Compass Caravans

[Gagakev]

Looking through the web and came across the Compass Casita 550
Not really heard much about this brand due I suspect to the obvious brands being more popular/available.
Quite like the end island bed with mid ship bathroom and shower also being separate
I see they are under the Hymer banner, will this provide better quality?
What are your thought's or even better if you have experienced one?

 

[ProfJohnL]

We live in hopes that Hymers take over of the Elddis group will bring about substantive improvements in quality and consistency of production.

There have been some comments on the forum that suggest new Elddis vans may be better, but there is a lot of entrenched poor practice in the UK caravan industry (and apparently we are not alone) and it really needs a foreign (eastern) company to start to produce consistent caravans for the UK markt at a more realistic price and with better reliability to get the industries attention and make then pull up their socks.

 

[Thingy]

Looking through the web and came across the Compass Casita 550
Not really heard much about this brand due I suspect to the obvious brands being more popular/available.
Quite like the end island bed with mid ship bathroom and shower also being separate
I see they are under the Hymer banner, will this provide better quality?
What are your thought's or even better if you have experienced one?

Its a model we looked at before deciding on the Unicorn. We originally liked the Unicorn Cabrera, as you say end bed, mid bathroom, until we saw a 2021 model in the flesh. The bathroom shape and layout is ridiculous, especially the door arrangement around the toilet, so in the end we went for the Vigo. The Compass, though not as bad a shape in the bathroom area, did promise the same space issues.

 

[Beachball]

Looking through the web and came across the Compass Casita 550
Not really heard much about this brand due I suspect to the obvious brands being more popular/available.
Quite like the end island bed with mid ship bathroom and shower also being separate
I see they are under the Hymer banner, will this provide better quality?
What are your thought's or even better if you have experienced one?

Hi Kev why don"t you have a look at one that then see it first hand

 

[JezzerB]

We love our Buc made on the same production line. Erwin Hymer are now owned by the American Thor industries but we're very happy with quality two years in(70 nights away this year, no issues at all and I mean not even a door dropping of a loose screw.).

 

[Beachball]

We love our Buc made on the same production line. Erwin Hymer are now owned by the American Thor industries but we're very happy with quality two years in(70 nights away this year, no issues at all and I mean not even a door dropping of a loose screw.).

We look at a Buccaneer Clipper but went for Elddis Crusader Super Sirocco caravan my wife love the layout when were seasonal caravanners

 

[Raywood]

Basically the Compass is an Eldiss with a different colour scheme. Any criticism or praise about Eldiss will apply equally to any Compass model.

 

[JezzerB]

Absloutely -and to Bucanneers too. ! Just different colours and kit-and in some cases width but they're all made in Consett County Durham and we love supporting UK workers. I know parts come from elsewhere but we'd only consider a uk made caravan-just how we feel at the mo!

 

[Gagakev]

Absloutely -and to Bucanneers too. ! Just different colours and kit-and in some cases width but they're all made in Consett County Durham and we love supporting UK workers. I know parts come from elsewhere but we'd only consider a uk made caravan-just how we feel at the mo!

Hi JezzerB the exact reason we bought our current van, Fleetwood british made in the UK, but later learnt it was made by Adria in Slovenia!!

Thanks for all your thoughts and advice, best go and look at one and see what we think.

 

[Mandarin]

In May we changed our Unicorn Valencia for a 2020 Compass Camino 550. Very, very happy with it and overall it feels better made than the Bailey and the design suits us well. So far no major faults and first service all was good with the few minor faults fixed under warranty.

Time will tell....

 

[ProfJohnL]

I'm sorry Mandarin, Honestly I'm not getting at you, but your post has raised my hackles....

...Very, very happy with it ... So far no major faults and first service all was good with the few minor faults fixed under warranty.
Time will tell....

You post shows how desensitised UK caravanners have become about the finish and reliability of caravans. Let me retell your storey another way, and you tell me if it makes sense?

You have just spent a lot of money and bought a new caravan, which has had some faults, the faults weren't major but your "Very, very happy with it"

Compared to cars and aircraft, caravans are not especially complex, and yet despite the many years they have had to perfect the assembly of them, they still can't do it right first time everytime. - Which incidentally is what you are legally entitled to. You should not be sold faulty or unreliable goods.

