Caravan Satisfaction Survey
Perhaps I've missed it, but there used to be an annual survey carried out by the CC of it's members satisfaction, or otherwise, of their vans. I can't remember seeing one for a while now. Is this perhaps because the manufacturers of British caravans have put pressure on the CC not to run such a survey because, from reading many of the post on here, it would in fact be a Dis-satisfaction Survey?
Comments
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D Not sure🤔
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Guess which category we fall into?
Can't remember seeing one for some time now. Did the industry ever take notice of previous surveys? There really doesn't seem to be a great deal of interest shown by the manufacturers (or dealers) to find out if the end user is satisfied or not. I've certainly never been contacted by any manufacturer for my views.
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Nellie
Are you dissatisfied with your caravan?
David
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No, but as it's now 8 yrs old, and has been used each year for over 250 nights each year, it is probable getting to the time I think about changing. So a survey of current models would might just point us in a different direction with regards to make.
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Nellie
That is a remarkable record which not many of us would be able emulate. My inclination would be to look at the manufacturer of the one you already have, assuming they are still producing caravans. When I had caravans I had four new ones from the Swift stable over a period of about 23 years. At the time every forum and every survey was telling me what rubbish Swift vans were. My own experience of those four vans, which were kept for 8,6,6 and 3 years was very different and they were all reliable with nothing other than the odd minor issue with them over the course of ownership so my experience suggests reliability surveys can give a contrar view to my own experience so I wonder how reliable they actually are?
I thought the Club did a reliability survey a year or two ago but were very slow to publish the results and when they did they didn't really publish any, what we as owners would think of as useful information.Didn't they just publish an Infographic rather than a detailed analysis? I think at the time they said they wouldn't become a annual process as they had been in the past. I wonder if the reason for that was that in this internet age they get overwhelmed with information? I think Practical Caravan do an annual survey but probably on a smaller scale?.
David
Edit - Found the previous one here if it helps https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/globalassets/pdfs/content/whats-on/leisure-vehicle-survey-results.pdf
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Thanks David. What concerns me is the number of bad reports about all the major British caravan manufacturers models. I appreciate that there will be lots of good, no problem,vans out there, but we rarely hear about them. The previous surveys, if I remember correctly, used to include the previous year's scores for comparison. I suspect that any current survey would show a steady drop compared to previous years.
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what's changed (and JVB keeps telling us.....) is that emmissions standards have got tougher, engines smaller, cars lighter which have all affected the caravans that can be towed...
those vans have had to get correspondingly lighter for the same length which, inevitibly, has reduced robustness...add in an increasing desire to add more and more appliances and gadgets and even more strength has to be sacrificed..
yes, new materials are being found and explored but not necessarily available at the mid price most are happy to pay...
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I don't understand what your post has to do with there not being a survey BB.
The weight/lightness of vans should have nothing at all to do with the quality of the build. The sorts of faults that appear to be recurring are things like cracking windows, delamination of panels, faulty installation of electrical equipment, etc.1 -
Why would UK users praise what they have,it is not the "thing to do" but if there is even a minor problem then every one has to be told
,It is well known that for every complementary letter that companies receive there will be 13 of complaint as that is what we in the uk do.
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This is endemic over the caravan clubs and caravan press. You will read in all these places tests carried out by testers, some of whom seem to know, mainly, what they are doing. The tests are invariably based on new machines (cars, touring caravans and motorhomes), which are borrowed from a source that knows what is going to happen to them.
The testers invariably give a favourable description of the products (could this be anything to do with advertising revenues or am I being cynical here). They do not tell us what the product is like to live with for, say 3-4 years. Quite a while age there was a very useful article in en route (the old CC magazine) in which users rated their caravans of different years and gave them marks for various features. Very useful.
I can only speak from personal experience, but I read nothing but praise for a (new) car and a caravan that we have bought since retirement that have turned out to be the worst car and the worst caravan that I have ever had. I have just had to replace the charger unit on the caravan after just over 3 years (out of guarantee they say, but they ignore the consumer protection act) and the new unit has been in for 6 months and is now already showing signs of erratic behaviour. I have never had trouble with these units before in up to 12 years use in other vans. I have had quite a lot of other problems with it too. The car, which the camping and caravanning club voted towcar of the decade started going expensively wrong at 30,000 miles and by the time it got to 65,000 miles it was a wreck which needed about £6,000 spending on it to put it right.
