Buying a new caravan - buyer be aware
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That point has been made a few times in Roma's other thread, Sweety, but ……🤷🏻♂️
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I agree with never buying from a distance again. We bought from a great dealer, but sadly a poor manufacturer. Ultimately you're on your own when it comes to warranty, especially if the fault is a manufacturing defect as opposed to a compenent failure. I thought using a trusted NCC workshop would suffice, alas not.
By all means enjoy caravan shows and get a price to change, but then go back to your local dealer and see if they will match. If your local dealer isn't trustworthy, consider a different brand of caravan. Life is too short.
As for the leisure industry not matching the motor trade, I was a European warranty agent for a UK auto manufacturer and thought I'd seen it all being in the motor trade, but dear me, this game..
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I have posted before ..same thing. Bought new car 2016....40 visits to the dealer in 2.5 years. Ford not interested and rejected involvement to a large degree as the law says the dealer is liable....which is correct. This influenced me buying a van from a local dealer than at the Caravan Show as I now know legally how essential it is to take the item back to the retailer that sold it.
2017 bought a new swift. Absolutely crap. The dealer emphasised the absolute importance of servicing on time. Third year I have had a whole raft of warranty repair claims. Latest is due to recalls etc that lots of swift s have.
The point is the dealer is a large dealer. Helpful but some aspects of repairs they said they would seek a warranty repair. I pointed out that legally they were liable...they backed off in those aspects but now I need to take advice on the latest as there is no chance of Swift doing anything in the near future
A separate point though is that a couple of months ago, a long standing dealership in Yorkshire (Dickinsons) went into administration. A long standing family owned business. Since then I spoke to someone who had some knowledge about what went wrong. A large factor is the huge amount of warranty repairs they (as all swift dealers have) have to undertake for which they get paid low rates. All of Dickinsons customers who have warranty claims to seek out another swift dealer and a lot are refusing to take on warranty work for vans they haven’t sold.
What a state this industry is.
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Being a warranty administrator is a trade in itself. Sadly nobody thinks so, so the role pays poor and is the first to go in difficult times. I started out in warranty as an 18 year old and progressed to work in the head office of a UK auto manufacturer. I still see auto dealers going under citing warranty claims as a major factor in administration. I was asked to go into the leisure industry after being made redundant but the lack of process was alarming, so I politely declined. You see, they also see warranty as a way to cover their own workshop and sales errors (aka fraud).
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