It comes to something when you praise them for getting it wrong.

I do understand that in the greater context of caravans, you are happy with the way the caravan suits your needs, and compared to some stories you have done well to get away with only minor issues.

But the manufacturers still need to do a whole lot better. Everytime.

Hope you continue to have great adventures in the caravan

 

[Thingy]

and it really needs a foreign (eastern) company to start to produce consistent caravans for the UK markt at a more realistic price and with better reliability to get the industries attention and make then pull up their socks.

Hmmmmm, look what happened to Austin, Morris Hillman and such when Datsun and Toyota entered the UK market. That didnt encourage them to improve, they carried on in their own entrenched ways, producing such laughable cars as Allegro, Montego, Princess, Rover SD1, Hunter, Avenger and all the other variants that spent more time off road than a Landrover.

We Brits dont do well with competition. Very good at going on strike though!

 

[JezzerB]

Different ball game these days though. Mini very successfully make cars in Oxford and Nissan and Toyota. No complaints re faults so it can be done. Not been round the Elddis factory yet but Mini yes. The automation attention to detail and the work force are amazing. They clearly love their jobs and incentives for ideas to aid better production etc are well rewarded.

 

[otherclive]

Different ball game these days though. Mini very successfully make cars in Oxford and Nissan and Toyota. No complaints re faults so it can be done. Not been round the Elddis factory yet but Mini yes. The automation attention to detail and the work force are amazing. They clearly love their jobs and incentives for ideas to aid better production etc are well rewarded.

A certain lady effectively put paid to the widespread use of strikes as a bargaining tool. Don’t forget Honda who came in and started to turn around what was left of BL with a Rover variant of the Civic. Eventually morphed into the successful Mini factory. Meanwhile Honda CRV made in Swindon were stated by Honda to be of higher quality and lower production time than those made in Japan.

 

[JezzerB]

I deliberately left Honda out since they have finished production at Swindon-however as you rightly say you could argue they started it all off!

 

[Mandarin]

I'm sorry Mandarin, Honestly I'm not getting at you, but your post has raised my hackles....

Whooaaa there ....I said a few minor faults at the first service, so maybe I should have listed them,
-Toilet door sticking slightly
-Oven door handle loose
-Missing pop rivet in gas locker lining
-Brakes squeal
Chrome on toilet radiator pitting
Only two of those related to the construction of the van.

That's fewer faults than the first service on my Japanese made car.

 

[Raywood]

I do agree that some of the faults we get are not the caravan makers fault, but the equipment supplier. As most of these items are also found on makes from other countries I can only assume those caravans have the same faults or are they picking them up at the fitting stage. Possibly the Brits are just ignoring obvious faults like the pitted radiator and the continental makers send them back, that should not happen.
If a pitted radiator was fitted presumably it then needed to be replaced which would cost Bailey money they could have saved by weeding this out.

 

[Thingy]

Lets look at Mandarins minor faults a bit more. And I do agree its not the worst by a long chalk.

Toilet door sticking - could that be the van not level or steadies to much wound down, I have seen that before as it twists the caravan. But then again, it may be panels not properly lined up.
Oven door handle loose, wasnt it given a PDI? Dealer fault.
Missing pop rivet. Oh dear, was the lttle lamb in a rush, going out maybe, or just too damned uninterested to check. Must do hundreds, he knows how many he has to use.
Brakes squeal, a fairly common fault due to a leading edge build up.
Chrome pitting. Sub-standard product or finish.

Not a massive amount in my opinion, compared to some fault lists I have seen. But None of these should be happening. As Prof says often, this is tantamount to an industry that gets away with murder.

Its a sad indictment though when real quality control no longer exists. The manufacturers would rather let the end used do the work for them, banking on the possibility that very few can be bothered to really come back at them.

