Swift, dodgy pricing?
Talking to a caravan salesman today I was surprised to learn that although Swift advertise their Challenger range ( and I guess other ranges too) at a price for each which is much lower than than the price one will pay for the van as the "optional" extras such as Alde heating and the Lux Pack are fitted as standard and one cannot get a van without them. Thus there are no caravans that one can get at the basic price....what a con!!
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yes I think it's the same for their Sprite range? we were told that not one comes out of the factory without the sunroof and diamond pack, both which are extra. Luckily we wanted both anyway and as always got a lower price than the official one anyway!
Why is buying a van or car even, which should be a pleasant experience, so fraught with these things?
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The whole caravan manufacture, sell and aftersales seem a dodgy proposition to me, and I much doubt MHs are any different. We would never buy new. Far rather search for a good secondhand bargain, crawl all over it and test out everything, and deeply search servicing history before we parted with any cash. The rate some folks invest in new ones, there are bound to be some decent buys out there, and lets face it, the tales of disappointed brand new van owners hardly makes not having a brand new van second best. We are happy to let someone else pay the premium salesroom ticket, and mop up a second hand bargain later.
Not that we are looking, our van is only 34 years old, plenty of holidays left in the old girl yet!
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Of course you can have a van at list price.
Just find a dealer who wants to order for you and you can take delivery sometime in the next year. The thing is that they know that the vast majority will order from stock or the pipeline already planned for build and this will not have many base models. They play on your desire to get your new van in a reasonable time will push you into buying one with extras.
It works.
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this will not have many base models.
Phishing, you have one letter too many in that part of your sentence...for many read any!!
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All caravan and motorhome dealers have to commit to buying vans in advance of them being sold so will order specs that they know the majority of their customers want. If you want a base spec van that will be a special order and as Phishing says you may have to wait for it and given that the various models are built in batches that wait could be quite long. Why take manufactures and dealers to task when they are doing what suits their business and the majority of their customers?
David
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As far as I am advised Swift do not build Sprites to the basic spec and very few people would want that anyway. Basically they seem to be making the product look cheap with their pricing but I suspect they may lose as many customers as they gain by doing this and to me it is simply not right.
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