How Was It For You?! NEC Show

Anyone going this weekend don't forget to wear your Motorhome Fun or smiley face badges this weekend so we can say hi to each other :)
 
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Temped to upgrade to dethleffs i7150 or frankia i740
could be my next years work bonus gone!
Jim
 
I dont think it was an N&B perhaps a Frankia or Carthago wish i had took a pic now
 
dabhand said:
Didn't see any funsters today, but then I didn't wear my badge either! Very impressed with the quality of the big Le Voyageur although it's a tad shy of £150k, and some of the Dethleffs, rather surprised at some of the the crappy fittings on the 200K Niesmann Bischoff, chrome effect socket cover looks like it will fall off on first use. Got to love the Concorde Charisma, a snip at £188,000, chunky and solid, massive inside and out, my van of the show I think! Hymer pretty standard fare, although it does look as though there trying a bit harder again to up the quality and there was a couple of models at the show that I haven't personally seen. If returning to have another look is anything to go by, (Dreams aside) for a reasonable, new A class van of a good quality and price, the Dethleffs probably has in the 75k - 85k bracket, and was pretty impressed with the pilotes in the 55k - 75k bracket, however, I would add that I don't know much about either. Can't make my mind up about Bursner, the bigger ones seem to be very expensive for what they are. Lets hear from the owners.

Can't say much about the caravans (although the ancient one is worth having a look at, a classic) or the other types of M/H as I was only looking at the A Class ones as I'd like to update mine and didn't get time to look at the bits and pieces, too busy looking at vans, plenty to go at as usual and I did notice several people walking away with what looked like an upright pressure cooker/ stewpot type thingy??

Interested to know if anyone has a "Doggy Bag"one of those bags that cleans your mucky dog when you put it in, the blurb says:- "Wet mucky dog goes in, dry clean dog comes out! Doggy Bag dries and cleans your dog in minutes, and contains the mess. Spotless motorhomes. No more wet stinky towels." Anybody got one? Stand 10.36

There's also a ceramic hob and combined heater that works off the vans diesel, The Wallas XC Duo, Wallas UK, Stand 11.25 "It eliminates the need for bottled gas, is safe and operates with totally room sealed combustion." Look forward to a full report from the "Techies" amongs't you.

Lets hear about your van of the show based on price, layout, quality etc.
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Just Googled it It really is the DB's init:love:. Would seriously think of fitting it when buying a new van
 
Taran_Las said:
Designed by someone with a bit of Knaus:LOL: Did you see the towing car?

White M series Mercedes AMG 6.3 £107,000.00 :rofl:
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Now you could buy a really nice motor home for that!
 
Have been looking at some of the dealers websites who are at the show, I'm not exactley sure, but it seems that some of the vans they have there now are on their websites 2 or 3 grand cheaper. Expect show reductions, and post them on here, lets see what the biggest reduction is then we can all google it and see if it's genuine!!

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We're home again, didn't need to go again today as we saw everything we wanted and bought a few mainly non motorhome related bits and bobs like on the move phone chargers where three of us onlookers got together and bought six between us to get the best deal. Some bootie things for the wife which leaked when we walked the dog later that night and bungees and hook up plugs for a new lead. Got a price for air suspension and a hug and kiss from Kathie at the AS stand, nothing from Phil. :giggler:

Only funster I met was Eddie Nobitz as someone on here calls him, he said they'd been fairly busy, more so later in the day when folk had seen the vans and moved on. Tell a lie, I met someone on our site who said he was a member of Fun but never posts, and as usual never caught his name.

Following my earlier post on the Pilote (which I now know is pronounced "Pill-ot" after that nice French bit finished laughing and put me right) I was about to womble them on a trade in and was referred to my nearest dealer which I guessed was SMC at Newark. So calling in on the way home I was told they're all at the Show :whatthe: and have to man the stands and they would have their promotional weekend in a couple of weeks. So I'll be talking to them once the show is over but I can't imagine I would get the deal that would make me change.

No ferry companies unless I missed something but they weren't amongst the camping and holiday firms so . . . . no deal codes.
 
Bluemooner said:
I dont think it was an N&B perhaps a Frankia or Carthago wish i had took a pic now
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It's the new Frankia Lounge Edition: Broken Link Removed

Not sure they thought too long about the name...

Steve :Smile:
 
I find it very disappointing when you ask a question and the sales people don't know the answer.

Without naming names there was quite a nice van there about £175,000.00 so I asked about the outside service locker etc.

Nice lady said this is where you fill the water, NO that's the Alde heating exhaust I said, oh this is it in here NO that is the Diesel tank, OK I will get somebody else, well he didn't know much either.

Not impressed.
 
Wombles said:
Anyone going this weekend don't forget to wear your Motorhome Fun or smiley face badges this weekend so we can say hi to each other :)
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We don't have badges yet! :(

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BritStops said:
It's the new Frankia Lounge Edition: Broken Link Removed

Not sure they thought too long about the name...

