Motorhome Money Pit
When you purchase a brand new Motorhome you don’t expect to keep constantly paying out for travel costs to have warranty work done in the first two years.
Then in the fourth year pay out hundreds of pounds to have safety repairs done which should never have occurred min the first place.
Comments
-
I can’t pass comment on the enigmatic safety issue but the travelling costs of getting warranty work done are a well known pitfall of buying a MH some distance from where you live. That's why folk on here often point out the advantage of buying locally even if it doesn't immediately appear to be the cheapest deal.
You can always contact the club's legal dept if you think you have grounds for a claim.
0 -
I agree that the wrong spare wheel issue should never have happened but I’m afraid the other problems are things that happen with wear and tear and many people experience such failures at 4 years old. It's one of the things that happens with motor vehicle ownership. Unfortunate and expensive but it's life.
1 -
No doubt. However, it happens and it's a base vehicle issue - nothing to do with it being an expensive MH. There may be a case for taking it up with the base vehicle manufacturer.
You know as well as I that most MHs are built on comparatively cheap base vehicles and you get what you pay for. The bulk of the cost is in the conversion and the converters' profits.
0 -
It happens ED, we had an airbag warning on our three year old Jeep.🤷♀️ The more sophisticated the vehicle, the more there is to go wrong, and there’s a whole lot less you can tackle yourselves nowadays.
We have always gone down the different route. Haven’t bought from new, let someone else do all the warranty hassle, get all the niggles sorted, and then we are happy to pick up a nice clean second hand example. We have our stuff sorted locally at a couple of reliable trustworthy garages, do what we can for ourselves. No reversing cameras mind......
Sadly tricia, it’s a common issue, unreliable issues. What looks a good buy miles from home sometimes doesn’t end happily either. Hope things get sorted for you.
1 -
Which reminds me of another sensor issue. We didn't expect our brand new MH to break down due to a sensor failure only 20 miles from the dealer when we first collected it but it did.
2 -
Some vehicle manufacturers have confidence in their build quality & give 3-5yr warranties👍🏻, if they don’t then there is no confidence, sad but true🤷🏻♂️😞
0 -
I have no idea if it’s the same for a MH, but we never return to the dealer for any warranty work instead we have servicing, and any warranty work, carried out at an approved workshop.
Beside the advantages of cost savings their loyalty is to us and not the manufacturer who’s product they sell.
0 -
Same here, but a quick call to the dealer got us home safely. On the whole the only problem we've had with our present m/h is the oil sensor light coming on when over filling occurs at servicing. Now out of any warranties everything gets sorted at our local garage and costs are reasonable.
0 -
Airbag warning light problems with the ECU seem to be a rite of passage with Fiat/Peugeot vehicles which cover the majority of MH's on the road. Had mine pack up on previous MH at four years.
1 -
Yours is the better quality MB, of course👍. We found the costs at the Merc main dealer to be surprisingly reasonable.
Btw, a quick call to our MH dealer was a waste of time and contributed to our list of complaints.
0 -
Dont own a MH, but might contact KIA and suggest they get in the MH market, like TTDA, never buy new, too stressful, but my Sorento now 8 years old, 1 minor problem since i bought it, dodgey connection to reversing camera fixed at annual service as part of 7 year warranty
and they come and collect for annual service and valet it whilst they have it, my 7 year warranty service cost just £70, bargain. 1 -
Money pit or not, lots of people buying them apparently, and when we are given permission to travel, the roads will be to congested to get about and "Live the Dream"
, I think we will see lots staying on site and lots of folk queuing for the bus into town 0 -
Be carefull our sportage2ltr diesel KX4 is 8yrs old now , ,the dealer has given up trying to convince me the later models with the 1.6 engine and no spare wheel are as good
had an Email yesterday ro advise the new Sorrento Hi brid with a 1.6 petrol engine is a good buy? hope some one does a towing test with it
but they still have the 7yr warranty
As advised, most things Italian look good but you need deep pockets to keep them (women included
) Fix It Again Tomorrow comes to mind
0 -
Ours phoned the garage, sensible people.
We didn't have problems with our peugeot based van conversion...except the reverse gear but that design has improved somewhat. When you think that most m/h bases are designed to run as commercial vans they should be up to the job. Haven't been past Bristol docks for several months but that's where you see all the imported cabs and chassis lined up ready to be turned into "dream" motorhomes or commercial vehicles. I suppose van conversions have the edge as they are not a box added to a chasis. But the engine gear and wiring should be up to standard on all the vans...hopefully.
0 -
I note the latest MCs from the Bailey stable are Ford based autos as standard all four berths so far, with drop down from the roof beds
Our last MC(Autocruise) was on a boxer base with the Ford 2.2 engine and was very reliable,and with the removable steering wheel,was just about theft proof
Ps with the steering wheel removed there was not any problems turning the drivers seat either
1 -
One of the issues around new MHs for us, is the fact that Fiat and Peugeot dominate the base vehicle market. We had extensive dealings with Fiat a few years ago, when they bought Jeep. It took a very nice person in Milan to sort out the dealer over here before we got satisfaction. I drove a Jeep (Fiat) Renegade for a month as well. A Jeep it was not, merely something with lots of stickers on.
Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot are now one, a giant company called Stellantis. On the plus side, no matter when your hearts desire claps out or falls to bits unexpectedly, you only deal with one huge company😉
The MH market needs some better base vehicles. Can’t fault the VW lump that powers our 20 year old MH. It’s never failed it’s MOT.
1 -
By your own admission, you know they’re far from perfect vehicles yet you queried my comment about the airbag warning light issue at 4 years old when I implied it was par for the course. 🤷🏻♂️
0 -
didn't really mean to query, just incredulous that a vehicle of any flavour could develop a SRS fault so young. The only time I've ever had a SRS light come on, was my own doing ie turning the ignition on when part of the SRS was disconnected.
0 -
I think any marque could have an early problem, even the so called prestige vehicles. They are complicated bits of design and engineering nowadays, potential for something happening unforeseen is a lot greater. Gone are the days when you just thumped something with a lump hammer. Our last venture with an LR product saw us despairing with frustration, we haven’t owned one for at least ten years now.
1 -
We are looking for a Motorhome and spoke to a large Dealer yesterday [Friday 26th Feb]. He said they normally have hundreds of Motorhomes in stock, but not this year. The Dealer said the pandemic has caused havoc with the production lines and Fiat are some 16,500 chassis short of orders received and current orders are being cancelled and/or delayed. He said the Dethleffs were not expecting to ship new stock until 2023!
On another site, at least 2 models were marked 'Sold. New stock expected February 2022'.
Brownhills Motorhome website says they are desperately short of stock and if you are thinking of selling your Motorhome, please telephone them!
Global Mass Production controlled by a few producers + pandemic make for unhappy bedfellows ...
Steve
0 -
We passed our local Marquis dealership this afternoon, lots of new MHs and caravans in there. But of course they aren’t open for sales at the moment.
0 -
That's the best thing to do with Marquis - pass it by👍🏻
1
