Doom for the RV industry???

I think what gets me is the poor quality during the build process, most of it are very simple fixes to stop the warranty issues later down the line. My latest rv was near $50 thousand, and in no way compares to a 50 thousand dollar car. It should, in every way, take wiring for example, instead of making a loom and fastening it for quality, wires are strung loosely through the underbelly with no protection, look like hell and are easily damaged later. Cabinets are the same, my front closet wall is coming apart in a unit that is a year old, poor fit, no glue and stapled together. Generally, my unit is nice, but welds on the chassis are poor, two springs have gone flat, although the manufacturer has bent over backward to repair these issues, they should not happen in the first place, in general, I think the rv industry needs to put out better products that rarely see the repair dept of a dealership.

I don,t see the doom, maybe now we,ll get some quality in the making of rv,s .remember the rust buckets the auto industry put out in the 70,s

azdryheat wrote:
Illinois top court ruled a couple CAN sue and get their money back plus damages from the sale of an RV with an undisclosed defect. Every RV sold has something wrong with it and if all buyers can sue....

LINK

Interesting article.

However - "Doom & Gloom"? - doubt the RV industry will believe the sky is falling..:R

Anybody can sue anybody for anything.

We live in a litigious society.

Unless it's a lawsuit that benefits the attorneys (personal injury, etc.), the person bringing the lawsuit better have VERY, VERY DEEP pockets!!...:S

RV mfgrs ALL have legal counsel on the "ready line" - part of doing business - (and.....the buyers are already paying for it).

~

azdryheat wrote:
So many RV problems could be avoided by oversight during manufacture. My trailer had metal tape installed in the A/C duct before any of the sawdust was removed. Obviously the tape failed. Where was supervision?

((Where was the supervision)) Busy telling them to get the dang thing out the door so they can go home. Get quota done and you can leave early. Not conducive to building a quality RV.

So many RV problems could be avoided by oversight during manufacture. My trailer had metal tape installed in the A/C duct before any of the sawdust was removed. Obviously the tape failed. Where was supervision?

Or the manufacturers could make sure their products are built well in the first place.
Why is that so hard to do?

Some will still slip through. And the law can easily be abused. Precedent can be a dangerous thing.

jplante4 wrote:

free radical wrote:
Or the manufacturers could make sure their products are built well in the first place.
Why is that so hard to do?

Because no one will be able to afford to buy your product. You can get a well built coach right now... from Marathon, Liberty, Country Coach etc. Just bring your checkbook.

I disagree. I doubt it takes much more to build a quality product. Maybe just a few percent that the buyer would hardly notice. When I was starting out, I was lucky enough to find a reliable, long term dealer who steered me to picking a well made unit from a smaller builder. With the exception of a quirk or two, I got a well made RV at the same price I would have paid for a mass produced unit.

theoldwizard1 wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
Sounds like they were yanked around and it literally took an excessive amount of time to address.

Similar to automobiles, if they fix things in a timely manner, it's not covered by lemon laws but if it gets crazy, it is.

Lemon laws vary state to state, but in general, factory representatives (dealers) are given a certain number of attempts to repair an issue. Also there is a limited number of days that the vehicle can be away from the customer. If either are exceeded, it is a "lemon" and must be re-purchased from the customer at full price.

I am sure, every major auto manufacturer has had to "buy back" vehicles. In all case they are repaired and resold, typically with full disclosure and with the full factory warranty "clock" reset to zero.

IMHO, it about time this gets applied to RVs !

This does not have anything to do with "Lemon Laws".

What the Illinois Supreme Court ruled is that under the Illinois adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code, under two circumstances a buyer can "Revoke Acceptance" of the sale.

From the horses mouth;

We agree with this interpretation. The plain language of the statute evinces the General Assembly’s intention to allow a buyer to revoke acceptance of a substantially impaired commercial unit under two separate and distinct circumstances. The first circumstance is when the buyer knows of the nonconformity, the buyer accepts the nonconforming unit with a reasonable assumption that the nonconformity will be cured, and the seller fails to seasonably cure it. 810 ILCS 5/2-608(1)(a) (West 2014). The second is when the buyer accepts the nonconforming unit without knowledge of the nonconformity and either the nonconformity was difficult to discover or the seller assured her that the unit conformed to the specifications. Id. § 2-608(1)(b). ¶ 14 Both situations contemplate a nonconformity that substantially impairs the unit’s value to the buyer. Where they diverge is in the buyer’s expectation. The first contemplates a buyer who accepts a nonconforming unit and expects the seller to cure the nonconformity. When she does not get that cure seasonably, she can revoke her acceptance. The second contemplates a buyer who accepts what she believes to be a conforming unit. When she does not get that conforming unit, she can revoke her acceptance. Because we find this language plain and because subsection (1)(b) does not require that a buyer give the seller an opportunity to cure, we need not consider the requirements of other statutes that defendant argues are analogous.

This ruling is not specific to RV's. It supposedly can be applied to any type of vehicle, a new home, a TV, a can of beans, or a roll of toilet paper that your finger poked through. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. As I said before it all comes down to if a state adopted the UCC including the specific section / article of the UCC which is under Article 2. A state could adopt the entire code, a single article, or even a single clause / sentence. Its no different than a building code.

You can bet your rear end that the RVIA, RVDA, Palomino RV (Forest River) are going to provide the funds necessary to appeal this ruling. I would assume to Federal Court and maybe even to the SCOTUS eventually but I'm not an attorney so not sure, maybe one of the members here that is can chime in?

Stay tuned, for about 10 years, because this ruling took 5 years to shake out.

free radical wrote:
Or the manufacturers could make sure their products are built well in the first place.
Why is that so hard to do?

Because no one will be able to afford to buy your product. You can get a well built coach right now... from Marathon, Liberty, Country Coach etc. Just bring your checkbook.

theoldwizard1 wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
Sounds like they were yanked around and it literally took an excessive amount of time to address.

Similar to automobiles, if they fix things in a timely manner, it's not covered by lemon laws but if it gets crazy, it is.

Lemon laws vary state to state, but in general, factory representatives (dealers) are given a certain number of attempts to repair an issue. Also there is a limited number of days that the vehicle can be away from the customer. If either are exceeded, it is a "lemon" and must be re-purchased from the customer at full price.

I am sure, every major auto manufacturer has had to "buy back" vehicles. In all case they are repaired and resold, typically with full disclosure and with the full factory warranty "clock" reset to zero.

IMHO, it about time this gets applied to RVs !

That's all well and good but you left out the response likely to occur...They will simply stop selling in Illinois and thus not be subject to Illinois lemon laws.