Monaco...The Good years and the bad...

gemsworld wrote:

Ocean Mist wrote:

gemsworld wrote:
I had a new 2008 and it was the most expensive piece of junk I have ever owned. The company went belly up the following year.

i'm sorry to hear that. What Coach do you have now?

I got rid of the Monaco and got a Winnebago. Out of the three motorhomes I've owned, the Winnebago was the best.

I have the feeling Monaco already knew in 2008 they were in trouble and going down in flames really fast so they were cranking out c r a p p y units out the door as fast as possible to get some money coming into the company.

Most dealers at the time would not do warranty work on Monacos unless the customers paid for the work since Monaco wasn't reimbursing them for the work. The family owned dealer that sold me the Monaco got stiffed $300K in unpaid warranty work by Monaco. From what I understand, that was small potatoes compared to what other dealers lost.

When Navistar purchased Monaco, it made the decision not to honor Monaco warranties or reimburse part of the money owed to the dealers by Monaco. That decision made have made financial sense at the time, but it was an utter disaster from the customers and dealers point of view. This decision angered so many dealers and customers that the Monaco dealership network and the amount of Monacos sold under Navistar plummeted to almost nothing. No wonder why Navistar had to sell Monaco even though it got a great deal when it bought the company for 5 cents on the dollar.

In short, I would definitely stay away from the pre-bankrutpcy '08, '09 models, and maybe even the '07s. Personally, I would not buy any Monacos made by Navistar, specially the ones with their own diesel engines.

Good luck!