The Globecar Warranty - Any Experiences

[GPW]

Are they double-glazed? It looks like a vacuum has formed inside and sucked the outside sheet in - what's happening on the inside.

I'd expect all windows to be made by a supplier, if you can find out who makes them it may be possible to deal with them. I'd expect them to be a standard size 'big brand' window that Globecar/Plossi merely buy by the thousands and fit into everything. I.e. like skylights - there's only about 3 main makers of them it seems.

The word on the street (or MHF anyway) that continental dealers are more attentive to these things, would it be possible to go through a dealer who has a good name in Germany, Belgium etc? They may bend over backwards to entice you to get your next van from them, stranger things have happened. Plus they are nearer the factory..

 

[Blue Knight]

That’s rubbish Andrew. My windows look different to yours ... are yours plastic rather than glass. I know yours is built in a different factory ... I wonder if that team are more used to building different models of MH? I hope you get away travelling soon.

Hi Liz, yes, I think they are different to your Campscout which originates from the D-Line factory.

I'm hoping that we can get these things resolved soon as it's starting to zap my mojo, lol. That being said, I think a nice little cottage is on the cards anyway.

I've just done a quick summary of all the problems that I've incurred between the Autotrail, Pilote and Globecar over the last 30-months and it comes to quite a few dozen including one Fiat recall per van. The Autotrail wins by far in terms of the number of problems but I'm now just bored of having issues.

As said before: Living the dream!

 

[1ten]

Blue Night,

Are you going to share your list for each van?
It would be quite interesting to see the difference between the manufactures.

 

[Blue Knight]

Are they double-glazed? It looks like a vacuum has formed inside and sucked the outside sheet in - what's happening on the inside.

I'd expect all windows to be made by a supplier, if you can find out who makes them it may be possible to deal with them. I'd expect them to be a standard size 'big brand' window that Globecar/Plossi merely buy by the thousands and fit into everything. I.e. like skylights - there's only about 3 main makers of them it seems.

The word on the street (or MHF anyway) that continental dealers are more attentive to these things, would it be possible to go through a dealer who has a good name in Germany, Belgium etc? They may bend over backwards to entice you to get your next van from them, stranger things have happened. Plus they are nearer the factory..

Thanks for the write-up, much appreciated indeed.

I've just had a good look at the windows from the inside and I can't see any noticeable warping on the inner panel. It just seems to effect the external perspex pane for now.

The dealer has the other two warranty claims nailed down so it's just a case of trying to sort this out now. I'm wondering if the window manufacturer is the same as what Autotrail used on its V-line range.

All the best,

Andrew

 

[Blue Knight]

Blue Night,

Are you going to share your list for each van?
It would be quite interesting to see the difference between the manufactures.

Approx 48 for the Autotrail; 8 for the Pilote and 8 for the Globecar.

Each figure includes a Fiat recall but in the case of Pilote and Globecar each had a couple of dealer induced issues too.

I'll put a list together for the 2nd and 3rd van but I'll give the AT a miss as it still gives me nightmares

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[Blue Knight]

No time like the present:

Pilote:

1. EGR Fiat recall notice.
2. Severe leak to the roof from the poor fitment of the solar unit by the dealer.
3. Leak to the hab door from a poorly fitted/designed rubber door seal.
4. Temporary leak to the off-side garage door after one of the retaining locks fell off.
5. Incorrect solar reg fitted for the battery types being used.
6. Blown fuse on the EBL after the solar unit wires were incorrectly fitted.
7. Shrinking decal on the left upper cab of the van.
8. A parting of the mastic between the cab and the body (both sides).

Globecar:

1. Depressed floor in entranceway area.
2. Delaminating bathroom internal door.
3. Warping side windows.
4. Incorrect Truma boiler fitted.
5. Scuff to the lower off-side front bumper.
6. Scuff to the upper body where the dealer fitted the awning.
7. Incorrectly set solar reg.
8. Incorrect screws used by dealer when fitting the awning handle mounts (the screws were driven through into the cupboards).
9. Fiat EGR sleeve recall notice.

That's all folks

 

[Grianan]

Hmm dealers have a lot to answer for ....

 

[CazPaul]

Wow that's poor Andrew what a catalogue of issues, you then buy a PVC which you would think would be nearly problem free and get big issues straight away like the floor, Windows, wrong boiler, shower door.
Must be demoralising.

 

[Minxy]

Look on the bright side ... your shower tray's okay ...

 

[Blue Knight]

Wow that's poor Andrew what a catalogue of issues, you then buy a PVC which you would think would be nearly problem free and get big issues straight away like the floor, Windows, wrong boiler, shower door.
Must be demoralising.

Just a bit demoralizing Paul. It doesn't help that we've changed the vans so quickly and each one has had a few issues.

On the bright side I'm probably not going to have any wonky windows in my cottage

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[Blue Knight]

Look on the bright side ... your shower tray's okay ...

I'll be calling you Jinxy Girl.

Don't say things like that Mel

 

[Neckender]

My Static is bootiful.

John.

 

[GPW]

Blue Knight It looks like the windows are possibly made by Dometic, have a look at the various types here and see what you think.

I did note that they seem more expensive than double glazed windows for houses however.

Dometic Seitz windows | Leisureshopdirect

Dometic Seitz windows are designed to improve your safety and comfort and are the leading brand in caravan and motorhome windows. We have a long standing relationship with Dometic and have all the available windows listed. from Leisureshopdirect

www.leisureshopdirect.com

At those prices it would almost be cheaper to have replacement panels custom made.