All that I can advise from my experience is find out as much as you can about these products before buying and remember the motto "caveat emptor - buyer beware"
Regards, Phil & Joan the wanderers
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We tend to buy second hand on most big things like cars. There's a balance between "of course there's a good reason they're selling it" and checking that it's genuinely in good nick, but on the whole we've been lucky, and somebody else has both taken the new price hit, and had any teething troubles.
If it's still going well after a few years, there's a chance it'll go on doing so for longer, without the costs of buying new.Our best ever tent was second hand, the caravan we replaced it with likewise.
I mistrust glossy magazine reviews. As suggested much further up this thread, there's a strong chance the review has been sponsored.
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I think we might have some crossed wires here? The original post was about owner satisfaction surveys but Bucks Wanderer seems to be talking about product reviews in the club magazine which is slightly different. When a new model is reviewed it has to be taken at face value and if on test there were no issues how can anything other than a positive result be given. A world of difference between that and living with a caravan/motorhome for three years where you are in a better position to comment of shortcomings, if any. In a review of a new product you can't assume x,y,z will go wrong?
David
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Tip-ask folk who own the LV/Car you are considering buying for a real life review. It worked for me & has done for a long time. This way you can approach folk who own-1/2/4 yr old LV/Cars. In my experience most folk are happy to help👍🏻
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+1
As you spend a lot of time away chat to anyone on site who has a caravan you may be considering.
I may be sceptical but I feel surveys don’t always give a true ‘picture’ just a snapshot especially when %’s are used. Example 50% were satisfied when only 300 took part in the survey (which is not always mentioned if at all) yet many more (possibly hundreds/thousands) bought the article/service etc. Good Luck.
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I was replying to your 'concerns re UK caravan quality'....
even the specifics you mention will eventually succumbed to cost reduction....less time spent on inspections, poorer quality Windows and panels where weight is being chipped away to make room for a bigger fridge or cooker...
just compare a MFI kitchen to an upmarket one or an entry level caravan/MH to a top line one...
larger, more expensive vans are pulled by larger, more expensive towcars (or MH where weight isn't an issue)
quality costs kilos (as well as money) and keeping weight down on mass market vans is hard without sacrificing quality.
upmarket vans (and MHs) use upmarket, llightweight (expensive) materials whereas mass market vans have to do it within a much smaller budget which means using cheaper, thinner, poorer quality parts/materials.
the resulting loss in 'quality' is plain to see/feel in any modern mass market van....I spent a couple of hours in a stack of vans a couple of weeks ago and it's quite frightening...things like wobbly 'walls' that move.
yes, I didn't answer your point why there were no surveys (although I can see why many brands wouldn't want to be involved) but the reasons fo poor 'quality' are pretty obvious if you get stuck in and look at what's being produced...
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Why don't we start our own on here?
I'll start the ball rolling:
Swift Sprite Major 4 FB SR 2015 model purchased brand new.
Have absolutely loved this caravan and raved about how good it was until this year. Lots of little niggles from the start, such as screws holding things together loose, heating ducts not joined together properly and laminate edges peeling off cupboards, but mostly fixed by hubby.
This year discovered shower leaking (only discovered when hubby was sat outside van whilst I was showering. Apparently water pouring out of bottom of van. Dealer sorted it under warranty explaining shower trap was loose....now wondering if it always has been and how much water there is under there.
During annual service Dealer discovered "floor and sides coming away from van" which according to man doing actual repair is apparently "not uncommon on Swift caravans". Repaired under warranty but I'm now at the stage where I'm wondering what is next?!
Kitchen tap stopped working-at 4 year old just out of 3 year parts warranty so had to purchase new one.
On a positive note the mattress and seats are still comfortable.
