RV industry death spiral...

et2 wrote:

And then all that will be left is Thor. The end of the industry.

That's already happening, but it's hardly the end of the industry.
Look, Thor, at least the sub-brand I'm familiar with (Keystone) appears to do exactly what's described in the article:

• Puts dealers between the company and the consumer
• Makes dealers accept what they deem appropriate for repair costs, in exchange for being able to sell their product
• Has no real "nationwide" warranty because dealers don't want to do work that they won't be paid fairly for
• Pays people that assemble the RVs by unit, not by hour or by a measure of post-manufacturing quality

Quality costs. It doesn't immediately help with profit margin, so it's something that can be shaved. And you can control the cost of crappy quality by making the dealer handle most issues.

Why do we put up with it? Because we don't buy RVs like we buy cars - most of us dont get a new unit <3 years. And there is no independent tracking of consumer quality. We're sold that more quality means more features even though those RVs rolled off the same assembly line assembled by the same people. Most states have very poor consumer protections, if any at all, around RVs.