Makeover needed: Motor homes
Filed under: Transportation, Travel
Name an industry affected by these problems: high gas prices, tight credit, and delayed retirement. One answer --- the motor home industry, in particular, the land cruisers costing $100,000 or more. According to a recent survey, motor home sales fell a huge 40% in the third quarter, while inventory grew to half-a-year's worth.
The reason are all too evident. Those with the loose cash to buy them probably were deeply invested in the stock market. Those without the cash might use a line of credit against their home to finance the purchase, a pool of money that has dried up. If they try to finance the vehicle conventionally, they might find loans hard to come by. GE recently discontinued loaning money on boats and motor homes, considering them too risky as investments.
The market decline is also causing many boomers to reconsider retirement, and many had envisioned buying a motor home and exploring the country in their golden years. Many planned to pay for the motor home by selling their house, another dicey proposition.
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The rising cost of gas also increases the operating cost of a motor home. At 5-10 mpg, long-distance travel becomes a very expensive proposition.
How can the industry combat the malaise, except by praying for a market recovery?
Start, I think, by making more of the potential economies of a motor home. Most retirees don't drive willy-nilly across the U.S. They head south during the winter. New Mexico and Arizona host hundreds of thousands of snowbirds, many of whom camp for free on spacious BLM land. Sure, they pay for water, dumping fees, propane, but they don't pay house bills, property taxes, and they don't need winter clothes. Most pull a second, more fuel-efficient vehicle for running about. In the summer, most head north to higher ground, beating the cost of A/C.
RVers also know how to find a deal. For example, many take advantage of the many American-trained dentists working just over the border in Mexico, doing crowns and fillings for a fraction of what they would pay in the U.S.
The industry should also emphasize how many RVers supplement their incomes with summer work. Good friends of mine have worked on a dude ranches, in national parks, and other interesting gigs to help fund their full-timing. They've been on the road for 14 years now and still love it.
It should also sell the experience. People willing to pack up and go on the road are interesting, adventurous and energetic, the kind of folks with whom you'd want to spend time. Tales told around the RV park campfire are generally much more interesting that those in your local watering hole. They also enjoy congregating at events such as the Quartzite, Arizona Show, where 50,000 RV gather for the mid-winter event.
This might be a great time to make a pitch that, since your money isn't making money, why not put it to work bringing you some fun?
Finally, if none of these steps work, the industry might consider buying into NASCAR. Who wouldn't pay to see Tony Stewart wrestle a Winnebago through the banked turns at Daytona?
And if the worst comes to pass and you end up living on the road, would you rather travel like the Grapes of Wrath family or in the comfort of a 39-foot Winnebago with cable TV and a King-size bed?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-23-2008 @ 9:20AM
Bill Cooper said...
The motorhome industry would be in better shape if they could get their act together. After buying a $500,000 motor home it is not uncommon to be back to the dealer numerious times for work that should have been done right at the manufacturer and the guarantees are a joke at the best. I feel that the industry, like the auto industry will only wake up when the Japaneese start making motor homes that are reliable and have a decient finish and reasonable price.
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10-23-2008 @ 1:48PM
Ben Myers said...
Not to mention when you buy a new $500,000 motor home and decide to trade it or sell it 6 months later you find out it is only worth $250,000 . Trust me since you are going to work on a motor home anyway if it is new or used buy a used one . You can replace everything on a used motor home bumper to bumper and still only pay a fraction of the money you would lose on a new motor home. Oh and stay away from big multi-store "chain" dealerships . they charge a lot more for their RV's and service than the indepentant family dealerships charge. and most of the time the customer service is not worth a flip. The treat you like a "walking wallat" and charge you for every little thing they can on top of the high price of the RV thta you just bought from them.. I have been RVing for 30 + Years and the only place I buy from now is Parkway RV Center in Ringgold GA. They have a great web site www.Parkwayrvcenter.com. They have very fair prices and what I like is that they do not charge you extra fee's like other dealers do (Doc fee's, Prep Fee's , Clean up Fee's etc). Check them out
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10-23-2008 @ 11:04PM
Robert said...
