New Swift burning electrics?
Hi
We took delivery of a brand new ex-display Swift 2 weeks ago.
Firstly, it was absolutely filthy, the dealer had not even tried to clean it despite promising us that it would have a deep clean.
We have photo's of the muck that we got out of the carpets when we cleaned them. We would have let this go had the following not occurred.
We have just spent our first week in the 'van. Our problems came in the following form:
A terrible choking, eye watering, acrid electrical burning smell whenever the hot water was on. We had the heating on too (it is October) and the smell seemed to be coming via the blown air vents causing my asthma to become really bad.
The dealer was closed when we called them so we called Sargent (the only other contact details we had) and were told it "sounds dangerous, so turn the hot water off and don't use it", which we did. This meant moving from a CL to a CAMC site with a shower block which increased the cost of our holiday.
The LED lights around the top of cupboards, plus the single LED by the door flashed every time the VERY loud pump turned off after each use of a tap - so clearly no suppression on the pump or surge protection on the command unit, which will shorten it's life IMO
The awning light turned itself on and off at random and does not work off the key-fob remote as it should.
The heating turned itself off randomly - The command unit was on manual and we operated it from the Truma control, so not user error or a timer issue
We then started to get the electrical burning smell again and found that the hot water had turned on again via the command unit - we had not touched the command panel and the Truma panel showed it was off
The fridge turned itself off a couple of times, luckily it remained cold and no food was ruined.
We found a hole in the back of one of the seat backs, loose door hinges, loose catches the wrong washer in the shower head handle, meaning the water came out of the handle rather than the shower head! This had been fitted by the dealer as was not in the 'van when we looked at it.
Due to the above and the fact that we do not want to set ourselves up for un-necessary expense and trips back and forward to the dealer which is about 160 miles trip each time, we have rejected the caravan.
We have not received a refund yet and don't know where we stand in relation to our traded in caravan, that was only a year old. We are prepared to purchase another brand of caravan from the retailer and hope to come to some agreement, but we will not take this Swift caravan back. it is detrimental to our health.
We have now read of many others with similar problems with their new Swift caravans, discovering that these problems have been known about for years.
Why on earth are people putting up with this? Why are dealers not pushing this all back to the manufacturers to make them see that they have to change their ways.
We would appreciate any advice or hear from others that are having/have had similar issues or who have rejected a caravan before.
thanks
Thanks
Comments
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Reject it. The sooner you act, the better.
Have a word with the club’s legal team.
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hi, thanks, yes we have rejected it and it is now with the dealer, so as far as we are concerned he has accepted it back.
We hope to buy another 'van, probably costing a bit more, but feel we should not be out of pocket on this one penny.
I will find out where we stand regarding our trade in.
best
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Without wishing to excuse Swift i am not sure they are entirely at fault here and even less convinced they are worse than any other manufacturer. It appears to me to be 3 culprits, poor factory quality control, poor dealer PDI and - dare i say it - some of those faults must have been apparent on handover.
good luck with sorting it out but don't assume another brand and spending more money will be the answer.
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FC, who employs & trains the QC folk?🤔
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Thats the trouble, they dont exist any more.
Any job that doesnt add directly to the bottom line has been scrapped.
They look on a few 'teething troubles' as acceptable....which they are NOT.
When I worked in vehicle production The Quality control inspector had the final say as to whether production could continue or not.
Because it was considered that sending out a sub standard product caused more financial damage to the company than the value of the sale. They dont seem to care about their reputations these days.
And finance bods run production, who do not care about about such trivialities as Customers.
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Geez, we’re heading back to the 70’s & 80’s then. We were the sick one of Europe, I guess we’ll even have that one covered soon🤷🏻♂️
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We are prepared to purchase another brand of caravan from the retailer
Wow that’s brave. I don’t think I’d be inclined to buy anything from the same supplier.They certainly didn’t do a pre delivery check nor complete what you’d requested before you took delivery
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The LED lights around the top of cupboards, plus the single LED by the door flashed every time the VERY loud pump turned off after each use of a tap - so clearly no suppression on the pump or surge protection on the command unit, which will shorten it's life IMO
I take it you had a battery fitted which makes a difference to how the lights react when running a pump.
