Abbey 620 dealer special

[Parksy]

Hi

Does anybody out there own an Abbey/Swift 620 Vogue? If so, any observations on this model would be most welcome. Having had our 2007 Vogue 495 written off in the recent floods we have been looking for a replacement. We saw a 2008 Abbey 620 cardinal,the same as a vogue but with a few add-ons, at a caravan dealers in Weston Super Mare yesterday. The on the road price including a discount for no part exchange is £14,395 of which our insurers are to pay the lions share. We think that this represents good value for a twin axle caravan with the level of equipment it has. This includes an onboard water tank, microwave oven,infra red alarm system and Phantom tracker with 1 years subscription amongst other things. Any thoughts anyone?

The only thing that lets the caravan down slightly is the fact that the shower cubicle is not fully plastic lined, and although we have always used on site facilities in the past we are now considering using certified locations, and we wonder if this could present problems regarding damp. The salesman when we mentioned this said that he wasn't aware of any problems and pointed out that the 'van has a good warranty.

Carole and myself are seriously considering ordering one of these caravans, which we hope will last us for a very long time . We wont be leaving it near any rivers this time

Any thoughts or tips would be really welcome.

Thanks, Steve

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

i to like the 620 and i am waiting for them to come to my area. but did you know that eldiss and compass are bringing there version of the 620 out and the shower is where the 620's toilet is and its a shower pod.

i havent seen this model but ive seen other models in that spec and i was impressed. if you get the caravan club magazine there a picture of it in this months mag of the inside.

jo-anne

 

[Parksy]

Hi Jo-anne

We didn' know about the Eldiss & Compass versions of the 620 so thanks for letting me know about them.

We dont get the C C magazine because we are in the c&cc instead, but we will certainly be going to an Eldiss/Compass dealership to check these new versions out. The 'beam me up,Scotty' type shower sounds as though its an improvement on the Abbey, so we'll compare the price and levels of equipment and I'll let you know what we decide in the end. The good thing about the shower in the Abbey/Swift version is that being square shaped there is plenty of room in it. (I stood in it on Saturday)

Cheers, Steve

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

hi, i think the elddis/compass is dearer but im not sure. as for spec its hard to know because its all been hush hush. if you go onto pearman briggs website im sure they have got one forsale but the photos dont do it justice. i love the 620's layout and im glad you have tried the shower because thats one thing i hadnt tried.

keep me posted on this please

thanks

jo-anne

 

[Stuart620]

have bought the sterling europa 620 2 months ago for

 

[Parksy]

Its nice to see that you like your 620 Stuart. Everything that I hear about these caravans reinforces our view that we want one. It looks as though you bought your caravan just before they went up in price. Its still good value though.

Jo-anne, when I stood in the shower there was plenty of room and I'm a bit big round the middle. I have a slight disability as well but I had absolutely no problems in the cubicle at all. Carole had a little lie on the bed as well ( cheeky devil) and she said that to her it seemed a bit on the firm side. These caravans will be at dealers during the course of this month and I imagine that they will be at the lawns caravan show in Cottingham as well, if you are anywhere near there.

Regards, Steve

 

[mistermac]

We've just bought a Vogue 540 - it has the CD/MP3 player, the Microwave - the only thing it doesn't have is the alarm system/tracker. We got it with an awning, basic kit (aquaroll, wastemaster, 110 amp battery, Alko wheel lock etc) from Broad Lane in Kenilworth for

 

[Parksy]

Hi Mark

You certainly had a good deal from Broad Lane on your caravan. I've not met a Vogue owner who is not happy with their choice so far, and we loved our late lamented Vogue 495. We had a good look round the Lawns Caravan Show in Hull yesterday and compared different layouts from all of the caravan makes that were there. We still like the Abbey Vogue 620 best and all being well we will be ordering ours next Saturday.

Regards, Steve

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Steve & Cal.

I can't comment on your choice of design, that is of course up to you, but I would add a word of caution regarding where you purchase from.