 

[Blue Knight]

Blue Knight It looks like the windows are possibly made by Dometic, have a look at the various types here and see what you think.

I did note that they seem more expensive than double glazed windows for houses however.

Dometic Seitz windows | Leisureshopdirect

Dometic Seitz windows are designed to improve your safety and comfort and are the leading brand in caravan and motorhome windows. We have a long standing relationship with Dometic and have all the available windows listed. from Leisureshopdirect

www.leisureshopdirect.com

At those prices it would almost be cheaper to have replacement panels custom made.

That's a great bit of info, thank you. I've just spent 30-seconds on Google images and it looks to be a very common problem.

 

[gus-lopez]

so I may just wait the extra 5-months and have everything done at once - It makes sense and it avoids me having to do an extra 600-miles.

Until you turn up & find that they have used it to replace someone elses dodgy shower door

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[Minxy]

I'll be calling you Jinxy Girl.

Don't say things like that Mel

... why do you think our camper is called Mr Jinx!

 

[GPW]

The thing I always keep in mind is that these are all budget vans. To buy the Ducato van on it's own is £20k, so for the extra £25-30k we pay it gets shipped to Germany, loaded up with precision cut bits of stuff that resembles a small house build by well paid germans, shipped over here and sold to us with profits.

So the actual spend on the conversion is rather less than if we sourced all the bits and did it ourselves, and the mass production and QA is done generally in Southern Germany so the supply lines are a bit long by the time we get them here.

So we have 2 hurdles to jump,
1) Quality of supply Italian+German manufacture and fitment of the van + bits
2) What the british dealer does to it when it arrives.

Experience on this thread appears that we can rely on 1) a bit more than 2), but when you look at the choice of brands available it's still one of the safer bets to get into a dry van that works. Delaminated doors and the floor issue (the most serious issue I have heard of) obviously need to be fixed in a timely way under warranty but compared to fighting Elddis about mouldy ceilings and walls I think we're still doing pretty well

I suspect buying direct from a German dealer and collecting it yourself is probably the safest bet over all, but popping over to germany is a bit more effort than nipping up the A1 for us (although they do have good shows there..) so it's a balance one has to take. For me SMC is not competing with Brownhills etc, it's competing with European dealers, we hope they take care on the fitments we ordered and it all works out well as I'm always mindful that we can easily buy these in Europe where from all reports the dealers are pretty attentive on warranty work.

 

[Blue Knight]

Oooops, I forget point-10:

1. Depressed floor in entranceway area.
2. Delaminating bathroom internal door.
3. Warping side windows.
4. Incorrect Truma boiler fitted.
5. Scuff to the lower off-side front bumper.
6. Scuff to the upper body where the dealer fitted the awning.
7. Incorrectly set solar reg.
8. Incorrect screws used by dealer when fitting the awning handle mounts (the screws were driven through into the cupboards).
9. Fiat EGR sleeve recall notice.
10. The rear CCTV apperture in the van's outer shelll was not sealed by the dealer.

Point-3 remains unresolved but otherwise everything else is done or will be in Noveber when I take it for its hab/warranty appointment.

 

[GPW]

The CCTV is the rear-view camera mount? I'm getting them to fit a dual camera thing there so I hope they seal it. I'll give it a careful look to see.

Can't help notice that over half your problems are dealer induced, a lesson here to get the van as plain as possible and DIY fit any options I think.

 

[Blue Knight]

The CCTV is the rear-view camera mount? I'm getting them to fit a dual camera thing there so I hope they seal it. I'll give it a careful look to see.

Can't help notice that over half your problems are dealer induced, a lesson here to get the van as plain as possible and DIY fit any options I think.

When you put it like that it's not good eh.

The Pilote and the Globecar were bought from the same dealer so 8 out of the 18 points were dealer induced. At least it keeps their workshop team in a job

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[Blue Knight]

UPDATE: Globecar has rejected my warranty claim on the wonky windows.

Globecar has dispatched the response in German-only and the dealer has sent me the response in Google-translate format:

The dealer has informed me that if I'm not happy with the result then I can appeal.

 

[Cheshirecat57]

That clears it up perfectly then

 

[klaatu]

So they are saying that the windows can temporarily warp due to temperature fluctuations, and they do not regard this as a defect.

 

[CazPaul]

That's ridiculous they need replacing with better quality and a new van we are talking about.

 

[GPW]

They are all like that sir!

Reminds my of the old Talbot cars of the 1970s/80s. Smooth as silk when picked up from the dealer, but the engines settled into the usual clatter for the rest of their lives.

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[Grianan]

Are they really all like that? We had a lovely Swift Conqueror caravan with similar windows ... neither of us can recall them warping.

 

[klaatu]

Might be worth asking Dometic for an opinion?

 

[Blue Knight]

That clears it up perfectly then

It's times like this when Nicky and I think we should have purchased the Adria 640 as opposed to the H-line Globecar. You guys don't seem to have had the problems that I've had.

 

[Blue Knight]

So they are saying that the windows can temporarily warp due to temperature fluctuations, and they do not regard this as a defect.

Yep, they've said temporary but it seems permanent to me. There's also the issue of what happens when it gets really cold as that will contract the window pane further.

 

[Blue Knight]

Are they really all like that? We had a lovely Swift Conqueror caravan with similar windows ... neither of us can recall them warping.

Does your Campscout have the Elegance Pack windows Liz, i.e. the flushed ones that look a bit like mine. I've not heard of any dodgy window problems with the D-Line models such as yours so I'm wondering which windows are used for the Elegance Pack?

Mel, John, do you guys have the Elegance Pack? Neckender Minxy Girl

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