Guess which caravan manufacturers won your votes!

[Kate Taylor]

Thank you very much to everyone who voted in our Practical Caravan Owner Satisfaction Awards 2016.
All your votes have been counted and your comments noted – and we're now proud to announce the results!

Click here to find out who makes Britain's favourite caravans.

 

[Raywood]

It is surprising to see a more basic caravan at the top and a luxury one at the bottom particularly as Swift models did worse than Sprites. Not sure if given the price Sprite owners are more forgiving than those who have spent a lot more and particularly those spending around £30,000. It might be interesting to see if this is true in a future article.
Very disappointing to see Eldiss still propping up the rest by some margin.

 

[Gabsgrandad]

What a load of patronising nonsense! You're saying that someone who spends £17 grand of their hard earned cash doesn't want value for his money and doesn't care if bits drop off, or the finish is rubbish. When do you start caring about value and stop being forgiving? -- £20000? £25000?, £30000?, then I suppose you would say well it's ok I didn't pay £40000. I find your argument illogical.

 

[crazyguider]

Our van is priceless to us. Its preowned, but we don't care. Would never spend more than 8k on one, either!

 

[Mel]

Our van is priceless to us. Its preowned, but we don't care. Would never spend more than 8k on one, either!

Any particular reason why you wouldn't spend more?
Mel

 

[Raywood]

What a load of patronising nonsense! You're saying that someone who spends £17 grand of their hard earned cash doesn't want value for his money and doesn't care if bits drop off, or the finish is rubbish. When do you start caring about value and stop being forgiving? -- £20000? £25000?, £30000?, then I suppose you would say well it's ok I didn't pay £40000. I find your argument illogical.

I am not saying someone spending less does not want quality but you do tend to expect less. The more you pay the more you expect. The Buccaneer comes off the same line as the Eldiss but did worse although not a lot. The Sprite comes from the same as the Swift but the Swift did worse but in both cases the standard of construction should be the same.
It would be interesting to see if the figures could be broken down more between models from the same makers.

 

[Martin24]

In for a penny in for a pound. So far, we as a family are happy with our current choice of van and will probably keep it for as long as I can continue with a caravan. All that bothers me is that we and all our chums are happy with our current choices and future ones, whether they be new off the line, a classic, or anything in between.

 

[ricky_s]

What a load of patronising nonsense! You're saying that someone who spends £17 grand of their hard earned cash doesn't want value for his money and doesn't care if bits drop off, or the finish is rubbish. When do you start caring about value and stop being forgiving? -- £20000? £25000?, £30000?, then I suppose you would say well it's ok I didn't pay £40000. I find your argument illogical.

I am not saying someone spending less does not want quality but you do tend to expect less. The more you pay the more you expect. The Buccaneer comes off the same line as the Eldiss but did worse although not a lot. The Sprite comes from the same as the Swift but the Swift did worse but in both cases the standard of construction should be the same.
It would be interesting to see if the figures could be broken down more between models from the same makers.

We pick up our "budget" van next Saturday, it is costing us £18K but I will be going over it with a very fine tooth comb, not because of the cost but because it is brand new and needs to be fit for purpose.

Your argument is flawed I'm afraid.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I don't think Ray was trying to imply that people with smaller budgets are any less aspirational about their purchases, consider that both a Rolls Royce, and Mini are both cars, should do what it says on the tin, but the attention to detail and the materials used in a RR would be of a higher quality and you would expect greater attention to detail in the RR compared to a Mini.

Both will get you from A to B. safely, but one will do it in a particular affluent style (and emptier pockets) whereas the other is no less efficient at getting you there but you may not feel quite as pampered.

Please don't let Ray's remark become a point of antagonism

 

[crazyguider]

We haven't got any more!!!
Naturally it would depend on what we needed at the time, but 8k seems more than enough, considering we spent less than 7k on our current van, with awning and everything included.

 

[Mel]

Good logic crazyguider.
Mel

 

[Raywood]

I don't think Ray was trying to imply that people with smaller budgets are any less aspirational about their purchases, consider that both a Rolls Royce, and Mini are both cars, should do what it says on the tin, but the attention to detail and the materials used in a RR would be of a higher quality and you would expect greater attention to detail in the RR compared to a Mini.

Both will get you from A to B. safely, but one will do it in a particular affluent style (and emptier pockets) whereas the other is no less efficient at getting you there but you may not feel quite as pampered.

Please don't let Ray's remark become a point of antagonism

Thanks, I was not trying to start an argument but merely making an observation. I do feel that people who have bought the budget ranges do appreciate this and might be more forgiving of minor problems.
Not sure if the survey answers allow that, but it would be interesting to see how satisfaction rates look when comparing the different ranges from the manufacturers.

 

[ricky_s]

Hi Ray,

I'm not arguing with you as ultimately this is only a forum and although we are expressing opinions it doesn't really matter.
That said I still think you are wrong, why would you be more forgiving of faults just because you are buying a cheaper van? Second hand yes, but brand new? I am expecting my new van to have less "features" but "faults" are a very different thing and I will not accept any at all.

Ricky

 

[Hutch]

Coachman 560 VIP.
After coming back from a short week, 4 nights away, and cleaning out the van, noticed that a lot of the panel fixing covers were" squint" so not really happy about that, wish I had noticed it earlier. I will move the fixing angles after the warranty runs out to make our van visually acceptable to my self.
Where is QC. These days.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Hutch,

I know you aren't claiming your screw heads are a fault, but it does illustrate one fairly typical difference between a budget caravan and a top end tourer.

As in my earlier post, its that sort of detail that will set an RR apart from a mini, and its that sort of attention to detail that tends to be lavished on top end products that sets them apart from lower budget products.

The alignment of screw heads is something my father instilled in me, and is something I instinctively do even on unseen screw heads, unless by doing so it exceeds the torque setting for the fixing. Other foibles are the attempt to match the grain in wood components, brush strokes when finishing a paint job etc.

Its these little things that give some smug satisfaction and demonstrate the last person to touch an item has cared about it and is likely to have done a proper job.

 

[Raywood]

I don't think Ray was trying to imply that people with smaller budgets are any less aspirational about their purchases, consider that both a Rolls Royce, and Mini are both cars, should do what it says on the tin, but the attention to detail and the materials used in a RR would be of a higher quality and you would expect greater attention to detail in the RR compared to a Mini.

Both will get you from A to B. safely, but one will do it in a particular affluent style (and emptier pockets) whereas the other is no less efficient at getting you there but you may not feel quite as pampered.

Please don't let Ray's remark become a point of antagonism

Thanks, I was not trying to start an argument but merely making an observation. I do feel that people who have bought the budget ranges do appreciate this and might be more forgiving of minor problems.
Not sure if the survey answers allow that, but it would be interesting to see how satisfaction rates look when comparing the different ranges from the manufacturers.

Ricky, I think we are talking about slightly different points here. We were asked if we were satisfied with the caravan, not did we accept faults. What I think possibly comes out is not that owners of more modest caravans accept the faults, but they mark the caravan down less for minor faults than those paying more who probably expect more. To prove it though you would need to re run the results and try to compare reactions to budget, middle and top ranges rather than looking at specific makes.