Misleading avertising/ignorant sales people
I am wondering how common misleading advertising and ignorant sales people are in this business after going through a recent episode.
I am looking for a reasonably priced and not too large motorhome that will pull a large SUV or 3-horse trailer. I got excited when I saw an add for a class C that appeared to fit the bill so I called the dealer. The salesperson said that they did not have any of the class C's in stock but had a class A (hence posting here) that is not super expensive and will pull 10K. It sounded good to me so I started reading the literature on the web. Sure enough, the brochure bragged in two places the the coach comes with a 10K hitch. I searced videos online and found one put out by a different dealer that bragged that this coach had a towing capacity that matches $400K coaches for a fraction of the price.
Knowing that there is more to towing than the trailer hitch I contacted the factory and asked specifically what the tow capacity was. It turns out that the dry weight is only 9,500lbs less than GCWR and the GCWR is only 3K less that GCWR. This means that the actual tow capacity is 3,000 to 9,500lbs, depending on your weight, how much fuel, water, passengers and gear you add. A realistic tow rating is around 5,000lbs if you don't load the coach excessively. My factory contact assured me that the sales people were carefully trained not to confuse hitch rating with tow rating. I beg to differ based on the evidence I came across.
Have any of you run into this sort of thing? Do you think that is was mis-leading? How many of you would really like to have a lower priced (still not cheap) motorhome that really will pull 10,000lbs or am I the only one? The interesting thing is that this coach is transmission limited. Surely it would not cost that much more for the chassis builder to put in a little sturdier transmission. I am thinking that the tow capacity would not be advertised so much if it was not a desireable feature.
I am looking for a reasonably priced and not too large motorhome that will pull a large SUV or 3-horse trailer. I got excited when I saw an add for a class C that appeared to fit the bill so I called the dealer. The salesperson said that they did not have any of the class C's in stock but had a class A (hence posting here) that is not super expensive and will pull 10K. It sounded good to me so I started reading the literature on the web. Sure enough, the brochure bragged in two places the the coach comes with a 10K hitch. I searced videos online and found one put out by a different dealer that bragged that this coach had a towing capacity that matches $400K coaches for a fraction of the price.
Knowing that there is more to towing than the trailer hitch I contacted the factory and asked specifically what the tow capacity was. It turns out that the dry weight is only 9,500lbs less than GCWR and the GCWR is only 3K less that GCWR. This means that the actual tow capacity is 3,000 to 9,500lbs, depending on your weight, how much fuel, water, passengers and gear you add. A realistic tow rating is around 5,000lbs if you don't load the coach excessively. My factory contact assured me that the sales people were carefully trained not to confuse hitch rating with tow rating. I beg to differ based on the evidence I came across.
Have any of you run into this sort of thing? Do you think that is was mis-leading? How many of you would really like to have a lower priced (still not cheap) motorhome that really will pull 10,000lbs or am I the only one? The interesting thing is that this coach is transmission limited. Surely it would not cost that much more for the chassis builder to put in a little sturdier transmission. I am thinking that the tow capacity would not be advertised so much if it was not a desireable feature.
