Having just sold the RV
i thought id go and have a look at what the European dealers had on offer.
Ive just spent a facinating 2 hours wandering round Brownpiles in Preston and been totally ignored by the entire sales team (no great loss as I only wanted to be nosey anyway. I obviously didnt fit into the grey haired typical customer profile
).
Now before I start i want to make it clear that im not a very big fan of European motorhomes. I wont go into a huge rant about it, i simply dont think that a lot of them are fit for purpose and been built to a weight has to many strings and compromises attached for my liking.
THIS THREAD IS NOT A RV VERSUS EURO MOTORHOME SLAGGING MATCH
Anyway after looking round about 60-70 vehicles and reading the prices with tears in my eyes i sat back in my car and wondered how on Earth do the dealers justify the prices??
Lets start with a C class. Simple van chassis with a caravan bolted on top and the van cab then joined to the caravan at the pointy end. I know this a very simplistic way of looking at it but in essence that is what a C class is.
Cost of Fiat Chassis Cab £ 12000.00 ish
Cost of top of the range caravan of similar size to C class £ 11000.00ish
Total is £23kish. The cheapest i saw today was £34K
I know every business has to make a profit and that there is a bit of work in grafting the body onto the cab and fitting water/waste tanks etc, but motorhome manufactures dont need to supply the running gear and brakes/heavy chassis that caravan manufacturers do but £11K difference and they wont even give you a bloody spare wheel
The same goes for the A class except the price differential is double
.
I then looked at a van conversion £33K
for a standard van with a caravan interior, are they serious
I understand you can buy a lot of models available in the UK considerably cheaper on the continent (even right hand drive) which only leads me to the point of this thread.
I know we all live in "RIP OFF BRITAIN" but please can someone tell me and the rest of the folks on here how motorhome manufacturers get away with charging the ludicrous prices for their vehicles
. And more to the point why do we the eversuffering British public let them??
Unfortunately we dont plan on replacing the RV anytime soon (but i do miss it and it only went yesterday
) due to a lack of time to use it, but if and when we decide the time is right to replace it we wont be heading for our local dealers...........we will be heading for the airport and a Boeing 747 back to the USA
where even after paying a huge amount of shipping and tax to the Treasury we will end up with a vehicle that is twice anything i saw today for a lot less and where we wont be ignored when we walk into the dealers to have a look around.
Come on people if you are in the market for a new motorhome ask the dealers to justify the costs to you. Im sure it will have a lot of salespeople squirming
Cost Of New Motorhomes
Linear Mode
