Lowdhams

We are 'following' a family on youtube that are experiencing problems with a new MH that has a buckled floor, apparently a known problem with that assemblers products.

They have had the warranty cancelled by the dealer and assembler. As they funded it via a finance company, the finance company have now been involved. Vehicle inspected and assessed. Appears rapid resolution is afoot.

Leisure vehicles, be they caravans, MH, PVC are just common poor quality parts thrown together by luck. As decades of buyers have accepted this poor quality in order to have their pre booked holiday that dealers are aware of punters get what they deserve.

The moral appears take finance, even a tiny amount to get support of the finance company behind you.

As well known we have a heap of carp of common poor quality parts thrown together by cowboys in a circus that has had loads of faults including new rear panel, front skylight window, battery box replacement, 3 battery box doors, heater faults, roof vent faults, plumbing faults, electrical faults, the list is too long to recall everything. We expect to have an issue each time we use our heap of carp, not been disappointed so far  its all part of this camping lark.

We have decided to run our heap of carp into the ground and claim on the warranty for the whole period of validity. With a new rear and skylight this year that gives a few more years life 

Fortunately we have a great dealer that expedites warranty claims and repairs.

In fairness Swift do eventually fix the faults, just takes an inordinate amount of time that reduces our use of the 'van. If only they put it together properly in the first place  Does their reputation no good. As often remarked 'lovely looking caravan', by prospective customers at dealer and on site, but as replied 'its a heap of carp, with countless faults, wouldn't buy another'.

We won't be buying (we paid deposit on a credit card, balance in cash) another caravan, not value for our hard earned.

I was shocked too KS👍🏻, they were quite distraught. Unfair actions getting comeback-excellent😊

My 7 year old van was bought brand new from Lowdhams in Nottingham.  In fact, we've had 4 vans in total and they've all been bought from there and we've always had great service from the sales team.  Service side has been ok but nothing special and I've always thought them overpriced.  The downside came last year when I tried to book a September service in June and they couldn't fit me in.

As it was out of warranty anyway (except for the 10 year water ingress) I arranged for a mobile fitter to go to the storage place.  Did it in a day and cheaper.  I could more or less choose any day I wanted except a Sunday.  Lowdhams tie you down to a particular day and specific time for drop off and pick up and they usually need it a week!

I think thats the heart of problem nellie, manufacturers becoming more and more reliant on dealerships picking up their awful workmanship on the PDI. The units should not leave the factory in the first place with such a catalogue of errors

Swifts responses to me have been, we are very sorry you are experiencing problems with your caravan but the dealer will sort it. 

No, You sort it before it leaves the factory

Whats the point of a manufacturing QC dept.?

If you are out and about over the jubilee weekend have a good one

The assumptions about Lowdhams closure in Huddersfield are wrong. The site is owned by the directors of Lowdhams in their pension fund and has been under an option agreement with a house builder for some time. I work in that industry hence I know - and all of this info is in the public domain if you look for it. The site is allocated in the local plan for residential development and so will soon be built on. Any theories about the current state of the market are wide of the mark. 

To add to the discussion my mobile caravan service engineer has a Swift caravan….. that tells me all I need to know about the other brands. Having said that my brother has just collected a new Coachman and says it is the best built new caravan he has bought by some margin against previous purchases from Bailey and Eldiss. 

If you are out and about over the jubilee weekend have a good one

Thanks tp, but we won't be out, too many others on sites to suit us.

my brother has just collected a new Coachman and says it is the best built new caravan he has bought by some margin against previous purchases from Bailey and Eldiss.

Fc, it will be interesting to see what he thinks of his new van after as couple of hundred nights away in it, when things have had a chance to be "bedded in". I disagree about the state of the market, new vans are not a patch quality wise on models from 10 yrs ago or so. They are IMO "fur coat and no knickers", you only have to read of the number of faults both in construction and part failures to realise this.

Nellie, What on Earth have the state of the market (sales levels/demand) and build quality to do with each other? The discussion was on part a suggestion that Lowdhams closure reflects a falling market and demand - all the usual doom and gloom let’s talk ourselves into a recession mentality when the truth is far different. And, I didn’t say anything about perceived quality compared with 10 years ago! Please supply the objective data to show faults and claims as a percentage of sales have risen. 

Flatcoat wrote:

"To add to the discussion my mobile caravan service engineer has a Swift caravan….. that tells me all I need to know about the other brands."

My mobile service engineer told me his van was based on a Renault Master. "What is the conversion," I asked? "Oh, I converted it myself; I was not going to rely on the build quality of modern vans!" I could say: that says it all.

Both examples are anecdotal and add little to the debate. It certainly can never be said to tell you "all you need to know" in the sense that this it provdes definitive evidence of the quality of Swift or any other van.

To add another anecdote, my Swift van has been pretty good!!!!!!!!!!! 

Flatcoat said:

"The assumptions about Lowdhams closure in Huddersfield are wrong. The site is owned by the directors of Lowdhams in their pension fund and has been under an option agreement with a house builder for some time. I work in that industry hence I know - and all of this info is in the public domain if you look for it. The site is allocated in the local plan for residential development and so will soon be built on. Any theories about the current state of the market are wide of the mark."

To be clear from the start, I do not question the veracity of the above. However, it rather makes the email to customers reproduced above, and copied below as an image [sorry a bit small, but you can read it on page 2 above], sound disingenuous at best and misleading at worst. Unless I am missing something.

Chicken and egg, perhaps? Trade falls off so take option B and sell to the developer, or make sure trade drops by not having stock and sell to the developer. Who knows?