Monaco motorhomes

[WyoTraveler]

For a MH company that everyone thinks is going out of business they sure are busy in Oregon. 1 month wait to get an appointment and they have MHs backed up for service. Like us, many are for paid service repairs and additions to their MH. Their manufacturing is closed here. They could double the amount of service bays here. Interesting to see the business here. I have heard Navistar just wants out of the MH diesel so not practical to own the MH manufacturing & install a Cummins diesel. What I found interesting is most of the MHs here for warranty repairs are diesel not the V10 gas RVs. Lead me to believe they may have some serious problems with the diesels. Maybe costing them money in repairs. JMHO.

[DSDP_Don]

The downfall of Monaco has been coming for years. They started by not listening to the customers. They had a year or so where you couldn't buy a Diplomat under 40+ feet when the rest of the industry was offering smaller coaches. Then they put the Navistar motor in the coach. Everyone says it works well, but how quickly everyone forgot about the Mercedes engine that showed up for a couple of years and disappeared. This will be the same thing with the Navistar.

I would not buy a coach with a Navistar engine, just because it wasn't hard to foresee that they would be short lived and consequently will be undesirable to later sell to savvy buyers. Lastly, the caps on the new coaches make them look like a "clown car". When someone says they get a lot of compliments about something, it means it's drawing attention and people don't know what else to say! Every time I see one of these going down the road, the back of the thing looks like a funhouse that's going to open up and spit clowns out the back.

I'm sorry to be so harsh for those that own these, but it's only my personal opinion, but I think many others share my opinion as sales figures show.

I love my Monaco and think it was the best bang for the buck when I bought it and one of the nicest coaches on the road. It still looks modern eight years later and it was obviously attractive to others because you see a ton of them on the road. If someone gave me $300,000.00 to buy a new coach today, I wouldn't even look a Monaco coach due to their narrow vision of what the public wanted. My choice would be an Allegro Bus or a Dutch Star, coaches that people want.

[dkreuzen]

The look of the front and rear caps is what ended up making the decision for us to buy a new Monaco. In a line up of new and old Motorhomes the Monaco is the only one that is different. I get many complements about it...

[Trap]

Devonm2012 wrote:
I was just wondering the other day what people were thinking of the new Monaco coaches. We talked to a LONG time Monaco salesman at great length (onsite for 12 days) and he had nothing nice to say about the new coaches, even though they still sell them. I actually heard him telling several customers to steer clear. You see TONS of the older ones on the road, but few of the new ones. I have only talked to three new owners (two Monaco and one Holiday Rambler) and all three were not impressed. I, personally, don't care for the Navistar front cap or rear cap design and wondered if they will be sticking it out or selling.

Most that I have been in contact with that have the new Monaco, are happy with them.
Our 2 month old new Diplomat has only had a couple of minor problems so far after living in it for two months.
We do have a bow in the bottom of one slide that we will get fixed in the fall.
As for the front and rear caps, maybe the best compliment we got was when parked beside a Phaeton, a couple of Newmars and a Beaver Contessa. Our guests said the others all looked the same, it was great to see something different.

From my experience so far I have nothing but good to say about the new Monaco's

[Devonm2012]

I was just wondering the other day what people were thinking of the new Monaco coaches. We talked to a LONG time Monaco salesman at great length (onsite for 12 days) and he had nothing nice to say about the new coaches, even though they still sell them. I actually heard him telling several customers to steer clear. You see TONS of the older ones on the road, but few of the new ones. I have only talked to three new owners (two Monaco and one Holiday Rambler) and all three were not impressed. I, personally, don't care for the Navistar front cap or rear cap design and wondered if they will be sticking it out or selling.

[2ndhom]

Oregon Motorcoach Center 29417 Airport Rd Eugene (541) 762-1505.
I have found this RV repair center a quality company. I tried Coburg a couple of years ago and was dis-satisfied having to go back for poor quality service on the water tanks and expanding seal on entrance door.

[Executive45]

Now that Navistar no longer has an interest in Monaco RV, we will give ASV an opportunity. I called them a couple weeks ago and got a positive reply that was right on the money....The glass company bought the building that housed Monaco and Cummins across the street was moving elsewhere too. Only thing left on that street will be the Volvo and Marathon Coach....we received excellent service at their Coburg facility when we were there two years ago, but there was a wait then too. They only have about six service bays and most of the parts now have to be shipped from Wakarusa to Oregon so that adds to the wait time.....Dennis

[The_Texan]

Monaco is now owned by the parent company of Fleetwood and in August, ALL manufacturing will cease and will be moved to the Fleetwood facilities in Decatur, IN and production facilities in Wakarusa will be owned by Thor. There will be no Monaco units produced until the end of 2013 or the first 0f 2014, after the move. right now it looks like they will not use the Roadmaster chassis, but will build Monaco line on their liberty chassis or the regular freightliner chassis. You can go with them, but the consensus on the Monaco forum is they will loose all their prior customers with the move. They do plan on closing the OR service center, according to the VP of the Monaco division......Goodbye Monaco.

[gswcgi]

I Own a Monaco product and bought it new in 2003 and while Monaco owned Monaco the service was very good at the factory. I went to Coburg when Navistar took over Monaco and it was very trying. I don't think Navistar had it's heart in the RV business and in my opinion Navistar never understood a business where they had to deal directly with the consumer. Their business is big trucks which are sold thru & by dealers and Navistar was insulated from the ultimate owner/buyer. That was very apparent in my experience at Coburg. When they bought Monaco out of bankruptcy they brought in someone from Ford who probably didn't understand the RV industry and buyer either. He may have been a good auto exec but Monaco never really put in the effort they needed to devote to win over or win back the consumer. Just my opinon.

[MountainAir05]

Here is some current reading on that issue


http://www.stnonline.com/home/latest-news/5319-navistar-sells-monaco-rv-business-to-allied-specialty-vehicles