Come on Fleetwood!

The Fleetwood today is not the same Fleetwood from 2008 and back, its a whole new company after BK in 2009, the new company just bought the name and the equipment and moved the headquarters from California to Indiana.

The really sad thing is, Fleetwood will send a unit like that, to a major RV show like HERSHEY and put it on display without fixing the obvious problems.

I noticed that the last time we went to the Hershey show. And, it was not just Fleetwood.

It makes you wonder, if they will display something with glaring quality issues, what did they miss or screw up that you can't see?

We have a 96 Southwind and I"m happy with the quality. The newer ones we are looking at, not so much.

Maybe it will take imported RV's to get our industry back on track?
Similar to the quality Japanese cars that got the attention of the American public, and eventually Detroit. ;)

gbopp wrote:
The really sad thing is, Fleetwood will send a unit like that, to a major RV show like HERSHEY and put it on display without fixing the obvious problems.

I noticed that the last time we went to the Hershey show. And, it was not just Fleetwood.

It makes you wonder, if they will display something with glaring quality issues, what did they miss or screw up that you can't see?

We have a 96 Southwind and I"m happy with the quality. The newer ones we are looking at, not so much.

Maybe it will take imported RV's to get our industry back on track?
Similar to the quality Japanese cars that got the attention of the American public, and eventually Detroit. ;)

It's not Fleetwood sending them to the show per se. It's the dealer. But to your point, now Fleetwood AND the dealer have sent a slipshod unit to a show. So it goes beyond manufacturer quality, it's dealer apathy as well. But they don't have to care. Cuz someone will buy it. It doesn't stop there. Usually I find I know much more about their product than they do. The whole RV game isn't about the product. It's about the profit. Make em fast and sell em. And no one, from the consumer to the government is making them do anything different.

"Maybe it will take imported RV's to get our industry back on track?"

Not likely to happen with such a low volume product and duties would probably be prohibitive.

Effy wrote:
. The whole RV game isn't about the product. It's about the profit. Make em fast and sell em. And no one, from the consumer to the government is making them do anything different.

I think you mean 'they make em fast and CHEAP and sell em.'

This is pretty much the whole story. As long as we keep buying junk, they'll keep building junk.

Yes, it is the dealer sending the junky unit to RV shows. I would think the manufacturer would send a rep to large shows to check on the display. I'm guessing they do not, apparently they are not concerned about their image.

And yes, I realize importing large RV's is cost prohibitive.
I just feel better whining about it.. :)

The sad thing is as mentioned by others, the dealer had this sitting out front as a display to be seen. It just floors me that even they think these things don't matter to people. It doesn't say much for them personally. As I said I, if in the buying mode - I would look to other manufactures.

We gave up on a move from our fifth wheel to a motorhome after looking last summer , I could go on about each one we looked at but every coach we looked at from upper end gas to entry level diesels had poor quality issues, a few of the things were under powered diesels ,moldings on the floor as you enter the coach that had fallen from the slides, check engine light on during test drive, bad graphics and pain, broken furniture and interior doors, lights that did not work, broken appliances and some really bad floor plans which would be a personal choice but I don't want to sit sideways to watch TV, We Just could not see spending that much money on units that were broken and falling apart on the dealers lots, I have to say I don't think it is just a Fleetwood problem, we looked at Tiffin, Winnebago, Thor products and a few others, We did learn that the higher end units are better and may try again on something higher end a few years older which is what many motorhome owning members here advised back then. It is a shame because I know I would be willing to spend a little more for a quality built unit

et2 wrote:
The sad thing is as mentioned by others, the dealer had this sitting out front as a display to be seen. It just floors me that even they think these things don't matter to people. It doesn't say much for them personally. As I said I, if in the buying mode - I would look to other manufactures.

As a friend of mine who was in the market for a new unit found out, if questioned about a quality issue, the dealer will just offer a discount. The unit he was looking at also had a poor paint job. The dealer offered him an additional 10% off if he took it as is. Of course in most cases, a 40% discount from MSRP is pretty close to normal.
Basically a lot of people are more interested in saving a few bucks than holding out for top quality.

Perhaps the REAL money isn't in RV sales.... but repairs.

I was on a dealers lot early yesterday and was surprised at how some of the more expensive rigs were so badly designed. Sure, they'd be really nice once all the slides were opened but they'd be horrible to spend 5 days in while traveling to say, Alaska. Not designed to stop along the side of the road to enjoy the view, that's for sure.

But I guess that's par for the course. Go tour used RVs from just before the crash of '08 and you'll find a slew of poorly designed and built rigs too.

I noticed that all the Winnebagos the designs looked like they'd lost all their good people and a committee of 'never-been-in-a-RV (more than a few minutes)' people took over the design duties. The newer Journey's were really not to my liking and showed a lack of detailing.

A newer Thor design team decided they like the floor plan of my 2002 Journey as much as I do as theirs is a nearly exact copy.

I'm happy that I made the decisions to buy used, with low miles, and for exactly the features I was looking for.

I also discovered that it's unlikely I'll ever move back to a smaller rig.