Quality of New Motorhomes

[TonyL]

I have had two Sven Hedins, and love them. It's time to change and sadly, for a number of reasons, I need to move back to a larger van (motorhome).

At the moment I am shopping around and Hymer are top of my brand list. However, I went to look at a van today and I was disappointed by the build quality for what is a premium brand. So much so I am having 2nd thoughts already.

Is it me, or has the build quality of vans gone down hill?

 

[Archie H]

Downhill, since Covid IMO. Try Knaus, also a very well thought of German quality MH's. Sadly like all MH's nowadays they still come with a few wee niggles that can be very annoying and frustrating trying to get them sorted by the dealerships.

 

[TonyL]

Hi Archie, totally agree, I am used to spending the first few months with a screwdriver and Allen key. However, this van is brand new and if these are the quality issues I can see, what can't I see. Issues include warped doors, doors not central, trim not fixed at all, doors not opening and closing properly.

 

[Archie H]

Hi Tony, I know exactly how you feel. We partex'd our 2020 WildAx Elara Merc with 20k miles in Oct and picked up a new Knaus with problems with fresh and grey water drain valves being seized. The dealer knew they were there as it is an ongoing problem with Knaus, yet did nothing until I challenged them on the handover. We spent an hour and a half sitting waiting on the dealer tech sorting them. In a fashion they got the fresh water functioning and the grey water was still very tight. Don't worry it will free up with use. 2 days later it was solid again. Still awaiting the replacements on a 6-8 week lead time but told unlikely before january now and would not get booked into the workshop for the upgraded replacement to be fitted. Effectively makes the van unfit for function and sat in parking space.

The merc was not without its problems either over the 4 years of ownership I had a list of 17 faults that all required return to the manufacturer some 100 miles distant. The necessitated 5 trips there and back so 1000 miles just on warranty issues and this was their Ex demo model. After 4 years I thought enough is enough and was ready to jack it in. Until we went to the Lincoln show and seen what we have now and thought okay we'll give it another crack. The Merc was a brilliant base vehicle. The intervening vehicles were poor. Dethless, coachbuilt and a Swift 580 caravan(never again). Our first was a 2007 Hymer 522 Van coachbuilt on a transit platform and it was outstanding. Never a problem in the 3 years we owned it. Ongoing it's case of suck it and see but if I don't get the problem resolved on current van we're considering returning it as unfit. However, that will bring a whole load of unnecessary stress but down to current OEM trends regarding quality!

 

[AJCConversions]

We're retrofitting a solar to a Hymer camper at the moment in our workshop. As you always do we thought we'd check out some of the features etc and fit / finish. A reardoor window fell out when i opened it... Fly screen then fell off at the SLD when i was closing it!

After that i've resorted to not touching anything! I couldn't believe it!

There were a few bits i was fairly unimpressed with, wood colour floor with screws to fix it down and a beige cap just stuck on top of the screws, maybe 6 in a 1m2 area too!