I read Bill's comments and I totaly agree about the quality. I own a class A and have noted several problems do to poor design. Among them being: Batteries installed unshielded, just behind the front grill, where they constantly get wet and discharge. A toilet that couldn't be serviced until I removed the refrigerator and cut a hole in the wall. Blown electronics on the water heater ignitor, probably caused by lack of a surge suppressor. The water heater shared circuitry with the starter motor on the generator. Motor home body was installed on a chassis that was designed for a delivery van. Chassis was streached and loaded to very close to it's maximum gross vehicle weight. Because of this, the home rides very rough and handles poorly.
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10-23-2008 @ 4:37PM
Gigi said...
The article is totally on target -- if the RV industry doesn't improve, in today's economy, they will go the way of the saber-toothed tiger and the dodo bird. It isn't that their market has shrunk -- there are plenty of people who would love to be RV'ers -- it's simply that the cost of a rig, together with the cost of gas, as well as the value of investments and real estate dropping (as the article asserts), has made the whole notion impossible for most. Therefore, the industry doesn't have to make the concept of RV'ing interesting to the public, but use their advertising dollars to suggest ways in which to make it more affordable. That method won't sell any new rigs, however.
I also agree with Bill, in that motorhome makers need to employ the methods of Japanese auto makers in order to produce more reliable vehicles. Since every employee on the production line can, and is encouraged to, stop the line when a flaw is spotted, these problems are eliminated during production, and "lemons" are virtually non-existent. American auto makers always had a "don't stop the line for any reason, ever" policy, and that's why Japanese cars became more desireable than American cars over time. Now American car makers are building cars more like the Japanese, learning from them and employing their methods, and American cars are getting better. Why hasn't this production concept made inroads in the RV industry? We pay SO much more for RV's, and yet there are systems that break down in brand new vehicles, all the time. The only way to get the industry to respond is to not accept shoddy product. If new RV's were continually being returned to the dealers that sold them when they don't perform as expected, they would soon learn to make reliable RV's. We simply can't accept shoddy work! Or, as Bill says, we need to get the Japanese to start making RV's!
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10-24-2008 @ 8:08PM
Robert, again said...
I would like to make some additional comments. On my 1st blog, I mentioned that my motor home handles poorly. I now feel that this comment may be too extreme. While the handling or my Class A could be better, I feel it is still safe to drive and I feel well in control when I drive it. However, I would still like to mention another problem that occured because the chassis is maxed out - I had the exaust manifold overheat, causing a mounting bolt to break. While driving my motorhome over a long distance, I noticed I was getting a pain between my shoulder blades. I took a close look at the driver's seat and noticed that I was not centered to the stearing wheel. I moved the driver's seat over about 2.5 inches to center it, and re bolted it to the floor. This took care of my shoulder pain. Finally, I would like to make a comment about Gigi's, blog concerning how these motor homes are built. Motor homes are not built like a car on an assembly line. The only part on them that sees an assembly line is the chassis. Independent shops buy these chassis and assemble the bodies on top of them. Because these shops are obviously alot smaller than the big threee automakers, very little manpower is invested in the engineering and design of the motor home body. This is the reason you see so many of the quirky problems in them like I described in my blogs.
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10-26-2008 @ 12:08PM
Rocky said...
Greed is killing this industry of mobile RV's, the greed of the sales department and overpricing by manufacturers. The same thing happened in the housing market. As a witness I have seen a erson take a school bus, which was bought for less and turn it into a mobile RV and a lot less price than buying one. Than the resale value is not good at all. As to the gas and diesel prices being a problem this RV etc and boats have the ability to put in more efficient and green style engines which are available, but have ot done so. This industry could be revamped by doing so and getting off the greed habit they have developed. If made properly people can actually live in these year round and use less land and if priced affordably with a more efficient engine.
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11-16-2008 @ 11:58AM
Nancy said...
This is the first time my rig is in storage sense 2001. Most of my problem is that I like Florida and the RV parks there are totally out of my price range. I have tried Texas and Arizonia but prefer Florida, just can not find a park that I can afford. All of the middle of the income parks are gone. The mega parks with all of the perks are too expensive and the small, privately owned parks are really run down with old units and no activities.
What's a girl to do? I have been spending 5 to 6 months a year on the road trying to stay in the sun. This year I will be watching the snow flakes. I agree with the prices of the units, poor quality of the work and so on, but you need a place to park if you do travel and they are getting harder to find.
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