Alfie's Granny
Free Member
We had been caravanning for 25 years & just bought a new Bailey Approach Advance 665 Motor Home last year. I came across this site whilst looking for answers for yet another problem we've encountered. We really love the van albeit we would change some design aspects, but the quality of this item is not good. First problem, we were promised a date for collection of vehicle, right up to booking of flight tickets, (we were travelling from NI) & ended up having to re-book 2 more flights at our own expense. This was more the fault of the dealer who I won't name at this point but were quite nasty. A bad start! On to the defects- the lock on the rear door handle broke first, then we encountered water under the rear seats which turned out to be coming from the on-board tank. The seal on the lid wasn't properly fitted which we were able to rectify but I can see a slight bulge on the floor which I fear is swelling from the water. The spark on the grill doesn't work. The control panel was faulty & a replacement was also faulty. After heavy rain on two occasions there was a considerable amount of water in the shower tray, this is still unexplained as it is intermittent. Another problem was filling the water tank. We were only getting it partially full because it kept overflowing on the exterior as the air couldn't escape. We rectified this ourselves by tying up the filling tube inside so it wasn't sitting at a right angle to the tank (hard to explain but I can go through it if anyone is experiencing this problem). Our latest trouble (because we like to have at least one every couple of months lol), is the battery. It wasn't holding the charge & when we opened the battery box the battery was roasting hot & making a fizzing noise, on reading up I discovered this is either a faulty battery or faulty charger. The alarming thing is that it can emit poisonous gas or potentially go on fire, a lucky escape there then. At the time of purchase we were assured we could get our van serviced in NI but the dealers here won't do it because we didn't buy from them so all problems remain unfixed till we can get back to England. We also had a Peugeot recall for a faulty starter which was done at a local dealer so no problem there. I know I sound like a moan but a brand new £40k product should NOT have these problems, & I also think it's important to share and inform. We're hoping to go to England within the next couple of weeks to get all sorted, hopefully we will get it done without any grief. On a positive note I really love 'Motorhoming'