Lantley wrote:



It's took competition from Japan back in the 70's to force Americans to build a better car.

Part of the problem is people expect their RV to be as reliable and solid as a car and it is not.

JimK-NY wrote:



None of this matches my experience or the reports I hear from others. First most new cars are quite reliable and don't have any need for initial repairs. My wife and I have 2015 cars that have required only oil changes, replacement wiper blades and replacement batteries. My 2018 truck has had a couple of oil changes and nothing else. That does not seem to be the case for RVs. New RVs always seem to have a list of items that need to be fixed due to poor design or quality of construction.

RVs often die due to leaks and water intrusion. Many are so poorly built that the seams crack open and water finds its way inside to create havoc. It can be an endless battle. I have never heard of a car leaking because it got rained on. That is true of a new car and one that is 50 years old. I suppose it is possible for a sun roof in a car to leak. That has never happened to me and I would not expect such a leak to destroy the whole car or result in major structural repairs.

A car typically is used daily and can run up hundreds of thousands of miles before it wears out. Most RVs only have some occasional use and still fall apart typically within 10 years or so. There is just no comparison with the quality of design, construction and overall longevity. I cannot imagine buying a car and finding it came with some cheap, Chinese tires that had a history of blowouts. I cannot imagine the need to inspect and caulk the car at least every year. I cannot imagine buying a car only to find that even empty the suspension and tires were already close to maximum load capacity. Sadly that is very frequently the case for RVs and is not something most new buyers would even think about. I cannot imagine buying a car only to find that the trunk keys were the same on every vehicle and the doors could easily be pried open with a screwdriver. I cannot imagine buying a car with plastic windows that are likely to leak and scratch if you look at them sideways.

Lantley wrote:


RV buyers are simply not aware of the policies and requirements of the RV world.

Pbutler97 wrote:




Slap together a pile of junk, mostly supplied by a vendor who provides most of the cheap Chinese made components(Lippert), into something that resembles a trailer, using an overworked poorly trained workforce with the highest turnover rate you can find, and push them into building as many as 36 in a day. Then push them out the factory door and off to the dealers with no quality control or assurance whatsoever, while structuring the warranty to be nothing more than red tape and hurdles a buyer needs to jump over while doing everything possible to deny any claims. That's a great policy.

dedmiston wrote:

A friend at work is moving across the country into a new home. He told our team that their house here is closing soon and that they've already moved most of their stuff out to the new house. They're just waiting for their RV to be delivered and then they're going to take 3-4 weeks to drive coast to coast in their first RV trip.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that they're going to spend the first 2-3 weeks trying to get their brand new pile of junk to some minimally acceptable state and then spend the last week blasting across the interstate to try to get there before they run out of vacation days.

Most new buyers don't realize that it takes about a year to kill all the gremlins in a newly built RV.

ktmrfs wrote:



Guess we were lucky. We and the salesman did a complete walk through checking everything in the new trailer. Everything from checking the blinds and windows to completely filling the fresh tank, electric and gas HWH, slides, oven, stove you name it. We did find a few minor things they corrected while we went to lunch. The next day we took our daughter and grandkids on a 4 day campout. and many more weeks of camping over the summer and fall. I'd say we spent maybe a day getting "the pile of junk into a minamally acceptable state" In any event other than thing I chose to add, (inverter, replacement for the WFCO charger, and other updates) Year after year, and after a decade we take care of it, but it's been totally reliable and has yet to have gremlins attach it.