Swift, Bailey or Coachman?
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There is no one size fits all when it comes to caravans. We are awaiting our 9th one at the moment. Had an Abi, Avondale, Compass, Swift x 3, Elddis and a Fleetwood. Each one has been better than the last one imo. Have never owned a Bailey as I dont like the look of them so cant comment on them. Our next one is going to be a Coachman they only produce about 40 a week as opposed to Swift and Bailey who churn them out in the 100's a week. If its your first purchase than my advice is visit as many different dealers as you can and weigh up the pros and cons for each one.
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They all have problems, they all have Friday afternoon jobs and they all have good ones in the mix. It’s pot luck so you might just as well buy whichever you fancy from a dealer who's within easy reach for when you want to go back for warranty work.
PS. I see you have personal experience of Swift. Don’t expect the others to be any better or any worse.👍🏻
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I'm inclined to agree with David. Our last van was a Bailey Barcelona and whilst we didn't have any major issues other than a leaking shower tray just before we sold it, the build quality of our present Knaus is in a different league. Everything inside is just so much more substantial, of better quality and better put together - and that said, the MIRO is actually 10kg less than the Barcelona. At its first service, last November, the highest damp reading was 4%. Being full UK spec, with the door on the 'correct' side, it has everything (and more) that the Bailey had, except for a solar panel.
The only real issue we have had with it has been in relation to the Dometic toilet (which has now been changed for a Thetford) to the extent that I would never, ever, buy another van with a Dometic toilet fitted.
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Few caravans/or motor caravan for that matter, where ever built ,can ever be these days ,fault free,most internal equipment is the same on all makes, no matter how some try to say about the model they have, most modern c/vans have very little in way of materials that will give "damp problems" the sealant used these days is also very good, its who puts them together,is where some times lets them down, there are normally good anti water ingress warranties of up to ten years.
One mistake a lot of purchasers seem to make, is trying, to save a few pounds by, at shows maybe,,and buying,from dealers many miles from home only to find if warranty work is needed ,the problem surfaces, we have been in the situation in the past, so now find a dealer much nearer and buy from them,our Bailey dealer (on our second now , and have not had many warranty issues in either) is 6 miles away, they also sell Coachman,,the dealer admits that if warranty work is required Bailey are far better to deal with
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Hymer also have 'UK packs' for their MHs which means the addition of a cooker....no doubt their caravans can be similarly specified.
As said, Knaus fit cookers and i would also look at Hobby (really lovely vans)...and talk to dealers about cookers...
our previous Carthago came with a Tec Tower (oven/grill above large fridge/freezer) which was OK bit a bit high for OH..
With this one, the dealer fitted a UK Thetford Duplex in lieu of one of the drawers....
so it is certainly possible with any van given a cooperative and competant dealer.
good luck.
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The Carthago is my dream motorhome except for what I consider inadequate kitchen provision. This seems a common feature of continental LVs. Do the continentals always eat out or barbecue?
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the UK car market was small a few years ago for Audi, BMW, Skoda, Mercedes etc, but quality sells and the top ten selling vehicles in the UK looks a lot different now.
similarly, while Bailey/Swift etc sell plenty of caravans (and MHs) the MH market is also changing with German and French vans selling in really good numbers, even at the lower end of the market where 'budget' brands (from Knaus, Hymer, Carthago, Adria etc) have been introduced for this very reason...
as you move up market, the picture is far more tilted towards German vans...
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CY, like the majority of continental vans, both our Carthagos had no electric hot plate, merely a paltry three gas rings....
as i said, a Tec Tower is a popular option with the oven/grill above the fridge/freezer..but, although it worked well, its not ideal for smaller cooks...
one thing thats great in all areas of Continental vans is storage and their kitchens, while possibly lacking large slabs of worktop, generally have huge storage areas, normally large drawers....we had 6 in both our vans...so easy to access supplies and kit.
having such space to spare, losing a drawer to a dealer fitted oven/grill wasnt much of a sacrifice...
so, i dont think its really that much of an issue, except if a hot plate is a must have...i dont miss it at all as i find gas quicker and more controllable...
often, worktop space is 'larger' in a UK van as there is only a half sized fridge underneath, whereas with larger volume tall fridge/freezers that worktop is lost...
it's swings and roundabouts but (again) the larger storage of our F/F is important to us and we can manage easily with the smallish prep space, but even that is easily supplemented by using the handy lounge table.
no, we dont eat out every night, nor cook outside on our winter trip, but we do eat out (lunch or dinner) at least every second/third day.
however, on our late summer French trips, we cook outside (or eat out) almost every day....with an electric unit...and as these two breaks account for six months of our year, and for our touring in the UK it's summertime, we dont miss a 'UK gourmet kitchen'.
