HR Endeavor

The more things change the more they stay the same. Monaco is not the company it was. I said they were one hurricane away from trouble and it was not a hurricane but issues at Lazy Days. They fixed those but stooped buying inventory for awhile and with the recession and credi crunch and lack of floorplan dollars the dealers did what they could yo survive including put the coaches back to Monaco. Is it the same going forward, no but they are supporting the legacy coaches and that is worth a lot. Would I buy a new one, but they were a close second when I bought my FT.

Now FT us building a coach for Motorhomes Specialist on a K 3 chassis to reduce costs I would figure as it will be priced about 100-200k below the travel ride coaches. So it is coming to everyone it seems.

Webhannet, no one wanted pretty much anything that was for sale including GM cars or anything from most car makers when the recession was starting. Ford survived without a bailout, the others needed help.

In my opinion only, Monaco/Beaver/Safari went WAY too far out on a limb and cashed strapped themselves. Happens when a company is not privately owned. The CEO's like to act like big dogs and stretch the credit way too far and it came back and slapped them big time.

Many RV companies went out of business, the secure (generally privately owned) one's held on for the ride.

Monaco made a good motorhome. Many people refer to older Monaco's as good buys because of the quality. We have semi-monocoque chassis's and out-board airbags which is a good design. The die hard 'Roadmaster' Monaco people will keep the older Monaco's selling.

There was value in the Monaco name. I think Navistar paid $50M for it but I'm not sure what Allied paid.

MM.

RE: Bulldogs. They pretty much DID buy it for nothing - no one wanted it. There was nothing left of the dealer network - no exclusive products or technology, and what there was was impractical to use. They bought the brand names for the most part - and what's in a name?

Tiffin was in a growing mode when the recession hit - they held on for the ride - and survived.

Monaco was nearing death when the recession hit, and there was little there to save. What was there was smoke and mirrors that looked like a growing company.

Having recently traveled with two Navistar Monaco's I was not very impressed... rear radiators and marginal power compared to my heavy Dynasty. The trailing arms where much smaller and closer to the ground. Did not care for the V look. The Dynasty owner was having a good case of the "New MH Blues".
For me what made Monaco special is it's solid handling because of the eight outboard airbags. As for obsolete parts for a Roadmaster... the air bags are Firestone and the bushings in the trailing arms are a common item. Everything else is the same as any other DP. That said, there was a recent post of broken trailing arm supports on a Monaco Dynasty with 130K miles on it.
ASV will fix two items on MH's they did not build next week at a rally in OR and the Monaco 800 # is still active staffed by the same techs that have been there for years.

Interesting discussion about obsolete parts and the Roadmaster chassis . HWH states that they can still make any part for any thing that they have ever built.

Don, do you say the same about car manufacturers? BMW bought RR and probably share some components. BMW's are made in Germany and RR in England. My Land Rover is owned by the Indian Company Tata Motors but it's still made in England. Bentley is owned by Volkswagen, things change in life but they can still keep the brands separate. We'll see how well they do.

Life moves on. Things are improved. There will always be die-hard people for every manufacturer whether it be car/boat/RV. I believe Monaco's will still be Monaco's even though the Roadmaster chassis as been changed/improved and is not an exact replica of the old Roadmaster chassis.

All parts seem to go obsolete. My '64 Rolls Royce needed a new power steering gear box.... Rolls Royce is still in business but they don't make a '64 power steering gear box anymore (shock). So, they had to rebuild the one that I have at almost $5,000. It happens to most everything if you keep it long enough.

If Allied keeps bringing out new product on the Monaco line and makes them different than Fleetwood by the looks/amenities/design, I think they can make a go of it and Monaco will have their own identity.

I have gear-head friends that just went nuts when Ford bought Jaguar, that was the end of Jaguar for them. Ford improved Jaguar where they would actually run without breaking down. They got rid of the Lucas wiring, etc. Jaguars actually became very reliable vehicles after 1995.

MM.

As I said, the parts department is still open, but these are NOT Monaco coaches......just the name.

I also got the link to the new website. If you read the literature, the coaches are being built on a FREIGHTLINER chassis. It's just a Fleetwood or American product with a Monaco name tag.

They (Allied) is making a go of it and not destroying Monaco or HR...parts/service/support is widely available plus their two service centers plus Alliance Coach which is all ex Monaco people)..they are going to streamline each brand with different products and bring back the Diplomat and we will see how it goes...I have a solid coach and fortunately, good support. So don't count HR or Monaco out, Allied isn't dumb, they wouldn't have purchased it for nothing...Navistar speculated and they had nothing to lose as they stiffed the older people on warranty and recalls..so they unloaded it..Allied is motorhomes while Navistar thought its motorhomes were just a bastard child..

Interesting, I just got a new email from Monaco introducing their new web site. They are going to unveil the new 2015 Diplomat soon. Looks like Monaco is moving forward!

MM.

In case you haven't been following the news, Monaco is officially gone. After closing their doors a few years ago, Navistar bought the rights and tried to make a go of it. They failed and then sold the rights to ASV, the parent company of Fleetwood. Recently, ASV released the NEW Monaco Dynasty, advertising that they had brought back the Monaco coach, which was just a new motor home with Monaco written on it.

The Roadmaster chassis, which defined Monaco coaches, is gone. ASV destroyed the specs and won't be making anymore Roadmaster chassis'. So they're selling a name, not a Monaco. The only good news is that Monaco parts is still open, but that won't be much help in the future when most of the parts are obsolete.