Caravan bodywork repairs

[Ron_5095876]

Last Easter holiday my 10 year old Sterling caravan suffered body damage in an accident. After waiting 3 months for the insurance company to give the go-ahead, the approved repairer told me it would take 6-8 weeks for the repairs due to waiting for the side panels to be made etc. Well it's now been with them for 7 months and I still haven't got my caravan back 10 months after the accident. I would just like to know if this is normal/average service to expect from a workshop approved by the manufacturer/caravan club/national caravan council when a caravan suffers damage or whether I'm being strung along here?

 

[jacky3]

YES i'm afraid it is,unfortunately caravan manufacturers are not like the car industry,were spare parts are readily available from a multitude of companies.it seems to me its a very closed shop and it stinks to high heaven that we spend so much on caravans and when it goes wrong, or needs some repair work,it drags on for weeks and months before it eventually gets sorted out,and i really can't see it improving either.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

We had a minor accident in October requiring a new side and rear panel.

The job was completed last week.

We were told that where the aluminium sides are produced it is necessary to wait for a gap in the production runs before caravan parts are produced.Ours came shortly after the Christmas shut down so that seems to be likely.

The rear panel came and was the wrong part but when the job was completed (very well done) the rear panel looked good but the outline of the dealer's sticker could still be seen .

Obviously rather than wait the panel had been repaired and filled .I would have had no problem with this repair but as we had arranged to trade the van in prior to the accident it was soewhat academic.

Its not ideal that it takes so long