Swift Best Quality Caravans. Really! lol
I recently purchased a really nice Swift Elegance. This was supposed to be the 'top of the range' elegant model and Swift are supposed to build the best caravans, lol My A**E. lol
Before using it, I decided to check everything I could and clean and tidy it from front to back before it's first use. This is what I discovered on my search..
The aerial won't extend as rain water has seeped into it. (ok, weather affected so I could over look this one) New one ordered.
The front panel has been sprayed over a poorly smoothed down surface and you can see paint runs.
The top window has condensation in it.
Near side front light has condensation in it. (Took it off to check it, but it's a sealed unit)
One of the water inlet sockets is not level/straight
One of the electrical sockets is not level/straight.
The Thule bike rack bars on the rear of the van are not parallel.
One of the rear light clusters has condensation in it. (sealed unit)
Underneath the caravan, there are screws missing on the finer mesh over the holes. (fitted more screws)
Screws missing on the plastic surrounds that seal the kitchen waste water and the shower plug hole. (Fitted new screws)
Inside the caravan, there's metal and plastic 'swarf' around where (when been built) they have drilled. (vacuumed up)
The radio has not been fitted correctly. The metal surround has only been placed in the hole and not securely fitted. (Metal surround correctly fitted)
Two of the switches work the wrong way around. (Unable to change switches to the right way around)
One of the side door catches plays up when you try to shut it. (Will have to live with this one)
The shiny plastic on the light surround isn't securing properly (secured with double sided tape)
Apart from that. What a brilliant van! lol
QUALITY CONTROL AT SWIFT lol (not).
I think Swift are in need of a dam good auditing and quickly lol
Thank god I didn't purchase a cheap(er) model ,lol. God knows what I would have found, lol
I purchased a Swift Challenger 10 years ago and I had similar problems/quality faults then.
When you think that this van was £30,000 new, you think these minor issues/ faults would be sorted.
No wonder the likes of Adria, Hobby and Knaus are selling well in this country.
I'm sure that if they don't keep an eye on their misgivings they'll go like our car industry.....
I.E. Down the pan
Comments
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Well, that all sounds par for the course to me.
I don't know who told you Swift build the best caravans but what really surprises me is that you repeated your mistake of 10 years ago.
Have you considered rejecting the van? The club's legal department may be able to advise you.
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Kevin, I know how disappointed you must feel and for what it's worth, you have my sympathy. I had my heart set on a 635 when they first came out in 2015 and I received a phone call from Wandahome at South Cave to say they were collecting one from the factory, that morning. Off I toddled that afternoon and couldn't wait to see one in the flesh.
Went in - opened a drawer in the front chest and the drawer front fell off. Operated the blind on the kitchen window and it jammed halfway down. Moved the sliding wardrobe door and it stuck half way on a protruding screw head in the floor track (and an identical Sterling model did the same).
Ok - so minor and trivial faults but this, as you say, was their flagship model at that time and this was how it had left the factory. Needless to say, I didn't buy one and bought a Barcelona instead. Whilst not entirely faultless, it was better than the Swift.
The fact that I now have a Knaus Starclass speaks for itself.
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All dealers are paid by the manufacturer to do a PDI before the LV is handed over to to the customer,
Some dealers do as required, others it seems are less meticulous ? and then will get paid again by the manufacturer when the the customer ,takes the LV back to have warranty work? carried out ,which by the sounds of your caravan many of the ex production line snags should have been picked up on PDI?
I am not defending the poor workmanship at any company,as some shopfloor staff are probably on piece work?, and production has been even more increased to keep up with the upsurge in demand,
All makes can have "problems" but dealers as posted above ,are paid to pick up during PDI what it seems in your case was not very well carried out, as happens as we have noted in the past,
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To carry on
The dealer we now use is very local to us (another lesson) when our present c/van was delivered to the dealer, we had a call to ask if we would like to have a look at it before it went into their workshop for its PDI,
We took them up on the offer ,and when looking inside noted a tick sheet that had been left by the production line inspector? all the "inspection" points had been ticked off, but we notice several glaring problems that did not match the tick sheet
The salesman showing us our delivered c/van, said we ignore that sheet as it basically just shows that all the bits to be installed are there, we have to go over the whole van during PDI and rectify what we find , that is what we get paid to do,
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Two best bits of advice I would give anyone buying a new caravan. Always, always be wary of the dealer, their role is to sell, sell, if decent they will be sympathetic and try and help, but shouldn’t need to if proper PDI checks have been done.
Secondly? Don’t hand over that final payment until you have thoroughly inspected and tried out absolutely everything you can in your new van. A lot of those things you have spotted would have been obvious upon a close look before taking it away, surely🤷♀️
I fully agree with your last statement about poor quality. But going back for a second dose of heartache, buying yet another product from Swift is simply endorsing their “some fool will buy it” quality controls, surely?
I hope your new van works out ok for you eventually. It is heartbreaking to find such an expensive buy isn’t a quality product, but sadly all too familiar in the touring outfit industry.
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I'm afraid the Blue Peter approach using double sided sticky tape, Velcro and staples is prevalent throughout the industry.
Our first white elephant of a MH used it back in 2007 and was a contributory factor in us reverting to a caravan and swearing we'd never again buy a Swift. The BP method has caught up though and even our new AutoSleeper, thought by many to be one of the better MHs, uses sticky tape - it's the new screw.
