Bob & Ann wrote:
PSUJIM85
It sounds like you have gotten a lot of feedback on your post. This forum is a great place to get input but you will still need to do much research on your own. I know that there has been input from two members that have own Newmars for up to 15 years and have never had a manufacturers repair. That is remarkable but please do your own research. I can say that Newmar still has dealerships with repair shops attached. It is probably for the other brands that they sell and all of the Newmars in the service area are probably in the shop to be detailed. You are about to spend a lot of money on whatever you buy. I still say as I did in my original post that both are great coaches. As a Tiffin owner I will state that they do stand behind their product which has made the Phaeton the number one selling diesel pusher in America for the last several years. If the coach was not a good unit people would catch on and its popularity would diminish. For what you are about to spend I recommend that you compare both coaches apple to apple and make your own decision. Either would be a good choice. Either will help you design what you want at the factory. Good luck with whatever you decide on. ENJOY!
2gypsies wrote:holstein13 wrote:PSUJIM85 wrote:If you are serious about buying a Newmar and know what you want, I highly recommend you skip your dealer for now. You can work directly with Newmar to design and build your coach. They will then shop it around to all the dealers and you'll get a competitive quote from several dealers. Although I'm very pleased with my dealer and think I got a good deal, I always wonder how much better I could have done had I gone this route.
Thanks very much for the feedback. I am actually also now looking at the Vantana 4369 and the Dutch Star 4369. You say you had your built? How do you get that done? I would like a custom interior or at least have some input.
Before ordering we tried to talk to every owner we would come across and we didn't receive any negative comments. That sold us. Good luck with your choice.
I know at the dealer you can get up to 30% off msrp. If you go your route, do you still think I can get that kind of discount from the msrp?
Thanks for your feedback.
We made a visit to the Newmar facility in Indiana and worked with the sales manager to talk about things that were possible and not possible. Then we took their floorplan of the model we wanted and thought out every inch of it depending on how we were to live in it. We made our list and sent them back to Newmar who refined them for us and asked lots of questions to make sure we were both on the right track. That eliminated some things and added some.
When we had it down exactly we sent a bid request to about 20 dealers and the one that came in the cheapest, we ordered from them. Even during the build Newmar always came back with questions that needed clarifying. We had no surprises and it was exactly as we had envisioned. This whole process from first visiting the factory to picking up our motorhome took approximately 4 months. That was in 2004.
It was just like building a home.....and it was our home for 8 great years.
mtrumpet wrote:We are the same way, nothing on the coach body.
We are very happy with our 02 Dutch Star. Haven't had any major issues with ours with the regard to the "Newmar" (House) portion. 13 years old and still solid as a rock. Any of the issues we've had were typical with Chassis/Engine components.
