Quality Comparison - Monaco vs Forest River

[Roadglider09]

Ok, I realize I'm not comparing comparable coaches; Our Dynasty was a '98, the Georgetown a '12. The Dynasty was an 8.3 ISC, 325hp w/Allison 6 speed, the GT an F53 w/V-10 and TorqShift Tranny. But during our recent 3k mile trip from Florida to Maine and back we noticed...

The F53 stripped chassis performed as expected. Rock solid and strong. The ride, while not as comfortable as the Monaco 8 air bag suspension, was actually very good for a non-air bag system, and better than we expected.
While the Monaco's 8.3 diesel laughed at steep grades going up, and coasted on the exhaust brake coming down, the V-10 with the torqshift performed equally as well given the differences between gas and diesel. The torqshift trans is amazing in the tow/haul mode, maintaining downhill speeds automatically with minimal service brake use, and the V-10 had more than enough balls to get us over the mountains.

The coach systems were pretty much a wash; not much difference between a Dometic fridge in a DP and one in a gasser.

The real difference was in the quality and design of the 2 coaches. The Monaco, although 15 years old, was a tank. The interior fit and finish, and quality of the materials used, was outstanding.
The Georgetown started becoming unglued shortly after we left home. The towel hooks in the bathroom fell off because Forest River uses cheap, incorrect wall anchors. The molding around one of the slides fell off the first time we put the slide out because they used cheap staples that are not long enough to do the job. The hanger bar in the closet fell off the 1st time I hung my leather jacket on it.
The "wood grain finish" which is really just contact paper, peels off too easily.
And there is way too little storage space. I never came close to having enough stuff to fill up my Monaco, whether inside or in the basement.
While the basement storage in the GT is acceptable, the inside storage is almost non-existent.

Pretty much all the GT issues are cometic and easily fixable, but I would have expected more out of a coach with about a $130k MSRP. Since Ford gets roughly $27k for the chassis, (that's retail, I'm sure Forest River gets them cheaper) the margin on these coaches to Forest River must be huge.

Again, I know I'm not comparing coaches in the same class, and despite a few easily fixable quality issues we are very happy with the Georgetown; It does exactly what we bought it to do.