Great first year with our Thor Vegas 25.5
This is a bit long winded but I would like to share our first year RV experience, which we have totally enjoyed.
We reached our first year anniversary in February with our 2018 Thor Vegas 25.5. This forum has been great reading to help us through this time and it is greatly appreciated. While everyone has so many different experiences with their RVs, especially Thor (since most RVs on the road are Thor Industry products), I would like to take a moment to share ours.
After a year of research, lots of You Tube, going to dealerships, test driving and operating everything in so many different coaches, attending Super Shows, speaking to long time RVers and reading forums; we determined the Vegas 25.5 was the closest thing to the “perfect” RV for us. It would be great for just the 2 of us and, also, work well with our grown kids and grandchildren (with a little creativity). It hasn’t disappointed. The year-long search was truly fun and educational. The sales experience wasn’t bad and only a couple of warranty items to deal with during that period.
We purchased at LaMesa RV, mainly because they had the only floor plan we wanted that seemed to be in good shape and not ragged out from shoppers and shows. It had just delivered to the dealer within the month. The salesman spent a few minutes with us and said that we certainly know more about the coach than he did. He was happy to see that we had done our homework. He never tried to BS us, he did a good job of finding the correct answers to the questions that we had. He had us go through the coach, sort of a pre-PDI inspection list for them to use until our return in 1 ½ weeks for the official PDI and Delivery.
Delivery had a few hiccups. Most of the list of items had not been worked. The so called “wash and detail” was pitiful. It wasn’t filthy but some of the same dirt and stains were still there. There was some confusion regarding the check from the credit union for the small amount that we financed. One trim piece on one of the beds had some damage caused by packed items chaffing during the transport from factory to dealer. That needed to be ordered from Thor. Took them about 3 months and a few phone calls from me to get the part. They didn’t ignore me, just bad organizational skills on their part. BUT, they corrected everything and got my part to me which I replaced myself to avoid spending the day there. Everything worked out and we would certainly do business with that dealership again. Also got them to do wheel alignment.
We only had a couple of warranty issues over the year. The HDMI port for the dash radio was bad and we had a leak develop in the drivers area, dripping down onto the dash. Since LaMesa is over an hour away and CW is just 15 minutes, I decided to let CW work those issues. I also had them install the Safety Plus steering stabilizer. It took a while and lots of water to find where the leak was coming from. After a few days in the shop, the tech was replacing the HDMI when one of our famous Florida thunderstorms hit with driving rain. In came the water and the tech was able to see exactly where it was coming in. The windshield seal was the culprit. They sent the info to Thor for warranty approval. After waiting for the approval for over a week, the CW service manager suggested that I call Thor and ask them to push it. He said Thor responds better to the customer than they do the service rep. So I called. The friendly guy I spoke to looked over the issue and the pictures that CW had sent. He said the approval will be sent immediately to CW. At 8:30 the next morning, CW called to say it was approved and they have the windshield installer scheduled for later that week. All went well and we were back on the road for a weekend getaway. So far, all of our trips have been here in Florida due to work schedule; weekends on the Indian River or week-long fun at Fort Wilderness and other short excursions. All fun and relaxing. We also have really enjoyed fixing the small things (replacing cheap screws with stainless, new cabinet handles and such) and doing most of our own modifications.
I feel blessed that we have had no big issues, even the batteries are still in great shape after a year and that’s including running a residential fridge with the invertor I installed for all inside outlets. I am fortunate to be one of those people that, so far, have nothing bad to say about Thor, LaMesa or Camping World.
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Mike & Diane
2018 Thor Vegas 25.5
2017 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
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