Why buy british? (1 Viewer)

[Goldenoldies]

We were looking around a dealership yesterday(yes we are still looking for the right M/H) and came upon a new Swift Bolero. A nice looking m/h inside and out,but then we looked a bit closer. The bathroom door swung both directions (no door stops) if you pushed the door it hit the toilet. We tried to open the roof vents but it was impossible and yes we made sure there were no restraints holding them. In serveral places the edge trim was missing. around the entrance/exit door the plastic trim is so thin I dont thik it would survive too long and at the bottom of the door the wiring, assuming its for the alarm, is so long it is a trip hazzard and has two bare ends of wire exposed. Now call me fussy but to pay £56,999 of hard cash these problems should be checked before leaving the factory not for the customer to have to wait to be done after its bought.

 

[ShiftZZ]

I think you may have answered your own question.

 

[simsy56]

I came across the same thing when i was looking to buy, not just British, but European and American too!
Some were disgraceful and should never have been placed on the forecourt in the condition they were in.
At a well known dealer in Newark, i had a look round a new American C class, the entire toilet was missing, as were cupboard doors, and one of the rear view door mirrors including the arm was gone.
Needless to say, my feet did the talking.
What i did was to buy privately, and all the goodies were on, and teething problems sorted, as well as the initial drop in price from new.

Craig

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Mr Colpot]

We were looking at the Bolero last time we changed and came to the same conclusion. Brand New on the forecourt and the toilet door did not shut, a couple of pieces of shelf on the floor and the vent did not open. When I questioned the sales Guy he said it would be put right when I bought it.
Same applies to a lot of second hand stock on the forecourt - if it has something wrong they will put it right when it sells - makes sense financially to the Dealer.
If I was selling privately I would make sure everything was ok before I sold it.

 

[vwalan]

must say if you get chance have a look at some of the japanese conversions coming over .far superiour to the euro and american conversions . hopefully the chinese ones wont be long .that will put the cat amongst the pigeons .
all the jap ones i have seen have been a good conversion and built really nice.

 

[hilldweller]

these problems should be checked before leaving the factory not for the customer to have to wait to be done after its bought.

From reading the forums I long ago formed the opinion that Swift expected their dealers to finish off the vans. Even told their chairman this on The Dark Side.

A £1 fault in the factory can be a £100 fault at the dealers. It makes no sense.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Pikey Pete]

Maybe the dealer thinks that if the buyer doesn't spot the fault then they won't have to fix it.

IMO the UK is in it's own little shell when it comes to buying and selling Motor Homes and the UK produced vans would never sell in Europe, and not because they are RHD, it's because they are not built for high usage.

The Euro builders appreciate that the buyer expects to do thousands of km, in their vans, year on year without things falling off.

The average Brit van is built for the average Brit user who keeps it on the drive ten months of the year and when it does go out it hardly gets warmed up, before it's on a camp site where it spends the entire holiday.

The chassis most vans are built on, are designed to go around the clock twice, but to listen to dealers in the UK if your van has done more than a couple of thousand miles a year it has no resale value.
On the Continent dealers are not too bothered about how many km it's done, as much as they are, about it's condition.

I also believe that the continental builders such as Trigano (Autotrail) build down to UK standards when they manufacture here. Their Tribute range, IMO, just look like they have been thrown together.

Would I buy British? certainly not a new one, but maybe one that has seen a bit more of the world than average and is still in one piece.

Pete:Cool:

 

[FULL TIMER]

It was owning a Swift group caravan that made me decide to build my own motorhome, nothing but faults bad workmanship and arguments trying to get warrenty work done, they once bragged about rolling caravans off the production line at the rate of 1 every 5 minutes I ended up writing to Swift and telling them maybe they should take 10 minutes and finish them before sending them out.

 

[Terry]

I am sorry to say this problem is not only on British vans -My mate was a dealer and they all came the same-broken hinges damaged w/tops all on new vans that the dealer has to fix before they can sell it -oh:--------- Be interested to see what Peter -JCM- has to say on the subject
terry

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}