It's been my observations over many years and vehicle purchases that in the industry (both automotive and RV) the Sales Dept and the Service Dept are basically run as two completely different companies. Sales makes a big deal out of their Service Dept to aid in making the sale, but once you've signed the papers and driven off you're forgotten - until you're ready for a new purchase. The Service Dept doesn't care about building a dealership-customer relationship with good timely service that could result in another sale down the road.
Second, the RV industry, unlike the auto industry has a completely different warranty setup. In the auto industry the vehicle you buy is typically covered by two warranty policies, one for the tires and one for everything else. And the "everything else" warranty is backed up the the manufacturer to the point that you can go to virtually any dealer in the country and get prompt warranty work done. The RV industry is completely different here - Sales leads you to believe you're getting a warranty similar to what you get in an auto, but in fact you get a library book full of warranties. When you have a problem it's up to you to find out which warranty applies and find someone who will honor that warranty and do the work in a timely fashion. The RV manufacturers are usually no help in getting their dealers to tow the line either, and often you're forced to try and get warranty work done with the dealer you bought it from - no matter how far that may be from where you are when you need service.
Finally, from what I can tell, Thor is more into building and selling units as fast as they can thru as many dealers as possible. For some of their lines they offer virtually identical floor-plans and options under multiple nameplates. They claim this is to give the buyer more choices, but it seems to me it's a way of undercutting their own dealers. A dealer may think he's got quite a large territory in their dealership agreement only to find that it's be cut in half by another dealer selling the same type of units under a different nameplate right down the street from him.
