AsheGuy wrote:
wincrasher65 wrote:
If you want to make bold proclamations about quality, here's one for you - Winnebago Travato is the highest quality RV I've ever experienced! It's not had one single breakdown that required a trip to the dealer. The chassis had provided the promised MPG and performance without a single issue.
That doesn't say much for the RVs you have previously had. I would say this applies to many class B owners in the first year.
In fact in 10 years and 124K miles we have never had a breakdown that required a trip to the dealer. The closest was the "infamous" Sprinter turbo resonator that failed, but we were able to drive from Nova Scotia to Boston to get it fixed under warranty. And this was after 50K miles and three years.
LOL. My statement is more of a joke than anything. My van is fairly cheap and without alot of features. But I am amazed at how well it's holding up considering how hard I bang on it.
In my past, I've owned the large deisel pusher with all those bells and whistles. That I bought brand new BTW. It was not a fun experience. I see a push to make our B's like those big RV and all the fustrations and problems that go along with them.
Actually, you make my point though. People are interchanging the words "quality" for "features". They are not the same thing. Cutting cabinets on a CNC machine is not quality. It's a feature. Quality is selecting materials that will be environmentally stable and putting them together so they won't come apart or develop cracks over time.
Is solid hardwood screwed together "higher quality" than some built from composites with a welded aluminum frame? Time will tell, but my expectation is the "cheap", "low end" framed will prove to be more long lasting and problem free. Yes, it's not as pretty.
But beyond that, is a diesel heating system "higher quality" than a trusty old Suburban? Who knows, maybe it will be, or it will be like the many complained about in the big rigs.
Fancy in-floor heat can be defeated with a single misplaced screw or sliced wire rubbed raw by miles of over-the-road use. So is it a "higher quality" system if it fails in a few years, and a cheap, noisy, gas furnace works without attention for 10 years?
Having your iPhone control features in an RV? I know you can get the interface hardware for a few hundred bucks, but would you really want that over a few rocker switches? How many times I've picked up my ringing iPhone and it won't swipe I couldn't recount. No thanks. That's not quality either, but a crazy feature. But that's what all the big $ busses have (ipads actually) so it must be something people want. I'd rather have the multiplex wiring and switches you see in a Pleasureway (as a standard feature BTW).
Airbags? Is that quality or a feature? I've experienced and airbag failure on my pusher that almost got me killed. It did leave me stranded along a busy highway for hours and resulted in a $1500 tow bill. That was fun. Only 1 out of 8 blew, so that's a pretty good quality record, right?
Davdd is right, I don't know all there is to know about ARV pricing. I haven't wasted their time by having a van configured. But they START at $169k. And skyrocket from there depending how crazy you want to get. You can easily add $20k just on the van options from Mercedes!. And then add Lithiums and solar and on and on. But Davydd had posted in the past that this was likely to be the most expensive van they've ever built. They've posted one used van as high as $189k with fewer features, so draw your own conclusions. So don't lecture me about not understanding the costs. I just haven't drunk the Kool-Aid as some have.
But my point isn't to deride spending money on what you want. If it gives you pleasure, then so what. My gripe is that it's thrown out there that everything else is just sub-standard. My point is you can get a lifetime's worth of nearly problem free enjoyment out of something that is reasonably priced, or even cheap, if it's features are "good enough". "Good enough", screwed together with reasonable care, is "high quality".
