Campfire Time wrote:
I had a conversation with our dealer's owner in '03 when we purchased our previous trailer. His assessment at the time was that the RV industry was very immature compared to the auto industry. 12 years later and nothing has changed.
There is only one thing that would force the RV industry to change. Everyone has to refuse to purchase until the industry stands behind what it sells. No sales = no money. But we as consumers are going to keep buying, thus giving the industry no incentive to change.
....and to this point, I have made the following observation in other threads like this: in time, the quality control will get ramped up, and the product will be better. BUT....the price will also go up as a result. Personally, being "frugal", and two, having a full shop and a full complement of tools here at home, I would happily tell "all" of them....keep your warranty, kick back a few hundred dollars to me at time of sale. I'll self insure, and take it from you as is.
If I could have done that on each and every new car, truck, trailer, boat and motorcycle I have bought since the late 1960's, I'd be way ahead on the $$. In total, my entire life, I have had way less than $500 worth of warranty repair work done. So to me, it means almost nothing.
Some of this comes from our personal background and perspective. I grew up poor, in the 50's and early 60's, and did not even know what a warranty meant. We got everything used. Second, I cut my teeth in my early driving days with used british sports cars and unreliable second hand motorcycles.
"Everything" I've had since then has been a dozen times more reliable. Growing up with junk, we learned how to fix everything ourselves.
