

 

[Fisherman]

I guess we all do things our own way. You pays yer money and makes yer choice but at a dealers I would say this
I like this motorhome and would like to buy it. So if you or your engineer would like to take an hour to go through this check list with me and all is satisfactory then you have a deal.
What on earth is wrong with that

Nothing Martin sounds very reasonable.
They are supposed to do PDI checks, but in my experience they don’t, or don’t do them properly.

All I would say is say you find something wrong, and they offer to take care of it would you buy then.
My Motorhome came with a badly installed door frame, but it did not stop us from using it. If I had insisted on the repair being done before paying, we would have missed out on using it until the new door frame was replaced, and that would have taken 6 weeks. When you have waited for months to get your new van as we did, you just want to get out there in it if possible.

 

[hextal]

Marie you mentioned buying a new home.

More than half of new-build homes in England 'have major faults'

Shelter survey finds 51% of owners of recent new builds experience problems including construction, fittings and utilities

www.theguardian.com

And that’s homes with major faults, not a chipped kitchen worktop, or a cracked roof tile. My own home had a leak in my roof due to flashing being to narrow on my dormer. But the fault did not show up for 8 years, luckily within the nhbc warranty.

Also you said you would never buy a new Motorhome, but would buy second hand. Well you are far more likely to get a major fault on a second hand Motorhome than a new one, and possibly with no or a reduced warranty. Many people sell their Motorhomes because they have had a lot of bother with them, or they have a nagging fault when they sell them.

All I am trying to say is it’s better to expect a fault because when buying a new home or a new Motorhome the odds are you will either find one initially or after some use. What’s really important is the back up you receive.

I work as a civil engineer (albeit with bridges), so I know a lot of civil and structural engineers, and none of them would go anywhere near a modern house unless they had personally supervised construction.

 

[Fisherman]

I work as a civil engineer (albeit with bridges), so I know a lot of civil and structural engineers, and none of them would go anywhere near a modern house unless they had personally supervised construction.

my son bought a 100 year old Edwardian property 5 years ago just outside Glasgow hextal.
Within months he found rising damp and had to move out and live with us for 6 weeks whilst his floor boards were lifted and a new damp course was installed.
He was informed last November that he has dry rot in his roof members, and possibly he may need to replace his whole roof. This will mean him having to move out again and live with us.
The damp course work cost £14,000. I dread to think how much his roof will cost.


I have lived in my home for twenty four years now from new, and apart from the flashing being blocked up with silt on the dormer gulleys because they were to narrow and covered with half tiles I have had no problems. And as the fault was reported within the ten year warranty period the work was carried out under the NHBC warranty.

Buying any home carries risk, new or old.

 

[hextal]

Yes and no I'd say. Yes there is always risk, but new builds tend to be built with much less quality control, clerks if works, etc.

You get issues with old houses, but they tend to be pretty easy to spot. Your lad should have recourse against the structural surveyor, if he used one before the purchase.

Rising damp is a contentious issue, with most experts broadly being of the view that it doesn't actually happen. Even when I was at uni they were testing it with various walls sitting in water baths.

You get a certain degree of capillary action with porous materials like brick, concrete, masonry etc, but I don't believe there's any notable evidence to show that it will be drawn up any notable levels. Plaster can wick quite well mind. In pretty much most cases the water has come in from high level, flashing, leaking roof/drains, blocked gutters, even lean-tos etc against walls.

 

[Millie Master]

Is there such a thing. Having had two disastrous experiences including lengthy legal battles with the last two motorhomes, I'm terrified of buying yet another problem vehicle. I'm considering buying again but unsure of what to buy. Is it possible to buy a motorhome that doesn't leak and that has exceptional build quality?

Sad to say, but buy anything other than a British brand, or possibly consider making one yourself and then you will know exactly how it is built, it will also give you the chance to sit inside your creation each and every day with a happy, smug smile across your chubby little cheeks whilst thinking to yourself "bloody hell I built this".
I built mine 5 years ago and the pleasure of the experience has never diminished!!!

 

[QFour]

Also you said you would never buy a new Motorhome, but would buy second hand. Well you are far more likely to get a major fault on a second hand Motorhome than a new one, and possibly with no or a reduced warranty. Many people sell their Motorhomes because they have had a lot of bother with them, or they have a nagging fault when they sell them.