The awning light turned itself on and off at random and does not work off the key-fob remote as it should.
We had a problem with the alarm turning on and off unbidden. It was due to a control fob that went faulty.
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The caravan we have now was bought from a local dealer after if having problems when purchased from a distant dealer who might have given a "better deal"but not if there was any warranty work to do,
We had a call from them when our van was delivered asking if we would like a look before it went into their workshop for pdi,it was an eye opener as to what they need do on pdi,there was a "check list" in the van from the manufacturer, all the areas had been passed? So we went through it and very few areas were fit for use
the salesman said that it was rare that any vans from all the makes thay deal with did not need quite a lot of work to be satisfactory before handover to their customers and that was Adria,Bailey and Coachman0 -
the salesman said that it was rare that any vans from all the makes thay deal with did not need quite a lot of work to be satisfactory before handover to their customers and that was Adria,Bailey and Coachman
About 5 years ago was at the dealers talking to a fed up delivery driver who was taking 2 caravans back from Holmes Chapel to Hull. He had delivered caravans to the dealer and two had been rejected after a cursory inspection and the driver had to take them back to the factory on a Friday afternoon. He had been hoping for a quick drop off, back with low loader and an early dart for a weekend away!
I spoke to the workshop manager who said that the delivered vans were getting worse and so they were then refusing delivery or else they were doing manufacturers job.
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the secret is "never buy new" let some other unsuspecting person sort out all the problems and deal with the aggro, current 2008 Coachman Amara 550/5 bought for £10k (private sale), pristine condition, although tyres were in good condition i forked out for new ones as they were nearly 5 years old and i wanted also to fit Tyron bands, I have also just fitted new mover, but existing one was a 2002 model obviously moved from another caravan. I have every piece of information in a nice Coachman folder apertaining to the caravan since first bought from a dealer in Lincoln. Apart from svcing spent very little on it, and it is still going strong.
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yes but is yours not a German made Hoby and probably not a lot of change out of £25K, as for your ex Lunar, they were not called "leaky Lunars" for nothing and just maybe the next owner will not do so much touring so many of the problems you had will not manifest themselves. Have always said that one of the major problems with caravans is the lack of suspension which causes, what essentially is a rigid body, to vibrate a lot whilst travelling and as a result panels crack seals break etc = water ingress.
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I agree about the lack of suspension, Rufs, and that’s the reason we fitted shock absorbers if none existed and had the wheels balanced. It all helps cut down the shake, rattle and roll.
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That is ok if the local dealer has the make and model of caravan you fancy.
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Hi,
Updating my original post in relation to our faulty and rejectedSwift Sport Woodford; the dealer got back to us on Monday, by email, as he was going to give us "a value for the faulty caravan against another caravan".
We emailed back explaining in simple terms, that this was not a trade in (after 10days ownership) and that we had returned and rejected the caravan within our 'short term right to reject under the Consumer rights Act 2015 and expect the full price back for the faulty caravan. He has not responded. So we have drafted a letter with the help of Trading Standards, sent by signed for post.
What I haven't mentioned on here yet, is the fact that during the sales process, we asked a specific question as to how old the caravan was, as it was ex-display. We were told "no more than 6 weeks". We later found paperwork in the caravan that dated it at July 2018, meaning this caravan is actually older than the September 2018 built caravan we traded in! So not exactly as described either.
Back to the acrid electrical burning smell; I have now read many forums in relation to the burning smell and am aghast at how many of you are just putting up with it! Do you know if it is carcinogenic? The smell/fumes are causing my asthma to flare so it is being breathed in and surely I cannot be expected to keep a caravan that is so detrimental to my health or possibly kill me?
Please get your 'vans checked if you have a hot electrical smell or and don't be fobbed off that "it is normal". It is not.
We have never had fumes/smells like this in a caravan and neither have our friends.
In over 30 years of caravanning and owning 9 caravans, we have never taken a 'van back to a dealer for repairs or warranty work once. So that tells you that we do not make a fuss about nothing.
I will update again, once I get a response.
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