What is happening to Swift?

Jimuck
Jimuck Forum Participant Posts: 6
edited June 2016 in Caravans #1

Collected our 2016 swift challenger at end of April, had a week's holiday,  first day we noticed the seating seemed very flat, it was as if we were sitting on the wooden frame, had to put a cushion under the seating, complained to dealer,  salesman says " it flattens when you sit on it but bounces back up when you stand up " !!! the dealer says it's a matter of preference, some people like soft seats, but one of the reasons we picked the van when we were in the showroom was because the seating felt firm.  Have contacted swift & they say the supplier will reupholster the seating for a cost of £450 !!! Has anyone experienced the same problem with the seating?   We have previously purchased 3 new swifts before this one and not one problem. 

Comments

  • crispy
    crispy Forum Participant Posts: 2
    edited June 2016 #2

    Hi Jim , I would take a cushion out of your van and go to the dealer , sit in demonstrator and see if it,s the same , if not get the salesman out  and along with your cushion, ask him what he intends doing about it .tr

  • Jimuck
    Jimuck Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited June 2016 #3

    We did that but our cushion didn't get out the car, the salesman said not to bother and took us into showroom to try a Sprite with the same seating, but we couldn't sit there for long, as it seems to go down gradually, spoke to the dealer and he said he
    has the same van and he likes a soft seat to sink into it, if we had been told that the seats were soft we would not have bought it. It was the dealer who first contacted Swift but he said he didn't think they would do anything about it but that Swift would
    contact us which they did with the price.                    It's as if it's memory foam in it.

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
    1000 Comments
    edited June 2016 #4

    Does it have a translucent roof?

  • richardandros
    richardandros Club Member Posts: 2,694 ✭✭✭
    1,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited June 2016 #5

    I don't think the problem is confined to Swifts.  Our new (last year) Bailey Barcelona had a similar problem although not quite as bad as you describe.  After a week away, we noticed that the seat cushions had become compressed and weren't comfortable at all.  I raised this with our dealer Service Manager and he said whilst he was happy to raise it as a warranty issue, all that would happen would that they would be replaced on a 'like for like' basis and, indeed he considered that the cushions were even softer in the 2016 models.  As a result, I took the cushions to a local upholsterer who re-filled them with a quality foam which cost me £250 and they are now brilliant.  The down side, however, is that the new cushions are much heavier.  He did say that they are coming across this problem more and more with new vans (they specialise in caravan upholstery), and I suspect it is as much to do with weight as it is to do with cost saving.

  • Jimuck
    Jimuck Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited June 2016 #6

    Thanks Richard, we had thought about getting them reupholstered but no way would we give Swift £450.                      We certainly don't want to have to put a cushion underneath each time we use the van, we also considered a piece o

  • Jimuck
    Jimuck Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited June 2016 #7

    Sorry having problems this morning, will definitely look into the reupholstering,   but not with Swift.

  • richardandros
    richardandros Club Member Posts: 2,694 ✭✭✭
    1,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited June 2016 #8

    Jim - the firm we used are in Bridlington - which is a bit of a long way from you!  However, I would have thought that a search of the internet would have found someone closer to home.  It's quite an easy job for them to do and the foam they used on ours
    has a 5 year guarantee (whatever that means!)  I agree that whilst I saw £250 as plenty to correct a fault on a new caravan, £450 is downright extortionate for two lumps of foam.

    One reason I went down this path was that the dealer told me they would have to send the cushions back for examination by the manufacturer and then, if they agreed, they would be replaced and all of this would take 6 weeks.  I wasn't prepared to go along
    with that so shelled out the £250 and they were done in 24 hrs.

  • Jimuck
    Jimuck Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited June 2016 #9

    Thanks Richard, a few firms near us, we will phone around and see what their prices are like, like you we are not willing to wait for 6 weeks or longer. Will let you know the outcome.

  • armourer
    armourer Forum Participant Posts: 218
    edited June 2016 #10

    we picked up our 2016 sprite major 4sb in april

    have used it twice for 1 week and 4 weekends so far and got to say seats dont sag ay all  maybe a bad batch of foam used from supplier ?? try talking to swift about the quality control

  • Jimuck
    Jimuck Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited June 2016 #11

    Hi armourer, have looked at the seating in your Sprite it is the same as our other 3 Swift vans had and we had no problems at all with them, this is new seating called "Swift Airwave Seating"

  • julielewis32
    julielewis32 Forum Participant Posts: 1
    edited June 2016 #12

    we picked up our 2016 sprite major 4sb in april

    have used it twice for 1 week and 4 weekends so far and got to say seats dont sag ay all  maybe a bad batch of foam used from supplier ?? try talking to swift about the quality control

    Write your comments here...

Categories