Carado or Pilote? (2 Viewers)

[Clemmo]

We are looking at 2 new Motorhomes, same length, same chassis, very close layouts.
Carado and Pilote..
Which would you choose and why?
Thanks in advance
Clemmo

 

[Neil S]

are you buying new ?
and if so are the dealerships your considering buying from close to home , something to consider if you need to return for warranty work

 

[Clemmo]

Yes new..

 

[Emmit]

If they are that close then it comes down to forces
outside the remit of the manufacturers.

What about the support offered, (or otherwise,) by the dealers?

The distance from your home. The reviews and comments from previous
customers make all the difference to the experience when buying and owning.

 

[Northernraider]

I'd need to see photos before I could choose .

But from my limited knowledge carado is a budget hymer , whereas pilote is a brand in its own right.
I imagine there will be differences in build style and quality

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[Guigsy]

Carado tend to be well built and well designed. But they do have the fancy features and cosmetic frills removed to keep costs down.

Pilote tend to be a bit more stylish. The build quality is supposed to be reasonable, above the average. They do have bit of a reputation for coming out of the factory on the heavy end of the scale. So the spare payload can be a lot less than the brochure suggests.

 

[dunnah01]

French vs German - I'm a completely biased French Rapido owner so I'd say Pilote.

 

[The Coops]

Had them both and to be honest both were equally as good, The Carado was simpler and less to go wrong ( not as many gadgets) The Pilote was a bit more up market, it all depends I would say on the dealership and how good their reputation is if something needs fixing ( and it will). That would be the deciding factor for me.

 

[rob1234]

hi had a new pilote for a few months now and i bought it from a dealer 5 hours away from me ,,the local one offered £36k after saying they dont take trade ins ,,dealer 5 hours away gave me £49k so it was a no brainer to travel ,,the only thing that has broken is the front blind ,,that they have said they will fix first time i get it down to them ,,i really happy with it ,,so far,,

 

[Roby2008]

The Carado dealer is 5km away and the pilote 80km, we went for the Pilote purely for the layout which Carado didn´t have...Rear bath and drop down bed...having crawled over a Carado a few times, I think the quality is better than the Pilote which has the paper wood veneer etc, however the Pilote works for us with the layout and we can live with its lightweight construction ( after 11 months and 16,000km it is not falling apart).

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[Saucer]

I was put off Pilote by someone on YouTube who has lots of problems, but they probably all do.

 

[lorger]

When buying our new van 4 years ago we liked the look of the Carado, trying to get information regarding the build and if it still had wood in the construction was hard from the dealers, I emailed Carado themselves and they confirmed it still has wood in construction. This may not be a concern for you and the pilote may be the same but I know the one we look at was wood free, ended up going for a Knaus.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

We have a Carado, but have never had a Pilote so can only comment on the former. We did look at Pilote, but weren't convinced about build quality for the reasons you'll. see below. Our Carado is an A class and is nearly four years old now, having done about 20,000 miles. We have used it extensively including living in it for 5 months through the winter in the second lockdown. We've had no serious problems, early on a blind needing replacing and we recently broke a tap. The tap was my fault although I would say it was fairly delicate - probably a weight thing.

We chose the Carado on layout rather than price as we had down sized our home, and had originally budgeted for a Hymer or N&B. We knew we would be living in it for a while so layout was key and tbh the suitable N&B was just too long for us. I had wanted a Hymer but none of the layouts quite matched my wife's requirements. So I would advise that layout and suitability for your plans should be the first deciding factor, as long as you feel confident about build quality. You need to feel you trust the vehicle otherwise you will be nervous the whole time. Then if they are equal it will come down to whether you feel the extra cost of the Pilote is worth the frills.

I can only say the Carado has been very reliable and still feels well built with no rattles. As others have said it is less luxurious, but still looks good internally with subtle lighting. I suspect the Pilote has better engine noise suppression. I tend to buy German cars, and the build quality and trustworthiness feels very similar.

Taking the vehicle a long way to get services and hab checks is a pain to be honest. We bought it from TravelWorld who were initially very good. They model their service on the upmarket German cars and charge top end prices to match. When you arrive it felt like when we take our Mercedes in for service, but the comparison ends there. Unfortunately their after sales has been poor and keeps getting worse while the cost remains high. They don't even return phone calls and when you bring the vehicle in for a service we have found they haven't ordered the specific parts such as an oil filter. Very annoying when you have driven a long way to get the work done.

We are very happy with the Carado have no plans to replace it as we like it so much, but if we do we would absolutely consider another one if it fitted our layout requirements, but it will not be from Travelworld. So if that is where you are considering buying I would have to say go to another Carado dealer or buy the Pilote.