October NEC - what were your best bits?

Talking face to face with Manufacterers staff,  to try to tmake them understand that,"designers" need to try their ideas rather than expect the end users  ,to find out they got it wrong

I didn't manage to get there this time around, but as we bought a new van and awning at the last show in February, I'm  sure that the highlight would have been a visit to the Snowdonia Cheese stall!  

David 

Went on members day. Enjoyed perusing the MH's of which there was infinite variety. Not what the exhibitors want to here but I enjoyed it being less busy this year. Saw the cheese stall David, but managed to resist just.???

Morello Empire....though a tad too large....

the Carthago stand, consistently high std models across the range...

the Swift 'lifestyle-type' caravan.....and the one built by Adria...

the IH motorhome stand, but way too expensive for a PVC...

the Westfalia stand.....in the PVC arena, definitely 'how to do it'

the small Pilote 600L, quart in a pint pot (A class, drop down bed)

the small Rapido 600, another quart in a pint pot (low profile coachbuilt, drop down bed)

the three A class Mobilvetta TeknoYacht models on the Marquis stand, stonking value at a smidge under £65k

the Hymer Nova caravan we stumbled across while looking at the Hymer MHs.

yes, some pretty good stuff about....but didn't visit any major UK stands (swift, bailey, autotrail) as had seen their 2017 models and nothing was that inspiring... 

Had  a  very  average  show  in  truth    --  didn't  see  anybody  I  knew,  not  even  a  corner  of  the  C.C.  Stand  for  C.T. to  congregate.  The  two  good  bits  of  this  Curate's  Egg  were  ;--  seeing  the  delightful  young  Meeks  on  the  Q & A session  with  Mr  Allwright,  and  ,  of  course,  the  Snowdonia  Cheese  Stalls  !

At  least  I  got  to  save  a  bundle  by  only  buying  one  D & C  !!

Brian    A B M

Best bit was finding out that we didn't have to change vans as ours is more preferable (to us) than those models that we saw at the show.

Did like the Vantage EOS motorhome at £55,000+. Might have to consider a relatively small motorhome in the future if we want to stay with small outfits so we had a stroll around the M/Hs. At least there was more choice for us there.

The caravans on show were a big (in every way) disappointment for us.

I was happy to see an increasing number of innovative caravan designs within a small floorplan although apart from the Swift Basecamp most of them were of non-uk origin. 

It was a shame that the caravan section was dominated by the big uk manufacturers and caravans from other countries and smaller concerns were dotted around the various halls.

I thought there were fewer accessory stalls and fewer quirky stalls this year.

If it gets any bigger as we get older,they wiil need "buggies" to get round

Well,  at  least  this  show  is  on  one  level  unlike  the  February  show  --  that  has  stairs  !!  if  you  need  to  get  a  Wheeled  vehicle  'tween  floors  you  need  to  go  via  the  one  set  of  lifts  !! 

As in previous years there is the ever increasing number of fixed bed caravans aimed at the older market shall we say.

As a father of growing children I have realised that there are no layouts from the usual manufacturers  for the growing family i.e teenagers which are too tall for the fixed bunks which we have at the moment

Family layouts at the moment are for the smaller children and I believe that this gap needs to be filled.