Owner Satisfaction Awards 2018 – full results

Mar 14, 2005
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3,305
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The link worked for me (Win 10 & Chrome)

I find the results quite depressing! :(

How an indigenous industry can be satisfied with figure of around 80% of new product being judged as faulty by their customers, beggars belief :(

WAKE UP UK CARAVAN MANUFACTURES, LOOK AT YOUR ABYSMAL UNACCEPTABLE RECORD, AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
 
Nov 11, 2009
21,201
6,716
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Unlike JD Power where there has to be sufficient numbers to merit a place in the survey, I just wonder how statistically significant are the results for Eriba and Knaus, whilst even Adria aren't mainstream. Although I do recognise that those three brands do have good reputations amongst the cognoscenti, and the ultra low deprecation on Eriba says a lot.
 
Dec 6, 2013
200
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I agree entirely with Prof but also struggle to understand how low people's expectations seem to be. For example, how on earth can the Swift Group can earn a satisfaction rating of 75% when well over 80% of its products have one or more faults? With so many new caravans costing well over £20k, anything less than no faults at all should be regarded as unsatisfactory and surveys such as these completed accordingly.

The good news is that, if the JD Power survey for cars is anything to go by, they do seem to influence an improvement in the quality of the product over the years so here's hoping. In the meantime I'm keeping my old Avondale for as long as she's serviceable ...
 
Jun 20, 2005
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Yet again another appalling fiasco :angry:
Many of us over many years have highlighted the problem areas which are so simple to resolve.
1. Piece work encourages sloppy workmanship.
2. Continuous QC and QA from start to finished product is still very very poor"
3. The Supplying Dealer continues to do inadequate PDIs.
4. We the buying public are far too tolerant and do not make better use of the Consumer Rights Act.
It took me a few months to iron out the bugs in my new unit. In fairness since then it has behaved very reliably. That tells me a lot ;)
 
May 7, 2012
8,598
1,817
30,935
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Frankly the results are appalling. Even the top makes cannot achieve 90% unlike previous years and the whole thing seems to have gone backwards. The level of satisfaction at the bottom of the list seems to suggest that the change of ownership has not had any effect at Eldiss but it might take a bit longer for this to show .
Possibly the increase in numbers sold has meant that they were churned out even quicker than before with even less quality control.
 
Mar 14, 2005
17,945
3,305
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SamandRose said:
I agree entirely with Prof but also struggle to understand how low people's expectations seem to be. For example, how on earth can the Swift Group can earn a satisfaction rating of 75% when well over 80% of its products have one or more faults? With so many new caravans costing well over £20k, anything less than no faults at all should be regarded as unsatisfactory and surveys such as these completed accordingly.

The good news is that, if the JD Power survey for cars ias anything to go by, they do seem to influence an improvement in the quality of the product over the years so here's hoping. In the meantime I'm keeping my old Avondale for as long as she's serviceable ...

I believe there are a number of factors here,

It seems quite strange that when it comes to major purchases, the buying public's ability to perceive faults in both physical goods and the service they receive falls by the way side, and they become more forgiving. I'm sure the analysts have a name for this characteristic, but I do wonder if its its also the fact that bigger products like caravans and homes it seems a struggle to get minor issues put right, where as with a car, it is mobile and can be easily taken to the dealers for remedy.

But more specifically with caravans, we have been fed a succession of poor quality product for so long, Ill bet most caravanners expectations is that something will either need fixing or will fail withing hours of using it, and more than likely the problems will be small and whilst they detract from the caravan they don't render it unusable and the owner will live with for a short while.

What I do find interesting from the survey, is the results for secondhand caravans, and the comment that they seem to be more reliable possibly becasue the first owner has suffered and corrected the faults. But it clearly points to the fact that most issues are down to the manufacturers failure to build/assemble/install properly and consistently.
 
Nov 11, 2009
21,201
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I agree with Prof. A friend of mine has just exchanged a nice S6 Senator for a new Sprite Coastline which he tells me is a special. He’s normally meticulous but failed to spot several problems. None major and he’s sorting them out himself rather than a 40 mile trip back to the dealer. None will affect any part of his warranty.
 
Jul 18, 2017
368
34
18,685
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As usual prof,you've hit the nail on the head.Personally,I like to tinker a bit with my caravan and am more than happy to service it etc...but as the industry is going through a boom at the moment and loads of folk happy to buy new vans,if you aren't very technically minded and have to go back to dealers for every little thing then I suspect we will see a dip in a few years as people get peed off having spent a small fortune for lots of hassle.
 

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