Steve :Smile:
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AH that slate wall, saw it at Dusseldorf missed it at NEC.
 
Off to join the queues into the NEC now - hope to say hi to a few fellow Funsters - will be looking out for badges:D
 
Yes it does not help that Travelworld quote the Euro prices but do the conversion to £, which you have to accept, at 1.20 when currently it is 1.26 to 1.27, you are already 7% down the toilet before you think of asking for a discount. Other German manufacturers are happy to supply in Euros.
 
sallylillian said:
Yes it does not help that Travelworld quote the Euro prices but do the conversion to £, which you have to accept, at 1.20 when currently it is 1.26 to 1.27, you are already 7% down the toilet before you think of asking for a discount. Other German manufacturers are happy to supply in Euros.
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Now you have me thinking, were they showing £ or € on the stand.
 
Went to Bailey stand to see if I could get some answers to a few problems and get an actual contact No for customer services rather than just emails
Spoke to gentleman who said sorry you can't phone customers services but give me a contact No and I'll get them to phone you said No I want to be able to phone them and after a bit of a stand off he gave me his card and guess what he is a Senior Director !!!
Also asked about problem with thetford cassette and told 2012 van out of warrant which is rubbish as went to thetford stand and nice gentleman said 3 year warranty from them so get ANY dealer to contact them direct with serial No and they will authorise repair that's what I call service !!!
 
We went on Thursday specifically to talk to Coachbuilt GB and get their advice on the best vans for them to convert for Steve and his wheelchair. Spent most of the day with Kate from Coachbuilt, looking at various options. Looks like either a Swift Kon Tiki 649 (I think) or an Auto Trail Comanche. Will see what she comes back with price wise next week......got interviewed for the Motorhome Channel too. We are going to be famous for 5 minutes!

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Our impressions of the show-

1.Where have all the transverse doubles over garages gone? If we wanted a lounge small enough for a pigmy game of twister, we would have that island bed!

2. Why do manufacturers insist on fitting an unhygenic panel surrounding the kitchen window? It leaves an opening which creates a home for insects and other nasties!

3. Why do the prices rise and the quality of the furniture and fittings gets worse every year?

4. The manufacturers seem to have run out of ideas and are inventing clever layout solutions for problems that don't exist.

5. Are there any vans with enough payload for more than one bag of sugar anymore?

6. The Rapido Mobilwatsit rear bedroom is sort of a good idea, but impossible to execute with an air of quality!
 
Went past at about 10.30 on way home south today and the queue went back for miles so if going in the morning get there early. We arrived 9.25 Friday and had a cuppa in the van first. Bought a new duvalay topper and some lovely cheeses but other than a good nose around and a couple of bags of leaflets we did not get tempted to spend too much
 
Another moan!

Why can't we buy a continental low profile WITHOUT a bloody pull down over lounge double???

I got fed up of hitting my head on the damn things!
 
We stayed in the airport travelodge and with no traffic jams at all were at the show 9:45:-).

Bought milenco quattro at a good price of £37 cheapest i have seen. Also bought tyerpal with £20 off the normal price and mirror guards. A few bits an pieces from one of the camp shops. Joined CC and C&CC both memberships covered by their 2 free nights voucher each :-)

Got lots of brochures and our 14 year old got lots of freebies.

Felt that the freebies normally given in the past have decreased. Lots of pen and sweets. Our daughter started to feel sick about 4 ish so called it a day and left.

We didn't get to see in too many vans as it was really busy. Looked at the new chausson 500, in a 5.65 length in a 4 berth. Very compact but a neat design. Still think our Flash 510 is the best Van ever :-)

Fun day out :-)
 
jonandshell said:
Our impressions of the show-
4. The manufacturers seem to have run out of ideas and are inventing clever layout solutions for problems that don't exist.
5. Are there any vans with enough payload for more than one bag of sugar anymore?
6. The Rapido Mobilwatsit rear bedroom is sort of a good idea, but impossible to execute with an air of quality!
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Agree with all you say but especially that! Very interesting to look at the Autotrail stand and brochure where the relevant weight figures have been vapourised! No User Payload info at all, anywhere, just the fact that you could uprate the vans to 3650 from 3500. Quality of build on their new range wasn't breathtaking either, but you gets what you pay for I suppose. We went on Tuesday on my way back to work. Confirmed next years purchase in our minds and had a deep and meaningful eyeball to eyeball with both dealers on our shortlist. As it was Day 1 some of the sales persons were hyper with one on the Dethleffs stand being positively scary:mad: in an eighties/nineties pushy sort of way. But for the most part we enjoyed it and spent a bit of time on the AS Lecky bikes stand with a very helpful and knowledgeable and push- free crew. We're definitely getting two bikes off them next year!(y) Having paid £4.50 each to get in (thanks to the Funster who pointed us in the direction of the vouchers in the CC mags!!(y)) we paid £3.30 each for a hot chocolate! :Eeek: Mrs BB has now completely recovered though the bump on the back of her head will take weeks to go down!:D

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