Wasn't a dealer breaker for me when we bought our Fox Mountain. Our purchasing dealer is 300 miles away. Nice thing about Northwood is you can call and actually talk to a tech guy and ask questions about problems or anything else. We had a very slight water leak at the manifold during the 1st week of ownership. I called Northwood and talked to the service tech and he sent me a new part. I couldn't get the leak stopped with the new part, so I called back and he set me up with a local independent RV shop. Took the 5th wheel down and 1 hr latter I left with it fixed.
Even with the few minor problems I've had I still don't see much else out there in the same price range that I'm interested in other than Outdoor RV.
You could call Northwood and ask them about warranty work in your area to hear what they say.