Thor Forums

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by Chance

It's already happening in my opinion.

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Secondly, when Hymer (German company) purchased RoadTrek, they quickly moved to first place in Class B production passing Winnebago. And that segment (still low production volume) is growing faster than Cs and specially As. I expect companies that offer 5 or 6 year product warranty place greater emphasis on a quality build.

Over next 3 to 4 years or so Hymer is expected to introduce small Cs and As to North America, but they won't compete directly with American products due to their much smaller sizes. Regardless, if demand is great enough, maybe that too will force improvement.

Just because someone offers a six year warranty doesn't mean their quality is any better. A RoadTrek will cost you about 30K more than a comparable Winnabago. Since there are only so many manufacturers of RV components many of the components are the same (e.g. water pumps, electrical components, AC units, generators etc...) so the failure rates for these components will be the same. Companies like RoadTrex that extend the warranties at an increased cost to the consumer may be banking on the fact that 30K will cover any and all costs of warranty repairs over 5 years. Yes, 5 years because their warranty states that an equipment manufacturer's warranty applies first and most of those are 1 year.

Also, look what happened to Jeep since the European's took control. They now have more models on the top 15 vehicles "not to buy list" than any other auto maker. The Wrangler and Cherokee which used to be considered a couple of the best are now rated with the worst.