Four years ago, I paid in the region of £22,000.00 for a new Toyota Rav4. I have done over 70,000 miles, had it serviced regularly and only paid for consumables. For my money, I got something totally reliable, quality Japanese engineering and no water ingress or anything like that.
Today, I paid approximately the same amount for a new Bailey Unicorn Valencia and I got something you have to tow around because it hasn't got an engine and drive system, a fairly basic chassis with a recent innovation - shock absorbers! It has cupboards and equipment which are below the standard of a quality fitted kitchen. But it's a caravan and that's the type of holiday I choose.
Even though I made it clear that I was taking the caravan to France and storing it there, so it would cost me a lot of money and inconvenience to bring it back for warranty work, so please make sure everything is right.
Now I have the caravan, the solar panel won't work because the connections won't stay in and a shelf has exposed cut plywood because someone couldn't be bothered to fit a bit of trim. My recently purchased 135 amp/hour standard caravan battery is half an inch too high for the recess Bailey have constructed for the battery and who knows what else will go wrong when I take it away to France on Sunday.
It's my first ever new caravan and somehow, I feel like I've been shafted.
I just wish I had a faultless Toyota caravan to tow with my faultless Toyota motor vehicle.
I think British caravan manufacturers should look back to what happened to the British car and motor bike manufacturing industry.
I should have known better. My last caravan was a Bailey Senator which needed both awning rails re-sealing just when it came out of warranty. Then I found myself in a position to buy my first new caravan and you hear all about this alu-tech construction and that was it.
Turning up for the handover, all excited about getting your new caravan and a couple of silly faults just put a major damper on your day. Too late to turn back, just have to make the best of it.
It must say something about the complacency of Bailey when they let caravans out of the factory with faults.
Any major faults and I shall be looking at the Sale of Goods Act very closely. The term "not fit for purpose" springs to mind.
and here lies the problem, people accepting shoddy work! why after inspecting the caravan have you agreed to take it? you wouldn't have singed for delivery if your car had bits missing/falling off/broken so why do the same just because its a caravan
Quote: Originally posted by GCMS2012 on 12/6/2015
'When' / if we change our van...
And if the funds will allow, we may go for a Euro type van.
They just seem way better built than UK vans these days....
And before anyone says, the door being on the 'wrong' side doesn't bother us.
By an Adria, you get a European Van with the door on the correct side!
------------- Alan
2016
February C&CC Theobalds Park
March C&CC Salisbury
May C&CC Adgestone IOW
July Le Clos Auroy, Auvergne France
August C&CC Polstead
August C&CC Oxford
October C&CC Lauder
The battery not fitting isn't their fault, TBH. I nearly did the same thing when buying a new battery for my caravan... you really do have to check w/d/h against the space.
We have bought a Valencia recently also. We did a pre-delivery inspection, we picked up a couple of bits and asked them to rectify on the pre-delivery service. They did.
Your dealer should have told you that you needed the slim line battery, it's not a fault, it's designed like that so as not to ground when you drive along.
We have been away for 9 nights since we collected on the 1st May, everything worked as it should of done.
Happy Bailey Customer
------------- Nick
2017
April - New Forest(9)
May - Dorset (9)
August - Camping Le Pin Parasol, Vendee (18)
October - East Mersea (8)
and five nights in the one man tent!
When was 135Ahr the standard caravan battery. I would say that is larger capacity than 99.99% of caravan owners have. Knowing that wouldn't it have made sense to check the dimensions of the battery compartment.
Toyota and Nissan are in the process of recalling 6.5 million cars due to potentially faulty airbags. See Here
I do agree about QA standards in the caravan industry leaving a lot to be desired though. I am sure we don't hear about the majority without faults but they should all be fault free for the premium price charged. Obviously production control has more clout than the QA departments.
You know sometimes I feel we have only ourselves to blame, we have a very demanding and competitive market place where manufacturers are meeting the market demand and trying to keeps the costs low, somethings going to have to give, and the 1st is generally the product, sad I know but we never had these issues before, the main European markets producers now have yards on us in regards to quality, but the general expectations are higher but the demands expected on price and delivery are lower, therefore they make a better product and the clients expect to pay for it.
Yesterday we picked up our new U3 Cartagena, good pdi and the caravan tows abd is beautifull.
Only one fault on pdi and not found til we got home and thats a small 12v light not wirking.
Great van and both Bailey and Lowdhams did a great job for us.
You seem to have a big downer even before you you start using your van, did you pay x hundred of pounds for delivery, your dealer should have picked up on the small faults before hand over and the battery not fitting is your fault.
you obviously dont like the van.
Your car went through the same delivery inspection when you bought it and your car dealer done a better job.
If you belive all Japan built cars are faultless well your dreaming
Shall we bring up how Toyota cars where killing people in America recently with throttles sticking wide open
and all the recent recalls on imports, no lets not.
Not finished yet,
Japanese caravans, nearly fell off my seat laughing.
read this THIS
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Japanese Caravans Please!
