Hello All - I am looking at towering. coachman Acadia 860. Just wondering how good coachman are? Do they have many common problems. I am mainly worried about water ingress and how good the warranty is!
Coachman ACADIA 860 XCEL
- Thread starter tedglen2
- Start date
Best of the bunch according to all the reviews on reliability. Nice caravans if you like the interior design and the fact that what some makers provide as standard you may need to buy, then go for it.
Mel
Moderator
I have never owned a coachman, but have had a look at the Arcadia range and they look like good vans with Alde and other bells and whistles. They do get good reviews.
The weak link is not the Warranty, it the dealer executing the Warranty work! Choose your dealer carefully. We are rightly not allowed to name and shame on here, but read dealer reviews carefully. Not the ones that tell you how great the sales team were, the one that tell you how good the dealer was when it went Pete Tong and warranty work was needed.
Mel
The weak link is not the Warranty, it the dealer executing the Warranty work! Choose your dealer carefully. We are rightly not allowed to name and shame on here, but read dealer reviews carefully. Not the ones that tell you how great the sales team were, the one that tell you how good the dealer was when it went Pete Tong and warranty work was needed.
Mel
Coachman are probably the best of British makes but like all they do turn out the odd lemon. The odds of getting a good one though are far better than some.
I have a friend so far he has owned two twin axle Coachman brought from the same dealer so far he had no problems but you might not have a odd lemon somewhere else
I think the answers so far have demonstrated the situation quite well. The fundamental problem with UK caravan manufacturers is they simply cannot maintain consistency of manufacture.
As one of the later replies indicates when someone experiences a bad product they will often refrain from every buying the same make again, even though its highly likely the previous and following caravans off the production line probably don't exhibit the same fault.
Some times its not the caravan that puts people off it can be the dealers attitude or the workshops poor performance.
Which ever way you look at UK caravan manufacture its track record of producing a good customer experience is pretty abysmal. - yet occasionally someone gets a caravan with ZERO faults. The fact is they should be aiming for every caravan to have zero faults - not just some.
As one of the later replies indicates when someone experiences a bad product they will often refrain from every buying the same make again, even though its highly likely the previous and following caravans off the production line probably don't exhibit the same fault.
Some times its not the caravan that puts people off it can be the dealers attitude or the workshops poor performance.
Which ever way you look at UK caravan manufacture its track record of producing a good customer experience is pretty abysmal. - yet occasionally someone gets a caravan with ZERO faults. The fact is they should be aiming for every caravan to have zero faults - not just some.
I'm not sure it's that bad Prof although I get your point-it simply isn't good enough-but given that the happy ones don't quote there are far more happy owners than not-and the practical caravan survey percentages are quite high-not high enough but.....they need to take a leaf from Toyota's lead -they now offer a 10 year warranty as long as it is serviced by a main dealer-basic warranty is the same but extended by a year each time they service it -even applies retrospectively. Wonder how they got past the 'anyone can service it ' ruling ?
We bought our second brand new Coachman 560 Vip. As we were so happy after the first one was so good. 3 years later, crack on the rear panel happened. The dealer had closed. I contacted, Mark at Directleisure, to help with the warranty repair, Coachman then suggested that if I could take it to them the following week they would replace the rear panel, and see why it had cracked. I towed it to them in Hull two days later, a 2 hour tug. A week later they called me to say it was ready for collection, rear panel replaced and all edges and panel resealed.
And at the last service the damp is a maximum of 12%. I think i have towed it about 12 miles now. Oh and a replacment center front window for Crazing after 4 months.
And at the last service the damp is a maximum of 12%. I think i have towed it about 12 miles now. Oh and a replacment center front window for Crazing after 4 months.
How bad it is depends on your point of view.
Recent surveys over the last few years continue to show that on average 20% of customers have needed warranty work on their caravans.
What this doesn't show is how many warranty claims are directed to the OEM supplier which would not appear in the Caravan Manufactures figures. My trade experience of this suggest that easily another 20% of caravan owners.
Then there are faults that are so simple the caravan owner corrects them selves and make no claim
Don't forget that a "fault" or "non conformity" is anything where the end product does not conform to its designed specifications. It can be as innocuous extra screws rolling about inside a bed locker, or a bit of mastic showing around a window frame -these are all faults and should not occur.
Another problem about reporting such things is the UK caravan buyers have become so complacent and almost expect faults to be present, they don't bother to report them. They are often glad to get two road wheels with a box on top.
It would not surprise me if as many as 50% or more new caravans have avoidable non conformities ( or not as designed errors).
I know I often paint the UK caravan industry darkly, but having seen the utter waste created by the handling or installation of OEM products by the caravan manufacturers and the value of the returned items they claim to be faulty when they were not or they have been damaged or parts raided from them, I am afraid they need to be called to book about it.
The British Public need to be made aware of how much better caravans could be if the manufacturers would design quality into their products ,their production and management systems.
The fact they don't do enough means their customers are paying over the odds for inferior products. If they built them "right first time" warranty costs would drop and they could reduce the cost of caravans, and have much more reliable products and better customer satisfaction ratings.
Facebook
Twitter