I'm a software tester, I test an Internet Site for a major financial institution. The idea of "quality" has come up many times in my profession. And I have finally come up with a definition of what "Quality" is: An item is said to have "Quality" when it meets the conditions for which it was created.
For example, a chair's requirement might be designed and created to hold the maximum weight of 125 pounds. So it's created with light wood, it's glued with an marginal glue, and it's finished with a mid-grade varnish. When someone who weighs 125 pounds sites on the chair and it successfully supports him, and the chair does not collapse, we can all agree it has "quality". It is doing what it was designed to do.
However, if a 600 pound man sits on the same chair and it collapses, far too often it's implied that the chair was not made with any "quality" and it's a piece of junk. Is it "junk?" Absolutely not! It was designed to support 125 pounds, not 600 pounds, so when the 600 pound person sat, it broke. That's not the fault of the chair, the manufacturer, or any else. The reason the chair collapsed is because the person who sat on it, had a wrong misconception of what the chair should do!
So it's the same with any RV. Quality is a relative term. Thor Industries has made successful and good "quality" RV for many, many years, as has many other manufactures. But it only takes one negative review to bring doubt on the entire industry. And if the truth be told, more than likely, the problem was not in the way the camper was manufactured, more than likely the owner tried to use it in such a way it was not designed to be used.
So when someone starts talking about "bad quality", keep this thought in mind!
(Not only am I software tester that has to deal with this very concept every day, but I also have a relative that weighs over 500 pounds, and every time I see him sit, I wonder if the chair will hold him because most normal, every day, chairs are not built to support that much weight!) -- a real example here!
