NOOOO! Thor buys Jayco

[rvrev2]

Just read that Thor has bought Jayco for $576 million. Wall Street Journal article at this address: http://www.wsj.com/articles/thor-industries-to-buy-jayco-for-576-million-1467375874

Jayco was the largest, family owned RV manufacturer in America (if not the world). I was saving money in order to replace my aging Jayco with a new one. Thor has not been portrayed well on these forums, so this brings me great concern.

Seems like all the good manufacturers have gone:
Nuwa (Hitchhiker)no longer manufacturing.
Excel (Peterson Industries) shut down their business.
DRV (bought out)
Teton (shut down their business)


From the article: Jayco will operate as a subsidiary of Thor, with the existing management continuing to lead the business. Derald Bontrager, Jayco’s chief executive, said one of the things the company found “most attractive” about the tie-up was Thor’s decentralized business structure.

[Homer1]

Don't write off the outfit that bought Fleetwood, they are moving up.

[braindead0]

Or their quality will go to heck and something new will come along...

[colliehauler]

It will probably boil down to two RV companies Thor and Forest River. Simply because of their purchasing power compared to what's left of the independents.

[fla-gypsy]

The family that owned it just retired! All of them probably

[wing_zealot]

camperforlife wrote:
I was surprised when KZ sold to Thor and now Jayco. When these family companies hit the second and especially third generations money seems to out weigh family.

Why work when you got $576M? I could live extremely well on the interest alone and never work a day it my life.

[camperforlife]

I was surprised when KZ sold to Thor and now Jayco. When these family companies hit the second and especially third generations money seems to out weigh family.

[coolbreeze01]

Maybe Jayco quality will improve and they will offer a 3 year warranty.

[Homer1]

Sorry to hear about this. Not because I think Thor will **** JAYCO, but because JAYCO always seemed to do a decent job and weathered out the big downturn. We need some independents to keep the waters stilled.

[Mich_F]

BB_TX wrote:
Thor, like so many other very large business entities, gets a bad rap for little more reason than for being so huge and being an easy target.

I doubt there will be any difference other than ownership. Thor also owns Airstream and I haven't read any comments about any drop in quality after that purchase.

X2 Thor has owned Airstream since 1980
Thor history

[BB_TX]

Thor, like so many other very large business entities, gets a bad rap for little more reason than for being so huge and being an easy target.

I doubt there will be any difference other than ownership. Thor also owns Airstream and I haven't read any comments about any drop in quality after that purchase.