Dealers
Comments
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Nellie, do you mean roads like this, taken from my dash cam! Not much good for caravan or motorhome. I think I held my breath for about two miles, fortunately we didn't meet anyone coming the other way. On balance I think it might have been easier in a motorhome as I was never that good at reversing my previous caravan😕
David
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@DSB We are the same, liking our space and comfort, and at the moment reluctant to use public transport with Flyte, who goes nearly everywhere with us, because of his blindness.
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That's when I would use a car….. @DavidKlyne. The caravan would be on site near a much more accessible road. Reminds me of some of the roads on the Roseland penninsular in Cornwall - e.g. going down to Carne beach. The dog friendly Cornwall beaches, in season, as a bit like that…. 😀
David
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Not the sort of road we usually take our caravan down, regardless of what @Wherenext might say, although we have done it on a few occasions. However it is the sort of road that OH accuses me of looking for when we head out for the day from the van. I have never driven anything larger than a car so should we ever end up getting a M/H we would certainly be sticking to major route, well for a while at least!.😎
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David
That picture was actually en route to a campsite! We obviously took the wrong route.
David
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Good grief David... ( @DavidKlyne ) 🤣🤣🤣
David
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@DavidKlyne - apologies for the bit of a long post - but it makes interesting reading. This is taken from an email sent to me by my dealer after we had been chatting about the subject. Makes for interesting reading and he makes some very valid points:
Reasons for the rapid decline in demand for Touring Caravans in the UK;
ECF stats for UK new Caravan Sales
Jan-March 2024= 3,242 v 3,498 in 2023 = down -7.3%...Moveing Annual Total less than 11,000
Motorised now outsell Touring Caravans in the UK and in most EU countries
ECF stats for UK Motorised Sales Jan – March 2024 = 3,851 v 3,204 up 20.2%
ECF stats for Total Europe Sales Jan - December 2023 = 146,339 Motorised v 63,751 Caravans
Total LV sales were -1%
- Awful wet Spring and Summer weather
- Retail Pricing up dramatically by some 25-30% since 2020
- Strong evidence of poor build quality and high levels of water ingress across all brands resulting in poor reviews on all Forums and customer satisfaction
- Ageing customer base who are defecting to Holiday Homes/ Cruises/Camper vans in search of the Sun or simply giving up on health grounds
- Plethora of interesting AIRBNB options becoming attractive/VFM with little effort required
- More owners have sold up/giving up in 2024 than ever before
- Nil innovative ideas across all brands/same old/same old, new décor and graphics each year…no new “Gamechangers” since the introduction of the Thetford Cassette toilet back in 1988
- Improved driveability of modern Camper vans and Motorhomes ( on refined chassis and 9 speed autoboxes ) appealing to mature early retirees
- Young families with school age children opting for all-inclusive Holidays to the Sun and discovering new Countries
- White Box caravans are simply not Cool any more…modern society has changed greatly since the peak Touring Caravan Days of the 60’s & 70’s….UK campsites have generally not kept with the times and are now relatively expensive at £40-50 per night
- Annual running costs of Site Fees, Insurance, Fuel costs, Annual Servicing and Damp check costs, storage charges PLUS depreciation now exceeds £3-5k pa.. many real options are now available via the Internet
- Newbies and existing Tourer owners becoming disillusioned with towing/hitching up/connecting to services/emptying loos….all a bit “Old hat” now….a faff?!
- No real ability to buy on a monthly PCP/Lease or even Rent by the week because of exorbitant Insurance premiums
- Nil Touring Caravan Marketing by the Trade Body,The National Caravan Council ( who are totally invisible and inept )
- Nil Advertising by any such Industry leading Suppliers…Recent “Daily Mail on Saturday” featured 23 full colour pages on Continental HolidaysCruising//River Cruises/Adventure Holidays/Package Holidays…nil on Leisure Vehicles here or abroad!
