Hi all,
For a while now, I have been having this question on my mind regarding the warranties offered in the RV industry. It is a general question, not specific to one manufacturer or another, and should be relevant to other RV classes although I chose this Class-C forum to post my question . And yet to my surprise, I couldnโt find any discussion about it online. Or, is it just I who regard this being a question? At any rate, I am encountering it on a first-hand basis only recently;
I am curious to know for sure, since I couldnโt find any definitive answer so far - When I purchase a brand new motorhome from a dealer (and the sale contract stated as such), exactly when does the warranty period start?
For a typical new motorized RV, bumper-to-bumper warranties for the coach and that of the chassis, on which the MH is built, are separate. My understanding is that the coach warranty should start on the day of the sale, but itโs less clear to me about the chassis warranty, which is offered and honored by another manufacturer (such as Ford, Chevrolet or Mercedes Benzโฆ).
A case in point: a purchase for a 2020 model year Class C MH was made a month or so ago (in Jan 2020), the chassis is a 2019 Chevrolet cutaway. A temporary license plate and registration sticker was given when the unit was driven off of the dealerโs lot. The permanent license plate & title were subsequently received a couple of weeks later, indicating to me that all purchase paperwork was processed properly.
Stating in the RV manufacturerโs sales literature in fine prints, it says the chassis warranty is subject to the vehicle manufacturerโs T&C (in this case, GM) so I used the VIN to check the warranty information in GMโs system and learned that the warranty has lapsed 9 months already (i.e. started in May 2019). I figure this is the date that the vehicle was delivered to the MH manufacturer.
Hence, I am curious by the following thought: it is not unusual to see newer model year MHs that are built on a much older model year chassis, for example some 2020 models built on a 2018 MBZ sprinter chassis. Does it mean that while you may have bought a new MH you actually didnโt get the (full) new vehicle warranty? How about the other equipment/fixtures/appliances on the coach, such as the genset, refrigerator and what have you? Do they all fall into the same scenario?
