Thor buys Jayco

az99 wrote:
Jayco's lack of quality will be a perfect fit within Thor.

X-2, the seams on the Jayco TT that I've seen don't look good.

for guidance I'd look back to when National bought Country Coach or Monaco bought Beaver. Neither went well in the long run.

IMO a pre-Thor Entrgra will be just fine. As I said before, if I were thinking of buying one I'd be doing it sooner rather than later.

They (like every other takeover) will tell you everything will remain the same. Everything rarely remains the same for very long. Thor bought Jayco for 1 reason. To make more $$. Whatever needs to change to make that happen, will.
They can say Entegra is stand alone. But buying one now would be a gamble. In 2-3 years from now will it be valued as an Entega or just another Thor?

Dealers and suppliers will surely know the takeover happened. The average camper trailer buyer will probably not know or care as long as the monthly payment is what they can afford.

bullydogs1 wrote:
Everyone is having knee jerk reactions to this, including me, but because I have a horse in this race..I went a bit further..The President of Entegra (Tadd Jenkins) is speaking or in correspondence with all Entegra Coach owners. This is going to be an independent freestanding entity which has Thor as a parent. Now no one can predict the future years from now, but for now, NOTHING IS CHANGING...no coaches, no warranty and more importantly NOT CUSTOMER SUPPORT nor any personnel including upper management (Bontrager included)....I believe Thor is going to use the Entegra flag as their upper echelon to break into the luxury market..Only time will tell but for now Entegra will stay as it is..and I have one with the up to date and proven old standards plus my 2 year warranty. The fact Tadd Jenkins took the time to actively reassure me and gave me his cell number tells me the dedication that current management has and that although there is a parent, things will stay the same as long as Entegra has sales, and they do...

Contextually, his even having to even do this is a testament to quality issues of the parent company.

Let me give an example of this where things are working out. Harris Teeter is a premium supermarket popular in Va, NC and Sc...Their produce is first rate, their meat delicious, the deli is excellent with their brand and boars head as well...Sometimes it is priced higher but things go on special and that's when you stock up..The service there is first rate and they even let you substitute an item when a brand is out of stock or a raincheck, your choice..The service is outstanding...Two years ago, Kroger bought them out and promised it would be a free standing subsidiary....we were skeptical..in two years, NOTHING CHANGED...the same people, the same policies, the same quality and you would never know it reports up to Kroger...I only hope this is the same path Entegra follows....

It's just business and people are only numbers.

Considering the years of hard work/honesty efforts associated with the Amish nature & the Bontrager's history, I am really disappointed in what appears to be a sell out.
And I am only speaking of Entegra, don't know the Jayco product.

bullydogs1 wrote:
Everyone is having knee jerk reactions to this, including me, but because I have a horse in this race..I went a bit further..The President of Entegra (Tadd Jenkins) is speaking or in correspondence with all Entegra Coach owners. This is going to be an independent freestanding entity which has Thor as a parent. Now no one can predict the future years from now, but for now, NOTHING IS CHANGING...no coaches, no warranty and more importantly NOT CUSTOMER SUPPORT nor any personnel including upper management (Bontrager included)....I believe Thor is going to use the Entegra flag as their upper echelon to break into the luxury market..Only time will tell but for now Entegra will stay as it is..and I have one with the up to date and proven old standards plus my 2 year warranty. The fact Tadd Jenkins took the time to actively reassure me and gave me his cell number tells me the dedication that current management has and that although there is a parent, things will stay the same as long as Entegra has sales, and they do...

I would expect that to be the case...for now. Thankfully yours is a pre-Thor version.

I snowmobile a bunch. Klim was a very well respected brand of clothing. Polaris bought them, said the same as you have been told, nothing will change, etc.

For the first few years that was indeed the case, then things changed - Polaris wanted their investment $$$ returned. Manufacturing moved to China, quality has gone down, customer service has become a joke.

These purchases very rarely result in improvements for the consumer. Given Thors track record I expect this to be a total and complete train wreck.

If I were looking for an Entegra I'd be buying sooner rather than later. I fully believe today's Entegra is a quality coach, I would expect that may not be the case in a few years. I hope I'm wrong.

bullydogs1 wrote:
Everyone is having knee jerk reactions to this, including me, but because I have a horse in this race..I went a bit further..The President of Entegra (Tadd Jenkins) is speaking or in correspondence with all Entegra Coach owners. This is going to be an independent freestanding entity which has Thor as a parent. Now no one can predict the future years from now, but for now, NOTHING IS CHANGING...no coaches, no warranty and more importantly NOT CUSTOMER SUPPORT nor any personnel including upper management (Bontrager included)....I believe Thor is going to use the Entegra flag as their upper echelon to break into the luxury market..Only time will tell but for now Entegra will stay as it is..and I have one with the up to date and proven old standards plus my 2 year warranty. The fact Tadd Jenkins took the time to actively reassure me and gave me his cell number tells me the dedication that current management has and that although there is a parent, things will stay the same as long as Entegra has sales, and they do...

You may be right. OTOH, spending half a million on a luxury product, and having the president of the company spending time to personally contact you, when a major shake-up happens, is something I would expect any intelligent company to do. Look at Tiffin as an example of how to properly kiss up to keep the customer happy. That said, will the owner of a Thor/Jayco $18K Jay Flight end up benefiting from the deal? My guess is the best they can hope for is the existing status quo, which is hardly impressive.