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Old 01-10-2019, 08:17 AM   #9
kmhappel
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Vegas 27.7
State: California
Posts: 52
THOR #14024
Thank you all, what a community, we bought our 27.7

I wanted to thank you all for the help, I was able to find my way through the rather disturbing experience I had in dealer land.

I called the sales manager at Thor and talked to a lady (a marketing manager) and then a guy who was, I believe a regional sales manager. There is no V11 engine, but there is a version Vegas 27.2 item spec 19.5 that is an upgrade to the original 2019 spec of the unit I have now bought. The differences are a second house battery inverter and wiring, a Sirius ready dash console unit and a WIFI extender. Hardly $15K. Heck, that's not even a thousand if you are a careful buyer. They also helped me get to a short list of dealers that could accommodated my house-sale escrow balance pay-off and price the deal as a cash sale (since my local one wouldn't). Thor did right and I liked the simple “Reeeaaally! Followed by a direct referral to the regional sales guy who heard me out and then set things right.

The statements made by multiple dealers that warranty service would have to wait behind local customers if you didn’t buy from them is ridiculous and both the Thor guy and the dealer’s finance person both explained why. Having founded and run publicly traded companies, I have bought vehicle fleets. The sales group would sell at near wholesale to get the service contract that was worth gold. They confirmed that Thor Warranty work is paid by Thor at fully burdened rates. That means rates above discounts and other price lowering market forces. Dealers live from those warranty service jobs.

They also confirmed that there is some truth to dealers giving non-warranty service priority to locals and repeat customers but not enough to have that be a real concern as there are a large number of good independent repair and upgrade shops. I agree with those who suggested we should start a register of the great and good and the bad and ugly so we can all profit.

They also told me a strategy to defeat some of the problems of detecting new vehicle problems immediately. The dealer has a setup with a local rv stop. They do the run through then send you there to try everything yourself. The next day you do a run through of all the issues. After passing muster then we will drive about 500 miles in three days in a circuit that has dealerships from the same company in several of the towns on the circuit. We get through that and I wll guess that we have handed the first tier of stuff, much like commissioning a boat with a sea trial.

To the kindness and concern of gmtech, I did not take offense at 80 somethings. I am 70 and I married my cougar, we have lived on board boats and taken on heavy water. Boats are good training for every money destroying exercise except there is no dealer to fix the breakdown for the fist thousand miles or so. That is why this site is so important and your concerns so real. Without being forewarned, it is very hard to tell how to prepare to meet the unexpected.

JamieGeek, I had read the wonderful manual by our Air Force brother (in fact its how I found this forum) and I intend to make a kind of addition about the dash board console upgrades and how to wire them. Blush, yes I stand or, sit in this case, corrected about that center console…

My wife has been sick but is recovering well and now is the time. Later would be your vision indeed. The Vegas is about as heavy as we can safely control. We will immediately add sway bars front and rear and steering GMTECH, we are not going to even be visible in your rear view mirror, that is some car. I got to hand in a Patrick Racing indy-car racing pit crew one year and got to feel the 180 mph blow buy…

I am glad we have such a community and it's wonderful a be new member of a community that shares its ingenuity and the challenges they meet. Makes us all safer.

Thanks Ken and Lynne
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