- New change in Government ( General Election halts confidence ) with real uncertainty over pensions, interest rates and cost of living
- Caravanning is no longer fashionable within the middle classes/30-50 age bracket and has not been embraced by any ethnic minorities…only retirees remain visible
- The growing rise of Electric Vehicles their limited towing ability and with just ½ their range when towing is a cause for concern amongst Manufacturers and Dealers
- Only 4 x UK based Manufacturers now co-exist with varying degrees of acceptability/fit & finish and Value For Money
- Recent Globalisation has removed real design flair and competition in the market ( 2 x manufacturers are now US and Swedish owned ( Elddis by THOR Industries/Erwin Hymer Group and Coachman by Kabe of Sweden )
- Covid Bubble has burst…so many Newbie buyers tried Caravanning with few other options but now want to sell up and “Fly and Flop” in the Mediterranean/Caribbean Sun = oversupply of used Tourers and Van Conversions
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Richard
I am sure all those are valid points on the state of the market. I suspect Covid impacted the industry in many ways. Not only creating a spike in demand that clearly wasn't going to be maintained but probably also got many people thinking whether it was time to give up. Prior to Covid you could have purchased a reasonably spec'd motorhome for around £50000 but that is now that is in the region of £65/70000 which is a massive jump and probably enough to put people who were a bit undecided off. I am sure its the same for caravan prices? In some ways the price of campsites have also followed that trend, we only have to witness all the discussions on this forum. The industry does seem to have gone through a massive change in the last five years. Whilst it will likely stabilise in the next few years there are even bigger changes likely with the increasing use on EV's and ICE cars becoming rarer?
David
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R&R, I liked the list you posted. . But it isn’t just “fly and flop”. Two 61 year olds in this family found you could fly direct from London to Amman in Jordan with WizzAir for only £90 return, then hire car and drive on real roads to see the rose red ruins of Petra in the desert . There is no way they would buy a caravan - and no way they would lay out capital to buy a motorhome either. The pace of change is immense. The options are there. Touring with a caravan is dying very fast.
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That’s a very interesting list from your dealers R&R. Quite insightful indeed. Personally it was number 11 and 12 that made our decision to sell our caravan, and we have not regretted it. Having had a few cottage holidays this year, taking nothing but a suitcase and a bit of food has been fantastic. Talking of dealers we noticed recently that ours on A64 near York had closed, part of Catterick Caravans group, they weren’t great dealers but we did end up forming a reasonable relationship with them. I feel that some dealerships are also part of the problem as they have no (or perhaps little) interest in helping customers when things don’t go well. We also had problems of the dealer failing to do PDIs on both new and used vans, assuming the customer would find out what needed fixing, or in one case, selling us a ‘new’ caravan that had in fact already been sold, registered, and returned to the dealer. It is so frustrating when you are in a situation like that and the customer has to sort out the mess. Dealers like that deserve all the bad reputation that they get.
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@heddlo I know the Ebor caravans dealership quite well - had a bit of a run-in with them many years ago and vowed I would never darken their doors again. However, in recent years, have popped in there for bits and pieces and it was quite handy when we were staying around Malton. We're fortunate in that our own dealer is excellent in terms of after sales service - but unfortunately is 150 miles away from home!
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Another issue that seems to be impacting on dealers is the question of finance. Some of you will have heard about a recent High Court (?) case were they ruled that dealers organising any third party finance for a customer had to declare the amount of the commission paid. This has caused all sorts of issues which included several companies removing finance plans when selling cars. The Motorhome Matt YouTube channel has just done a video on this subject. What they seem to fear is that if a customer knows now much commission the dealer is receiving it will be used to hammer down prices. I am not sure I have ever purchased a caravan/motorhome via dealer finance so it wouldn't have helped me!
David
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Finance could be a problem now but not for earlier sales. In practice you can still go to your bank or even search the web for deals so it should not be the problem many people are making out. My daughter has used the bank for many years and saved a fortune. The only downside is the loss of your rights against the finance company if things go wrong. Possibly tough with the dealers finance you might find them offsetting some commission to get a sale.
Using the dealers finance is probably a little too easy and anyone with savvy probably should or will have gone elsewhere.
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