Only when the caravan buying public stops accepting this crap, will we see any improvement in the finished quality. They also now have the advantage that the vast majority of new staycationers/caravanners will not be as hard bitten and cynical as some of us and that sellers market will allow them to carry on regardless.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Mandarin and Raywood,
As you may say they are minor, but the fact is the caravan manufacturer should have found all of them and sorted them at the manufacture's premises. As Thingy has just commented the manufacturers have ditched proper quality assurance and expect teh consumer to find and suffer teh consequences of their failures.

As I have commented elsewhere, the cost of managing warranty claims far exceeds the cost of doing right first time, and the consumer is basically paying the manufactures' to continue to produce substandard product. I have previously estimated that about 7% of the purchase price of a caravan is to cover warranty costs - which if the manufacturer were to do the job properly would easily be reduced to about 2% or less, but aiming for zero defects.

Wouldn't you like the same caravan with another £1000 off, and the much reduced expectancy of having to take it back at your expense to have faults corrected. The saving on time and fuel to return a caravan for warranty work must be worth another couple of hundred pounds a pop.

It is good to see some improvements, but they're starting at such a low point it should be easy to make some significant improvements - I'd start with production staff training, and majoring on generating pride in the job done properly, becasue some caravans are pretty good but not consistently. More comprehensive review of customers issues, not only to highlight production failings but also to improve the consistency of minimum dealer standards regards sales and after sales services. Better design processes to use past data to point to where improvements need to be made, and to produce product that is harder to assemble incorrectly.....

 

[Buckman]

Lets look at Mandarins minor faults a bit more. And I do agree its not the worst by a long chalk.

Missing pop rivet. Oh dear, was the little lamb in a rush, going out maybe, or just too damned uninterested to check. Must do hundreds, he knows how many he has to use.

I think that what happens is that due to the pensil pushers the company order the exact number of pop rivets or screws for a caravan. If one gets lost and cannot be found, they continue with the build and the worker does not mention it in case they get shouted at or get a deduction from their bonus. Consequently further down the line a caravan gets built with missing rivets or screws. Just a guess of course. LOL!

 

[Mandarin]

I think that what happens is that due to the pensil pushers the company order the exact number of pop rivets or screws for a caravan. If one gets lost and cannot be found, they continue with the build and the worker does not mention it in case they get shouted at or get a deduction from their bonus. Consequently further down the line a caravan gets built with missing rivets or screws. Just a guess of course. LOL!

So a bit like an IKEA kit, maybe we'll be able to buy flat packed caravan kits from. IKEA soon? 😆 lol.

 

[otherclive]

So a bit like an IKEA kit, maybe we'll be able to buy flat packed caravan kits from. IKEA soon? 😆 lol.

Nor at all like IKEA in my experience. IKEA quality is good and consistent, as is customer service too.

 

[Raywood]

IKEA has excellent service although I am not sure of of their products are the best quality.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I think that what happens is that due to the pensil pushers the company order the exact number of pop rivets or screws for a caravan. If one gets lost and cannot be found, they continue with the build and the worker does not mention it in case they get shouted at or get a deduction from their bonus. Consequently further down the line a caravan gets built with missing rivets or screws. Just a guess of course. LOL!

It is certain the underlying BOM (bill of materials) will have an exact number of rivets needed to complete the caravan, and those figures will drive the purchasing process, But for many types of low cost fasteners when you order 20K of them, the supplier doesn't count each one individually, they most likely supply by weight, and that will probably end up with a few extra in the packet.

But as you suggest its almost certain that some get missed during the build, and becasue I believe most caravan assembly lines are still using piece rate based wages, incomplete jobs do get passed down the line becasue of time pressures. Heaven s to guess what gets missed if an assembler needs to go to teh toilet !

 

[otherclive]

IKEA has excellent service although I am not sure of of their products are the best quality.

What do you refer to as “ best quality” They are not Ercol but neither is the price. I’ve always found them easy to assemble and they do the job expected of them for a long time. In our lounge four of five coffee tables are IKEA as are the two rocker type chairs that are an IKEA icon. They are for the pooches. When we moved here just over two years ago the two visitor bedrooms had large wall length ceiling height units and bedside tables. Again absolutely straightforward to assemble albeit heavy. So what is it that some have against IKEA without being specific?