I get the impression that you are considering a dealer special. Often these are purchased at some distance from your home, and whilst the price may be attractive, I urge you to consider the possible down side of being so remote from your seller.

It is often overlooked that your actual legal warranty is with your seller not the manufacturer, and any issue that needs to be addressed may involve several trips to the seller. If the seller is some distance away then the real costs of that can be quite considerable and may easily offset any saving made at the time of purchase.

You should consider, the time it takes to travel to the dealers, the cost of fuel and incidentals, and the cost of staying away from home whilst the caravan is dealt with. Often a warranty repair requires more than one journey to the dealers.

Don't also forget that whilst you can legitimately have your caravan serviced more locally by any approved dealership, if they have not sold the caravan, you may have difficulty in booking yours in for service, and they may refuse to carry out warranty work.

If I have read your posting gathered the wrong impression please forgive me, but the information may be of general interst.

 

[Parksy]

Hello John

Of course you are right to highlight the fact that the dealers who sell special versions of any given caravan can be some distance from home. With the caravan show 'season' just starting it can be all too easy to overlook the real costs involved in owning a caravan in the quest for what can seem to be a bargain at the time.

As it happens, we almost did exactly that last year at the NEC when we bought our 'late lamented' in October.(See posts under Caravan Flooded)

After trawling round the NEC all day on the Monday and again on the following Saturday we had decided exactly what we wanted. We brokered a really good deal with Micheal Jordans who beat everyone else on price and it was only afterwards that it occured to me that any savings that I made would be more than offset by travelling from the West Midlands to Guildford for servicing etc. We hadn't signed or paid for anything so we had another look and opted for Davan of Weston Super Mare, still with a good deal.

Although this dealership is not on the doorstep for us we go to Weston, Brean and Somerset very regularly and regard it as our 'local' resort area.(Birmingham on Sea)

In our own case we are easily within 'day trip' range and like this particular dealership. Because we are both retired time is not such an issue with us and to have the caravan serviced or repaired by them would be one another of our 'days out.' (are we getting old?)

If Broad Lane or another main dealer had the same caravan this year then I'm fairly sure that we would have gone to them this time though. Thanks very much for taking the time to make this point because it is in every caravan buyers interest to bear this in mind.

Regards, Steve

 

[woodsieboy]

Hello John

Of course you are right to highlight the fact that the dealers who sell special versions of any given caravan can be some distance from home. With the caravan show 'season' just starting it can be all too easy to overlook the real costs involved in owning a caravan in the quest for what can seem to be a bargain at the time.

As it happens, we almost did exactly that last year at the NEC when we bought our 'late lamented' in October.(See posts under Caravan Flooded)

After trawling round the NEC all day on the Monday and again on the following Saturday we had decided exactly what we wanted. We brokered a really good deal with Micheal Jordans who beat everyone else on price and it was only afterwards that it occured to me that any savings that I made would be more than offset by travelling from the West Midlands to Guildford for servicing etc. We hadn't signed or paid for anything so we had another look and opted for Davan of Weston Super Mare, still with a good deal.

Although this dealership is not on the doorstep for us we go to Weston, Brean and Somerset very regularly and regard it as our 'local' resort area.(Birmingham on Sea)

In our own case we are easily within 'day trip' range and like this particular dealership. Because we are both retired time is not such an issue with us and to have the caravan serviced or repaired by them would be one another of our 'days out.' (are we getting old?)

If Broad Lane or another main dealer had the same caravan this year then I'm fairly sure that we would have gone to them this time though. Thanks very much for taking the time to make this point because it is in every caravan buyers interest to bear this in mind.

Regards, Steve

Hi Steve and Cal

Hope this reassures you, we have bought 2 dealer specials from Michael Jordan, both were good deals at the time, we had both servicing and warranty work done at our local Abbey dealer, so we didn,t have to return to Michael Jordans for any work to be done on either, and when we came to tarde the vans neither went back to Michael Jordan, both went to seperate dealers who were more than happy to accept them in part exchange, the first sold on the day we returnrd it, and the second was on the forecourt for 10 days before selling.