Quality of new motorhomes.

[WESTY66]

March 2018- New AT Imala....started to fall to bits inside 3 months

June 2018- Traded AT back in with Spinney, bought a new Swift Escape. Roof delaminated inside 5 months went back to factory for repair, but the electrical gremlins drove us mad

April 2019- Traded Swift in for a new Adria Twin Supreme.....brilliantly screwed together and faultless PVC, I just couldn't cope with the overall lack of lounging space....not the vans fault- sold in Dec19 to a funster

Van-less for 9 months then Sept 20 bought an Elddis 175 fully loaded.
Bought on price and with eyes-wide-open "knowing" from reviews how shite Elddis were. However so far it has been great other than a broken catch that dealer replaced without blinking. It is a country mile better than the AT or Swift but not a patch on the Adria
Tried to be candid with this

Nowt wrong with my first van, Elddis Encore 255 cracking van, Mrs Westy loved it, just wrong layout for me! Now got Adria Sonic yes it’s in a different league build wise to the Elddis, then again so is the price difference when new, £100k+ for the adria £52k for the Encore. Doesn’t mean the Adria is £48k better tho, then again either wasn’t new when I bought them

 

[Gaston aires]

We called in at Brownhills last week. They are almost sold out of all stock. They only seem to have a stock of Eldis PVC and the odd MoHo. As one of their model was similar to my Burstner but 13 grand cheaper I thought I would compare it to mine. I was shocked by the fit and finish. Everything was shockingly fragile. So much was left unfinished and ragged. I now know why I've bought three Burstner vans. If your only experience of MoHos is this brand there's no wonder you would think that they are all crap.

Our Burstner Ixeo it680g is incredibly well made. But even they can have issues like our floor which is booked into camper U.K. in July.
Two weeks to put it right at thier expense.
Phil

 

[JJ]

We don't hear about the perfectly good vans nearly as much as we hear about the ones with loads of faults...

JJ

 

[John H.]

I heard Ikea are going to start selling motorhomes.

They are aleady expert in flat pack design, which is all that some of the others are these days.

 

[Stealaway]

Our Burstner Ixeo it680g is incredibly well made. But even they can have issues like our floor which is booked into camper U.K. in July.
Two weeks to put it right at thier expense.
Phil

Great warranty though? They have admitted blame immediately and they are repairing hundreds FOC.

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[Wayne_Lisa]

You know us British we like a good moan

 

[Wayne_Lisa]

You know us British we like a good moan

 

[John H.]

We heard you the first time

 

[JJ]

We heard you the first time

I didn't...

JJ

 

[Wayne_Lisa]

Finger got stuck on the post reply button

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[82125]

Having looked at new motorhomes the shoddy 'quality' of them is the reason im buying used, and preferably before 2017 or so.
The impression i got once actually inside all the new vans is "magpie glitter", cheap veneers on flimsy materials and (often tacky) leds everywhere to create an illusion of something its clearly not. Some of them on the forecourt i couldnt believe were actually listed for sale in that state, couldnt even be bothered to fit the locker doors or drawers properly before it left the factory so they at least worked for a while (before no doubt falling apart after the 7th use).
Clearly saving weight (for C1 target) and money, is more important than offering any quality or substance for a £70k product.

 

[Stealaway]

Have a look at new Burstner s. Nothing shoddy and only 60 grand. Payload is an issue though for C1

 

[BusyBuilder]

I've just bought a BMW motorcycle, 2004 K series bike with 73,000 miles. It's almost immaculate condition, though it has been well looked after. my last BMW, was a 2019 model R1200RS, which after 2 years had bubbling paint on various parts of the engine and final drive. It went back to BMW who replaced the parts. One side of the handlebar switch gear also failed, again replaced under warranty.
So it's not just Moho's.

 

[Blue Knight]

I've just read an article on a different forum where a couple picked up their Autotrail Expedition 67 PVC on the 17th June and by yesterday 23-Jun-2021 it had been officially returned and rejected.

Total ownership period = 7 days

A sign of things to come......for sure!

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

I've just read an article on a different forum where a couple picked up their Autotrail Expedition 67 PVC on the 17th June and by yesterday 23-Jun-2021 it had been officially returned and rejected.

Total ownership period = 7 days

A sign of things to come......for sure!

Guarantee the dealer had it back out on the forecourt before the previous owners got to the end of the road

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[Grummyb]

20 year old van 1.9 engine that will struggle to pull your hat off but i bloody love it and it's got a proper bit of old fashioned build quality when everything wasn't done as cheap as possible

 

[Beltie]

Yep, totally agree, good point Phil.....but who is working flat out?

Is it a team of highly qualified, skilled and time served fitters or is it some McDonald's burger flipper who they've just dragged off the street because they need the numbers....

....in lots of cases I would say that your burger builder is now constructing this year's motorhomes.

I doubt motorhomes have ever been built by "highly qualified, skilled and time served fitters". It's always been an unskilled/semi-skilled process, derived from caravan building.
It's essentially an assembly operation, which is fine. If you are using unskilled labour, however, you need to make sure those assembly processes are fool proof. This is where the process falls apart, you really shouldn't have a process which requires the unskilled assembly workers to use their judgement on eg, how much mastic to apply.
I think that 'flimsiness' is the result of the drive to keep weight down whilst including ever more kit, rather than purely a cost issue.

 

[Landy Andy]

I’m sure they are working flat out, and I can understand some faults due to that. But some things are designed wrong, and they continue to manufacture with these faults. Such as the other post about a new motorhome where the draw-fronts are too small, and other one hits the hab door. It isn’t rocket science.

 

[Spriddler]

I think that 'flimsiness' is the result of the drive to keep weight down whilst including ever more kit, rather than purely a cost issue.

I reckon that contributes to so many posts about annoying shaking and rattling when driving. I don't get any of that from 25yr old Compass has solid wood furniture and fittings and no plastic mouldings and even though I don't wrap cutlery, bottles or crockery I don't get any noises.
My son has a 2018 Chausson and I was very surprised at all the shaking and rattling.

 

[DerryW]

We have a 2016 (1 previous owner) Adria Matrix it's our first MH which we've had for 3 yaers, very pleased with the quality of the build and the vehicle in general. Apart from looking a various MH at NEC shows it's difficult to make comparisons with other manufacturers. However we did like the look and fill of the Cartargo brand.

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[RubyOptics]

I can absolutely attest to the fact that the materials used in our new van are nowhere near the quality of those used in our old, 20 year old Burstner. I'm sure that part of that is due to us choosing a van from a more "budget friendly" manufacturer. I think another reason is us as buyers as well. We aren't content for our vans to have somewhere to eat, cook and shower and a bed. We want hidden beds with electric motors to raise and lower them, we want more interior space with full lounges and permanent beds. We don't want overcabs because they are difficult to get into. We want longer and longer vans to fit all this new stuff inside. And the manufacturers, quite understandably, try to give us this at the same time as being able to market it to the largest possible buyer base, which means those without a C1.
Something has to give!

 

[Roger S]

We bought our Swift Bessacarr new 18 months ago, the dealer PDi'd it (ha ha), I spent a good day carrying out repairs and adjustments. I think the Swift layout is well designed but their build quilty is a little lacking in certain area's. After I carried out these repairs and adjustments initially I havnt had to do too much else, so content now, and to be fair we did buy it at quite a good price.