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Why would i have statistics? i know of one Hymer that according to the German owners was very bad, and not long ago on here was a couple of posts regretting buying German vans ,but then its all subjective as are those who complain about most things,
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But then is there a british car maker now, they as most ,all belong to multi nationals , and as you say move up market ,but then there is not any british made that try to compete in that catergary as its the continental market is far more active than here for those type of vehicles
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I go with Another David. Having had numerous new UK built ‘vans over the years and endured so many serious faults we opted for a new Fendt for our last acquisition and 10 years later we’ve had no problems with the build. The proprietary fitting are starting to fail eg plastic parts of the Thetford loo, the 12 volt power supply etc but the ‘van its self is still in excellent condition. We based our decision on the number of Fendt caravans we see on the more upmarket sites in Europe. Unfortunately the smaller Fendt models are not often for sale in the UK but they’re worth looking for.
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In fairness to Bailey, our last van, which we sold at the end of last year had been bought from new 10 years ago and, apart from a faulty toilet flush, replaced quickly under warranty, we never had a single problem with it - no damp, no badly fitted lockers, no malfunctioning fittings. It would have done us for another few years if we'd decided to continue caravanning and, hopefully, will the new owners!
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Us too - over the years we’ve had 2 Avondales, Fleetwood, Sterling and now a Swift. Our favourite was the Fleetwood unfortunately lost in the floods of 2007. Not a fan of Bailey as we too don’t like the look of them.
For our last purchase we were after a Coachman but couldn’t find a decent deal so opted for the Swift. Next time - it will be a Coachman 😉.
One person’s experience on a brand may not be comparable with another; there will be good and bad points in all, however I do believe that you get a feeling when the van is right for you. Good luck with your search.
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Is that not an almost impossible question to answer? When we caravanned we had six caravans over a thirty year period none of them gave us reason to doubt their quality. The last four were purchased new and came from the Swift stable although undergoing several name changes along the route. If I were to be looking for a new caravan (unlikely) I would look at the layout that I wanted, whether it had the equipment I wanted, whether it was the right weight for any car I would tow it with. I would look at all brands that matched what I wanted and then make a decision.
David
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According to the owner satisfaction survey, based on actual owners experience then 1,2,3, is Adria, Coachman, Bailey. All scored very well.
Had a Bailey from new, no significant issues. Had two Coachman, both had no issues.
Caravans are better now than they have ever been, not that there is still room for improvement, but generally with the brands you are looking at (apart from not putting Adria on your list) then I think your list is fairly safe.
Dont think about it to hard, I know people who choose a van based on the interior colour scheme. Just have a good look at them all, you will know the one that suits!
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Our last three vans have been from the Bailey stable. They have been far from perfect but any faults have been fixed. We do like the alutech vans though, and would be happy enough to buy another.
I think the two biggest single issues facing anyone who is seriously thinking of purching a caravan are:
1. Sufficient user payload
2. Having a car that is completely suitable for towing the caravan.
David
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Had three caravans, first was a Crown (made by Elldis) which gave no trouble, the second an Avondale which had three rear panels crack (I think that was a common fault) all replaced by warranty and many intermittent electrical faults. It had damp from its second year and once out of warranty it would have cost too much so we sold it. Our third and present is a Swift and it is now coming up to being 7 seven years old and has had no damp what so ever and no faults at all. Based on that I would probably go for another but layout and payload will be just as important.
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We were searching for a "new" caravan about 6 months ago. Looked at lots of different 2 berth options including Knaus Starclass. We didn't like the Knaus, which was a shame as I do think that the German made caravans tend to have a better reputation for build quality. We ended up with a Coachman VIP, our second Coachman, and touch wood, apart from minor niggles that have been put right under warranty seems ok. The other Coachman was great but unfortunately it was at the time when the windows made by Polyplastics were delaminating and we had to get rid when that company refused to indemnify British caravans yet replaced many a window on German makes.
We've had 3 Swifts, 1 Great, 1 OK, 1 Awful. and 2 Lunars, 1 Great and the other a disaster.
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