We took delivery of a new Elddis 462 in December 2017. handover was dreadful, and within a week of use the van started to fall apart. Mostly down to poor design and dreadful build in the factory. Within a month of use and 2,000 miles of travel it had been repaired once and was so bad we dare not use it again.
Fast forward 5 months, our cowboy dealer who refused to talk to us, and our solicitor from the house insurance legal aid who secured an appropriate settlement. Caravan was duly returned.
Two months later I received an email from the person who had just bought it (found my email on a guarantee card left in the docs) and wondered why I had sold it so quickly. Not a single repair had been done, the van had simply been passed from our cowboy dealer to another. He quickly got his money back.
A couple of days ago, yet another email from someone else who had just bought it, and found a warning from the other buyer in the handbook with my email. Yes, the van had been passed on again, still with no repairs done.
I tried to convince this guy to return it as the van was structurally unsafe and there were so many different significant faults with it. However, he seems to be quite happy with the dealer's assurance it can be all quickly put right and is having repairs done on it.
I can understand your worries as you have said it is structurally unsound. But it depends on how much the current owner paid for it. Its up to him/her to decide if the repairs have been carried out properly. You have warned them and thats the best you can do.
He paid £15k and after talking to him it was clear none of the repairs had been carried out, its probably too expensive to repair properly. It would need a new side panel and roof panel just to do 2 of the jobs! Instead the dealers sell it on to another dealer.
As you say its up to him, but this is really a warning to anyone buying a too good to be true nearly new caravan. It may not be what it seems!
We rejected a 2016 Buccaneer in Oct 2017 and it was duly taken away and was up for sale almost the next day by a dealer near Northampton for £5k less than what we had paid. I know this because the tracker was still activated.
The caravan required over £3000 in parts alone to be fitted as front and rear panels needed to be replaced plus the perspex above the three front windows as the dealer had damaged that somehow. Numerous repairs required inside the caravan.
The caravan was sold within a week to some poor unsuspecting buyer. I wonder how long they kept it?
Seems rejected caravans go straight back on the market without any repairs or PDI in the hope that the buyer will not notice anything until it is too late.
I'm probably naive but wouldn't you think the original dealer with a rejected caravan would return it to the manufacturers for them to scrap it if it was deemed neccessary. The manufacturer would have to pay back the "whole sale" price to the dealer if in fact the dealer actually buys them from the manufacturer, I don't know how the market works.
It surely can't help a manufacturers reputation to have all these stories of faults in their products and the industry as a whole.
I own a folding camper and console myself with the thought that it surely can't cost as much to repair that as a caravan!
One would have thought the manufacturer would have taken more interest. One of their engineers did inspect it, and while not saying a lot, agreed it was unfit for purpose. As you say, I would have thought it would have gone back to the factory to be repaired properly.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Second hand bargain, perhaps not
via mobile 10/5/2019 at 3:24pm
