A small class C I saw in Scotland

our MVP class c is only 19 feet on a E-350 chassis with the 18" dinette slide out. it's all in how you use it and how much motor home you want.

The Boxer/Ducato has a 70% market share of motorhomes in Europe, as per one of the RV magazines there.

The biggest issue is that the GVWR/GCWR ratings of the Euro-vans are smaller than the Ford Econoline/Chevy Express chassis ratings. While a slideout wouldn't even trouble a Ford E-450, it might nearly overload a Ducato based motorhome.

White Beard wrote:

mlts22 wrote:
I think with gas prices high, and the fact that Ford is going to stop producing their Econoline vans and chassis offerings, the European RV makers may make a dent in the US market.

Ford is also phasing out the Econoline van chassis, which makes the entire point moot in a few years anyway with regards to class "C" models, so the US RV industry will eventually be dragged to Ducatos and Transits sooner or later.

Yes , I agree on those , but not on the Citroen chassis.

What's wrong with the Citroen-badged van? It is a license built Ducato from PSA rather than FIAT, just some minor styling changes for the Peugeot and Citroen badges. If there are problems, we should be aware, because Ram Promaster will be the same thing.

White Beard wrote:
That's exactly the kind of vehicule I'm looking for.

Wish they made them & sold them here.

"They" did, except the Euro type RVs made in the U.S. got U.S. market features like full bathrooms, holding tanks, generators, air conditioners. We didn't buy many of them.

Main producer sticking their neck out to try to sell us Euro RVs was Winnebago, with the LeSharo on Renault platform evolving into Rialta on the VW T4 platform, made and sold here at least through 2004.

Winnebago also made a compact, front drive, more conventional C, sold as Vista and Itasca Sunstar. Also on the T4, also close to Euro size and weight limits, with features for U.S. like A/C, gensets, full bathrooms with holding tanks. That one was also made through 2004.

What killed them here, for a while, was not so much slow sales as loss of a platform, when VW stopped importing the T4. That had a lot to do with a punitive tariff on imports of commercial vehicles in a certain size range, and VW just wasn't selling enough T4s to make it worth while to set up manufacture inside NAFTA area, to get around the tariff. That's what it will take to get Ducato, Transit, Master here, as Toyota, Nissan, Daimler and Volvo have had to do to sell us vans, trucks, and motorcoaches.

mlts22 wrote:
I think with gas prices high, and the fact that Ford is going to stop producing their Econoline vans and chassis offerings, the European RV makers may make a dent in the US market.

Ford is also phasing out the Econoline van chassis, which makes the entire point moot in a few years anyway with regards to class "C" models, so the US RV industry will eventually be dragged to Ducatos and Transits sooner or later.

Yes , I agree on those , but not on the Citroen chassis.

I think with gas prices high, and the fact that Ford is going to stop producing their Econoline vans and chassis offerings, the European RV makers may make a dent in the US market.

Ford is also phasing out the Econoline van chassis, which makes the entire point moot in a few years anyway with regards to class "C" models, so the US RV industry will eventually be dragged to Ducatos and Transits sooner or later.

mlts22 wrote:

White Beard wrote:
That's exactly the kind of vehicule I'm looking for.

Wish they made them & sold them here.

I wouldn't be surprised if they started coming to US shores in the next year or two. The new Ford Transit will be shipping summer of next year, and Dodge is getting the ProMaster vans out the door (think Fiat Ducatos/Citroen Boxers with a Ram badge, and automatic transmissions.) Of course, the Mercedes Sprinter has done wonders for the van chassis market with its MPG.

The only thing really stopping European RV makers from getting a foothold in the US once the Euro-vans are shipping is the fact that American campgrounds can't handle European cassette toilets, so the floorplan designs center around where the black tank (and the toilet on top of it) are placed. European rigs have more flexibility since the cassette toilet just needs to be adjacent an outside wall so one can remove/replace the cassette.

Your message is hopeful , but I really doubt that these are sent in the US market.

White Beard wrote:
That's exactly the kind of vehicule I'm looking for.

Wish they made them & sold them here.

I wouldn't be surprised if they started coming to US shores in the next year or two. The new Ford Transit will be shipping summer of next year, and Dodge is getting the ProMaster vans out the door (think Fiat Ducatos/Citroen Boxers with a Ram badge, and automatic transmissions.) Of course, the Mercedes Sprinter has done wonders for the van chassis market with its MPG.

The only thing really stopping European RV makers from getting a foothold in the US once the Euro-vans are shipping is the fact that American campgrounds can't handle European cassette toilets, so the floorplan designs center around where the black tank (and the toilet on top of it) are placed. European rigs have more flexibility since the cassette toilet just needs to be adjacent an outside wall so one can remove/replace the cassette.

That's exactly the kind of vehicule I'm looking for.

Wish they made them & sold them here.