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Quote: Originally posted by deltaman on 28/5/2009

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I have a ten year old Bessacarr which has not been resealed and is bone dry, a Hymer salesman tried to sell us one of his vans and went to great lengths about the bonded roof and shock absorbers fitted as standard, he was upset when i informed him that that was standard on my van ten years ago,

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Quote: Originally posted by CandP on 28/5/2009

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Quote: Originally posted by snowy747 on 28/5/2009

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It would be interesting to see what percentage of each brand have reported damp problems rather than individual numbers.  For instance, the likes of the Swift Group, Bailey etc must sell thousands more vans in the UK than Geist, Burstner etc so you are bound to see more damp Baileys because more are sold.  But what percentage of Baileys report damp?  That is the important figure surely?

The van next to us last year was an Adria, less than 3 years old and had been in the workshop for 10 months waiting for an entire side to be replaced due to damp.  It is not unique to UK vans by any means.

BTW I am not saying for one minute that German vans aren't better, all I am saying is I wonder what the actual percentages are?

Ali

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I tried to ask a similar question


Here

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Firstly,  the German caravan industry produces many more units per year than the UK manufacturers.

German vans are sold throughout the continent - whereas UK caravans have a minuscule presence there.  In fact, about the only market for UK vans is Holland (in small numbers), presumably because the Dutch have a soft spot in their hearts for the British.

The rest of Europe, by and large, are simply not interested in flimsy UK products that are known to leak and which have suffered from the same old quality problems year after year, with nothing being done to improve matters.

One of the reasons why the UK industry (with the help of their bought & paid for Poodles in the UK caravan press)  have fought so hard to dissuade their customers from considering German vans is that they are very well aware of the shortcomings of their own products - and know only to well that once their customers have sampled a decent German caravan they are unlikely ever to by British again.

Rather than raise their own game they rely on a nasty blend of patriotic fervour and nonsensical rubbish about 'doors on the wrong side', 'cushions not meeting UK safety standards' and (most ridiculous of all) dire warnings about German vans 'not being approved by the NCC'' - which conveniently overlooks the fact that the NCC is a trade body, comprised for the most part of complacent hirelings who are there only  to noisily agree with whatever their paymasters say.

A more impotent, self-important, and ultimately worthless gaggle of fat old spongers cannot be found anywhere in Britain outside the House of Lords! -  the views of the NCC on any caravan-related topic are of less importance than the braying of a donkey.

So, if we're talking true figures here, the proportion of German vans that don't leak is huge, based on a total sales volume - but the proportion of UK vans that *do* leak is amazingly high when one considers the relatively small total number sold in a combined UK/European market.

But how do we know the proportion of leaky German vans versus the proportion of leaky UK vans?  Where are the stats published?

Ali

'People only WONT have german vans ( which are lovely BTW) because some pikey could come and nick it for a home more so than a british van AND the cost of them.'

That must be a good endorsement as they live in their vans.

Brian

We're watching this thread with great interest.

We're part of the revival of the British holiday scene, y'know the type, we've recently bought our first (older) van and are giving caravanning a go. So of course we have been looking a lot at new caravans at dealers in our area. (as you do!)

Frankly the build quality of some of the new vans is worrying, we saw dodgy door seals, badly finished interiors and warped doors. These problems are on vans costing teens of thousands of pounds. A six year damp warranty is of little comfort when it happens apparently, from the tales we read it seems it takes an age of phone calls, threats and hassle to get the repairs done.

A couple we have met have a Burstner, to be honest we like it. OK, door on the "wrong" side, no oven(?) and the integeral water tank are a little odd, but the feeling of quality....it's good.

Next winter we will probably buy a better/new van, of course we should buy British. But should it be a lottery when one is risking thousands of hard earned pounds. We have a feeling that a couple of years old German could be a better bet than a new Brit.

Anyway thats our thoughts, we set off on Sunday for a two week tour of Northumberland and southern Scotland. It's our first time we will have caravanned for more than a weekend, looking forward to it.

Andy.