Buyer’s Remorse

“We want out.”

Have you heard that from someone who just bought a brand new motorcoach? We have. Many times.

Getting in and out of the RV lifestyle can be very expensive especially if you spend half a million or more on a new coach only to find that the experience is not what you expected.

One factor in the decision to bail from the RV lifestyle is the ownership experience. For example, we met one couple at the Newmar factory that had just received a new coach. They had paid roughly $700,000 Canadian for the coach. And they were absolutely livid with all of the issues. Their warranty punch list had over 75 items on it.

“We want out.”

That will cost them. Likely $200,000 or more as the resale value drops significantly after purchase.

This is our list of issues that we have experienced with our coach since we first took delivery three years ago:

• Cracked floor tile
• MCD day/night shades defective
• Winegard digital TV antenna defective
• Sofa bed defective
• Passenger side basement door out of alignment
• Driver side fuel cover missing clear coat
• Kitchen sink leak
• Loose fabric trim
• Engine fault light triggered by outdated engine firmware
• Driver side front tire defective
• Side radiator lower grill almost disconnected from body of coach
• Oasis hot water heater pumps defective
• Full wall slideout uneven and the slideout floor rises up after it has been deployed
• Front passenger side levelling jack leaking hydraulic fluid
• HWH levelling system not operating correctly
• Full length of Girard awning casing not fully retracted
• Hole in roof
• Winegard satellite dish defective
• Random deployment of Girard awnings while in transit

There were also a few recalls:

• Power steering fluid leak (potential fire hazard)
• Slideout motor mounting bolts (under-torqued)
• Driver passenger shade defective
• Freightliner wiper control software update
• MCD remote shade motor replacement
• Battery cable may rub against frame (potential fire hazard)
• Freightliner lightbar instrument panel odometer value may reset and not match the engine ECU odometer value
• Low beams do not illuminate with high beams

If you are considering the RV lifestyle it is important that you do the research. All coaches have issues. All of them. It comes with the territory. We take the issues in stride. Our issue list was just part of working in a new coach. They are complex machines that are largely built by hand. We never once debated selling the coach because of our issues.

We spent six months last winter travelling from Canada to Florida across to California and back to Canada. We had a few issues during that major cross country trip. Our hot water pump failed. Our satellite dish failed. And we kept our Girard awning motor control modules unplugged while we were travelling because of the potential for the awnings to deploy while the coach was in motion. We had an incredible trip. The issues were, at best, a minor distraction.

We resolved the hot water pump and satellite dish on our own. Newmar resolved the random deployment of the Girard awnings.

All of the issues that we have experienced were resolved. We expect more issues in the future. And we expect to resolve them. Hopefully without too much inconvenience.

Selling a new coach when you encounter issues is a pretty rash and expensive decision. I was not able to find any data to determine how many coach resales come from people wanting out. I suspect a fair number would come from buyer’s remorse.