Swift build issues

Bought our first caravan this year Sterling continental 480, and have traded it in for a Lunar delta to many problems to mention with sterling wouldn't have another caravan made by swift ever.

And yet we have an (about to be) eighteen year old Swift, which is still damp-free, everything still works (fridge, hob, water, heating,blown air and heater, Hekis) and we have no dropped off doors, or cracks, or external problems.  We have had a damaged shower tray (our fault), a tap damaged by icing up (our fault), and had to have a replacement vanity basin (our fault when I spilled tea-tree oil on it, and then compounded the damage with dark green eye shadow dust leaving indelible green streaks on the basin).  All these have now been sorted, and we expect to be using the caravan again in 2018 with no problems.

don't you think Val that anything made 20+ years ago tended to last a lot longer as was made to last. people say we live in a throw away world now and " its not worth fixing" attitude.

You are right, LL. As time has gone on so build quality and durability have decreased. I have a theory that 2006 marked a turning point and things went downhill rapidly from then on. It’s not in the manufacturers' interests for vans to last too long so built in obsolescence is the order of the day.

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Most of our caravans and motorhome have all been Swift and have had a few niggles with them all.--- Nothing as bad as some of our caravanning friends who have gone down the Bailey route have experienced though. The best van we ever had was an Avondale - Great van, no leaks towed like a dream spare wheel housed and accessed under the floor. 

K

There are frequent queries, claims and discussions on leisure vehicle quality on CT. But to achieve a properly objective view, the sample size needs to be much larger than a few personal experiences. While the CC’s most recent survey falls lamentably short of ideal https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/media-centre/press-releases/results-of-the-uks-largest-leisure-vehicle-survey/

it does at least represent a sizeable sample of experiences. Reading previous surveys dismisses the idea that faults are a new phenomena, and reveals small margins in quality differences between makes. I think that we all have rising expectations for the quality of all of our purchases whatever they may be, and by and large these are met. However, comparing basic commodities such as a Morris Minor, or an early CI caravan with today’s hi tech purchases isn’t really sensible because pretty well everything today is so much more sophisticated. Our own caravanning was launched in a 2071 Fleetwood Colchester which leaked like a seive, broke gas mantles on every trip and created large amounts of condensation under mattresses overnight. In truth “you’ve never had it so good” (on average).

We bought a Sterling Elite 560 in2016.  We took delivery in March and part exchanged it in the following January after 43 faults.  It recorded fault 44 when we parked it next to our new Lunar to transfer everything and the locking mechanism for the Gas locker door fell apart.

My Sterling Eccles 565 was bought new in April this year. Apart from a few niggling little issues that will be fixed at its first service, can't really fault it.

From what I've read on the web, you get good and bad 'vans from all manufacturer. I was one of the lucky ones I guess?

 

 

Sorry to disagree with the "it was better years ago"  I`ve been reading forums and magazines on caravans/motoromes for over twenty years and nothing has changed to any great extent. The worst caravan we ever owned was our first just over twenty years ago within two months the front panel was covered in cracks and had to be replaced then the new did exactly the same, a motorhome suffered a similar fate some fourteen years ago. The number of complaints has increased simply because of forums such as this, its interesting to note that the customers keep increasing in numbers so to some extent we are all our own worst enemy!