We got rid of our Swift Bolero just before the warranty ran out. Got fed up of screwing it back together, bits breaking and all the rattles and squeaks
We got rid of our Pilote 716 after 14 months. It was traded in with the electric bed jammed in the up position

We now have a Laika that we would not swap. Few problems but nothing major after nearly 5 years and 27,000 miles

Why would anyone want to get rid of a MH thats only a year or so old. Its a big hit to the wallet so there is usually a good reason. You can see that on the Unhappy Autotrail Forum. Autotrail gets rejected by the buyer and it's back out on the forecourt looking for another mug who probably won't complain as much.

 

[Fisherman]

We got rid of our Swift Bolero just before the warranty ran out. Got fed up of screwing it back together, bits breaking and all the rattles and squeaks
We got rid of our Pilote 716 after 14 months. It was traded in with the electric bed jammed in the up position

We now have a Laika that we would not swap. Few problems but nothing major after nearly 5 years and 27,000 miles

Why would anyone want to get rid of a MH thats only a year or so old. Its a big hit to the wallet so there is usually a good reason.

Sometimes folk do their homework go out and buy a new van, then after going out with it and meeting others they realise that they should have bought something else QFour. We met a couple on Arran last summer who had bought a lovely Westfilia van conversion. They showed us inside it and it looked really well put together, not what we wanted but none the less a nice van. But what started the conversation was our Motorhome. They had spotted us before and told us how much they liked our van. Well they returned to Wales and ordered our van after only having their own van for 18 months.
Now when we bought our chausson 510 we loved it, but after three years and lots of experience some things started to annoy us. We still wanted a 6m van, a separate shower, large lounge etc, but we did not like amongst other things the fact that when we dropped the bed we lost the lounge. So after only three years we took a bit of a hit ourselves. But we enjoyed the 510, we learnt a lot from it, and I don’t regret what we did.

 

[Toffeecat]

My Adria had some initial gripes but since they were sorted running sweet as a sweet thing. Of the three faults only one was Adria,one Dometic and one Truma. Fit and finish is excellent. The British Motorhomes I had a look at only one brand if say had good quality. The others fit finish looked like a blind mans dog had put them together. Then again I used to work in quality control at a car factory in the paint shop so maybe im being picky. Foreign motorhomes just didn't seem to have the fit and finish problems. Shame.

 

[Talbot]

Thanks everyone for sharing your personal experiences. I visited Event City motorhome show today and sadly almost 50% of the vehicles on show were Swift, which are not on my list. However, both Burstner and Adria motorhomes were represented and look far superior to the British built vans. I'm still looking though and definitely favouring the European manufacturers.

 

[DnK]

Thanks everyone for sharing your personal experiences. I visited Event City motorhome show today and sadly almost 50% of the vehicles on show were Swift, which are not on my list. However, both Burstner and Adria motorhomes were represented and look far superior to the British built vans. I'm still looking though and definitely favouring the European manufacturers.

I was there today and disappointed with the ranges on show. Did you see the Hobby Optima Premium? I was very impressed with the build quality (i'm a carpenter & Joiner by trade) and layout. I'm not in the market for a new van but like to keep up with whats available.

 

[Sharpie]

New houses ? Well a brother bought one which turned out to be a nightmare. Actually amazingly the man from Zurich insurance had turned out to have a look around just before completion and decided that no way would they cover it. Everything was wrong, floors not level, even the chimney had been put in upside down so they can never use a woodburner as planned, but most importantly the walls were wonky, verging on dangerous, It took five years of court cases to get compensation, from SIFS, which only happened on the courtroom steps, my dad having backed the process to at least £50,000. Which SIFS also paid back. This took an independent legal firm to do, the big ones didn't want to mess with SIFS. The house is now tied together with stainless steel bands, the windows replaced because the originals either shattered or just jammed up with the movement, the floors dug up and done properly. Not a great result.

All campervans will have their problems, nothing is perfect, some are better than others, a good dealer will fix them, a poor one will not. The British made ones can be appalling, even fundamentally flawed. I won't mention names but none of the big ones make a quality product.