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It's probably a bit meaningless me saying this but up until 2013, when we changed to a motorhome, we had owned three new vans from the Swift stable and all of them were excellent. Was that luck or down to a good dealer, I can't really say. Obviously disappointing to experience a lot of problems but some of them are pretty minor and as you say you have been able to fix yourself. I don't wish to belittle the issues but if you dwell on them you won't get any enjoyment out of the new van which would be a pity. Get the van back to the dealer and walk through the remaining issues, also make a checklist so when you collect you are happy everything has been attended to.
David
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They are not all bad. We have a 2011 Sterling Elite Diamond which was top of the range at the time. It has been, and still is, brilliant. It sails through its annual service and hopefully willl continue to do so for many years yet. It's not good to hear when somebody has so many problems but I'm sure there must be many more who are delighted with their Swift/Sterling and have no reason to complain. If it were me I would return it to the dealer for rectification and double check it before accepting it back. Good luck.
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This is a copy of an e-mail I sent to Swift today regarding a recurring fault in their shower tap unit.
"I purchased a new Swift caravan (Sprite Alpine 4 SR) in August 2015 (VIN SGDST2ESWF0901640).
It suffered severe water ingress in 2018 due to a fault in the shower tap which required complete stripping of the rear of the caravan (under warranty) due to the considerable damp caused by this fault. The shower tap was replaced.
In March 2019 this (2nd) shower tap failed. Fortunately I heard the leak when the water pump was switched on which prevented excessive water ingress, but resulted in a holiday when we could not use the water pump and facilities. It was again repaired under warranty, and the shower tap replaced (tap no.3).
The caravan was used about a dozen times between then and the Covid lockdown in March 2020.
It was serviced (Swift approved) in August 2020 and then, due to Covid, stored at home - Swift instructions followed - water drained, taps left open.
Two days ago I went to flush out the system and clean the pipes prior to using the caravan again; guess what, when I switched on the water pump, water started to leak from the shower tap housing. Removing it I found, surprise, surprise, shower tap no. 3 was leaking.
I was fortunate to source another shower tap from a dealer (their last one due to four other purchases today).
It appears to me that there must be an inherent fault in the shower taps you supply.
Whilst one fault may be unlucky, a second might be considered to be extremely unlucky; a third failure strongly suggests that something is wrong with the quality of the product. Remember that Swift guidance re winterising has been followed, so please, don't try and blame the customer.
As stated, I have purchased a replacement shower tap(from an authorised Swift dealer) which will hopefully arrive in time to allow a long anticipated holiday to go ahead.
Given the above, I would like to suggest that reimbursement of the cost of shower tap no. 4 by Swift would not be unreasonable.
I look forward to your response."
Whilst there have been some niggly issues with quality about the 'van, they have been easily rectified, and unlike the above, have not adversely affected our trips away (we use the van 12 months a year).
The plumbing issues are the exception. Previously, the pipes under the front seat by the heater failed on two occasions causing water ingress before being fitted with upgraded fittings, fortunately without lasting damp issues. But they did mean that water pump could not be used.
I would be interested to know if I have been really, really unfortunate; or if, as I suspect, there appears to be an inherent fault in the shower tap that Swift refuses to acknowledge; given my experience, I can't imagine that they are unaware of the issue - having to replace a shower tap every 14 month despite following their advice re winterising seems somewhat excessive.!
Happy camping.
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Charlie, you too really need to take it up with the dealer you bought the van from.
I'm not sure whether Swift will respond but other manufacturers often ignore such correspondence.
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Thanks Tinwheeler.
I spoke to the dealer I bought the van from (who fortunately had the last shower tap in stock which I have ordered.)
Their response in respect of quality of product provided which I queried was that a one year guarantee was 'probably' appropriate, and given it was two years since replacement, a free replacement would not be considered equitable.
I don't really have a beef with the dealer who have usually been very accommodating; I do have a beef with Swift if they continue to supply to dealers what appears to be substandard spares. Normally caravan makers encourage people to buy genuine spares from them or authorised dealers for peace of mind. Regrettably, buying this particular Swift spare fills me with the exact opposite.
I look forward to seeing what the response (if any) from Swift will be.
Cheers
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I've already picked up this van. It's a great van, and I'm just very picky. I just wanted to make sure all was going to be fine for our first trip away in it. The 'things' mentioned are trivial non structural and the van is great, but not cleaning up swarf and not putting the correct amount of screws in to secure 'things' is a bit much. Now that it's all cleaned up and putting all the securing screws in, replacing the aerial and securing the radio, it's going to be ok.
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No, the cynic in me says standards drop all the time and I'd expect it to be no better, or even worse, than the van 10 years ago.
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I bought a Swift Elegance brand new in 2016 and had 19 faults in the first year. The worst problem was that screws holding things like drawer runners would drop out (the composite wood was obviously too soft to hold the screws rawl plugs. On several journeys we had drawers lying on the floor. We gave up when the sliding drawer for tins etc came loose requiring the removal of the oven. We traded it for a Hymer which is in a different league in terms of build quality along with good service support. Earlier we had two Bailey Unicorns which were good but still prefer the Hymer.
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