Which engine is better for motorhome

Well I've had Fiat Ducato based MH's for ten years and so far zero problems, fingers crossed of course.

The real answer is that they're all fine, but you can always get a rogue.

There were an awful lot of 'rogue' Fiats and Peugeots around 7-10 years ago. MH forums were full of complaints about them. 

 ... but I think Fiat is now seen as semi premium! ...

Is it? 

Mollysmummy (daddy?)  - Noting your a caravanner from your avatar then in the car world I think they have some (long) way to go.....

However the motorhome constructors seem to treat it as at least semi premium ( I guess Mercedes is ahead if you look at the price of Autosleepers on the MB chassis). The comments below by Autotrail can be seen about the Ducato.......

http://www.auto-trail.co.uk/performance

However I do accept that asking on here "who makes the best chassis blah, blah...." will produce responses dependent upon what you own in the main....it's a bit like asking which is better, Tom Tom or Garmin sat nav's and most people will say what they have bought....your opinion isnt mine, nor vice versa I'm sure...  

Sorry, TT, but that's a promotional publication and AutoTrail are hardly likely to say (for instance) "We build on the Fiat Ducato because it's cheap and enhances our profit margin so why would we use anything else?". 

I'm not rubbishing the Fiat but I wouldn't expect anything other than a glorious write up from a converter. That applies to any converter using any base vehicle.

TW - I am sure you are correct, certainly to an extent anyway. I personally dont give a toss who makes the engine in my motorhome (or car for that matter) I just want it to take me where i am going without breaking down!

I will say that having having just swapped a Peugot badged M/H to a Fiat badged one the engine seems to pull more smoothly but that certainly wasnt why we bought it, it was the layout of the van we were interested in, we would have bought it if it had a British Leyland engine in it....(OK that bit might not be true...)

But I come back to my belief that asking on a forum "which is the best.....?" in the main produces biased replies or simply opinions. Unless someone comes back with hard facts like, say, the number of breakdowns per 1000 miles or something , you simply end up with peoples opinions.  As we have already established, we are unlikely to ever agree on those....!

My point was that you can't take much notice of what the dealers/converters say.

You are quite right in what you say about opinions which takes me back to my post on the previous page where I said "Let's face it, there's no right or wrong answer. It's all down to personal choice and there's good and bad in all things.". There can be no definitive conclusion.

Yes, I can accept that a convertor might try and  justify their choice of base vehicle by saying "we searched the world before we chose this because it's the best........" whereas in reality they simply bought a job lot of cheap vans.....

I suppose the converse of that argument is that if you make motorhomes and flog em for £40, £50, £ 60 k + you might want to choose a reasonable base vehicle in the hope that it is both reliable & pleasant to drive...

Will we ever really know why different convertors use different base vehicles and which is "better".......

. 

Mollysmummy (daddy?)  - Noting your a caravanner from your avatar then in the car world I think they have some (long) way to go.....

 ...

It is Daddy  Having a Fiat in the household (my daughter's) and a Citroen (MollysMummy) I can honestly say that if it was up to me, if there was never another Italian or French car in household again it'd be too soon. OK the Fiat is old and battered, but the Citroen is just shy of 6yrs old with less than 30k on the clock & has every fault on it known to Citroen ... £800+ worth

Course we won't, TT. 

I suspect you might be a little off beam in your second paragraph though as I think converters are only interested in what will sell and produce the biggest profit margin. As you might have worked out, I have a very low opinion of the cvan/MH industry as a whole. That doesn't stop me buying their products mind.

In all fairlness, Fiat offers a cheap alternative to Mercedes  both on their engines and chassis.  This is why the Motorhome  mass market uses the Fiat option. Those manufacturers are in business to make money. Buying Fiat engines and chassis at a price and producing in huge  quantity   helps their profit margin -----Quality is not exactly their first consideration.

My motorhome was built on a Fiat Chassis and apart from the usual front wheel bearing premature failure,(expensive repair)  it was trouble free for five years.

Cheers ........K.

Hi All, Many Thanks for your reply, So I learn one/two thing on here, The motorhome we like at the moment is 2010 Autosleeper Nuevo 2 berth, Any one got one of those, and what to look out for, I know about damp ect as we been caravaning for 34 years, Thanks Elsa