Background: Now the kids are off our hands and deciding to come back to caravanning after a 20 year break in February 2014 my wife and I decided to dip our toes in the water and purchase a used 2005 -06 Avondale Osprey for £7000 . Despite a really poor aftersales experience when trying (and failing) to get an issue sorted out we discovered at handover, all went well with this van but were reminded very quickly that one of the things we didn't enjoy about caravanning was setting up the bed and putting it away every day. So after attending the NEC show in October 2014 despite facing a loss of £2750 on part-ex value of the Osprey ordered a new Bailey Unicorn Cadiz in November 2014 to be told that the production date of the caravan would be June 2015. - well, we;d got a caravan, we could put up with another 8 months of bed setting up, so we put our order in and paid our deposit and looked forward to our delivery date.
The part-ex value was provided was based on book price, and with not actually seeing the Osprey. In fact the dealer didn't see the Osprey until we towed it in to pick up the Cadiz (July 2015) when, due to the dealer discovering "damp" in the Osprey, the p/x offer was reduced - having seen the damp meter for myself and listened to the damning comments from the dealer, I am now aware there is no doubt that the Osprey would have had water ingress problems when we puchased it.. The Bailey dealer actually pointed out that there was a repair on the back of the van which was the only place there was no damp, three quarters of the van had damp and our new van dealer said it might last another season. There was no gun to our head, it was our choice and the dealer even offered to return our (non returnable) deposit despite the fact that we'd had sveral extras on the Cadiz to make it "ours"
Lessons to be learned:
1. Even when buying second hand from a dealer, however old or young the caravan is and no matter how trustworthy they seem have an independant inspection (this could have saved us £5,275
2. Part-ex quoted for you van when ordering any new caravan can change should the condition of model you are bringing in either change or be found not to be as expected - have extra finance ready!
The experience was like a punch in the gut, but we were lucky we had the finances to be able to work around it and that the Bailey dealer was willing to put some value on the Osprey (even though he expected that he'd end up selling for scrap) I'd just like Practical Caravan readers to learn by our costly mistake and take this opportunity to rant at caravan manufacturers to get their act together and sort out this on-going water ingress issue with better design, Avondale went out of business, Bailey have suffered with it in the past, there are rumours another large manufacturer has earned a reputation for producing leaky vans - if they don't sort it out they will go the same way as Avondale, or worst still caravanners like ourselves will end up losing a shed load of money on their product.
Contact me should you need, I'm willing to name and shame
Moderator Note: Name of Dealership removed .
Read the Forum Etiquette BEFORE posting.
The part-ex value was provided was based on book price, and with not actually seeing the Osprey. In fact the dealer didn't see the Osprey until we towed it in to pick up the Cadiz (July 2015) when, due to the dealer discovering "damp" in the Osprey, the p/x offer was reduced - having seen the damp meter for myself and listened to the damning comments from the dealer, I am now aware there is no doubt that the Osprey would have had water ingress problems when we puchased it.. The Bailey dealer actually pointed out that there was a repair on the back of the van which was the only place there was no damp, three quarters of the van had damp and our new van dealer said it might last another season. There was no gun to our head, it was our choice and the dealer even offered to return our (non returnable) deposit despite the fact that we'd had sveral extras on the Cadiz to make it "ours"
Lessons to be learned:
1. Even when buying second hand from a dealer, however old or young the caravan is and no matter how trustworthy they seem have an independant inspection (this could have saved us £5,275
2. Part-ex quoted for you van when ordering any new caravan can change should the condition of model you are bringing in either change or be found not to be as expected - have extra finance ready!
The experience was like a punch in the gut, but we were lucky we had the finances to be able to work around it and that the Bailey dealer was willing to put some value on the Osprey (even though he expected that he'd end up selling for scrap) I'd just like Practical Caravan readers to learn by our costly mistake and take this opportunity to rant at caravan manufacturers to get their act together and sort out this on-going water ingress issue with better design, Avondale went out of business, Bailey have suffered with it in the past, there are rumours another large manufacturer has earned a reputation for producing leaky vans - if they don't sort it out they will go the same way as Avondale, or worst still caravanners like ourselves will end up losing a shed load of money on their product.
Contact me should you need, I'm willing to name and shame
Moderator Note: Name of Dealership removed .
Read the Forum Etiquette BEFORE posting.
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