We don't intend to trade it in for a new one though, as from what the man doing the warranty work told us we'd just be starting the same sequence again. He said most new British caravans are the same and that nothing built to last these days! His advice was to just keep getting whatever repairs or faults developed fixed and eventually we'd have a decent caravan😀
Conclusion: I wouldn't buy this caravan again and wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a caravan to keep longer than 3 years.
Hope this is helpful.
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We bought a Bailey U2 Cadiz new at the beginning of 2014. Apart from the odd screw comming loose a leaky wet locker door ( replaced under warranty), the failure of the Alde mother board just out of warranty and the Alde header tank leaking at 5 years old, which I replaced, there were no significant problems. This particularly applied to the build quality which was good, also the damp readings which were well within limits on every service. If we hadn't have traded it in for a MH in March 2019, I think we would have kept it as we were happy with it and it was a reliable dry van.
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Our Pegasus Genoa now in its fourth year,and used for about 170 nights away each year,and after our dealer (mostly) and Bailey had in the first year ,sorted out the poor factory `"inspection ?" it has been so far fault free, and hope to keep it for several years yet,but expect to have to renew some of the bought in equipment ,with the use they all get
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NTH, we have coachman, not a Pastiche or a VIP just a dealer special 450/2.
We've had it a year now and so far so good, apart from the squealing brakes that lots of other makes have suffered from, Alko issue not caravan makers problem.
We joined the Coachman FB group, from what I've read on there it would appear its the VIP owners that are not happy with their vans 2018/2019 they have different fittings like toilet, fridge, microwave. .
Many of the owners are also complaining about the quality of the bench cushions they appear to collapse in a very short space of time, even with very little use.
The main complaint is that the quality of the fitments are flimsy, screws falling out, upper lockers hanging uneven, that kind of thing. A lot of it has been put down ( by owners) to them producing lighter and lighter vans so the interior is not as robust as it once was.
Hope this has been of some help.
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Thanks TG, JVB, SteveL and thebells for you comments, (I nearly typed Reviews
). What with Luner going under it would appear that Baileys are slightly better than most. Our Bailey Madrid has done us well up to now, long may it continue so, but it's good to others opinions should we come to change. It may be time to look at models from "over there" but from what I've seen there are none that match our specific requirements.0 -
I’d hang on as long as you can Nellie, if things are generally well with your van. Any issues would be a big worry for you given that you spend so much time away. Being tied into a dealer warranty would be a nightmare to get anything done on time. 😕
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NTH, one from 'over there' would certainly stand up to the use you get out of your van. OH would have loved to have one but as we don't have a dealer anywhere near us we will have to wait awhile.
We had a coachman 13 years ago when they were one of the heaviest vans around, much more solid than the ones they now make. We had an Elddis after that and then a Lunar. None of the vans had any issues, to be fair we only had them about 2+ years each but that is I think enough time to have the snags that you get nowadays with most vans.
Funny enough the only Bailey we've had was the MH which we had for 6 years, we loved it, had a few issues with it in the beginning, sorted out under warranty no problem. If it hadn't been for the damp that they just couldn't seem to fix permanently we would more than likely still have it.
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Our first Lunar, a Steller, was very good with no real problems, only go rid of it cos the bathroom (wet room) was cramped and too much & a compromise. Our next Lunar, a dealer special Quasar, was a rolling disaster so after 4 years we got rid of it.
Our latest van is a 2018 Coachman VIP which we’ve had for 2 months and completed 4 short trips. The Coachman is the same layout as the Lunar but feels a lot more robust being over 100 kilos heavier. So far only 2 small problems, had to replace the Rccd and squealing brakes that will be sorted shortly.
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I am not all together sure how reliability surveys really help. Given the the results are based on history and buying a new van is in the future all sorts of things could have changed. How do most of us select a new caravan or motorhome? First and foremost I imagine most of us have a layout and overall size in mind. We then start to look at vehicles that match our layout and size requirements. We may also prefer a full wash room which further narrows down our choices. So if you end up with a choice of half a dozen you are doing quite well. At that point you may well start to think about which brand might be more reliable but there are no guarantees. Then price enters the ring as I doubt any of us start with a truly open chequebook? I just wonder where quality comes in the decision making process?
David
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