Have a look--Fox and Toolson

[bullydogs1]

http://tinyurl.com/2f9cmtj

I looked at this clip and somehow I'm not sure of my reaction..I am happy that 1000+ people are employed...but I would love to add other parts to this story...but since it is a holiday weekend...you will find me and my wife in our Holiday Rambler..

In a word, amazing..

[Diplomat Don]

As they always say, you can tweak stats anyway you want. If you don't produce any motor homes in 2009, it's easy to be up 111% in 2010.

[itdave]

Don,
In fact you would not be up 111% percent if you were comparing 0 produced to any number produced in 2010. The increase would be infinity if you built 0 in 2009 and 1 in 2010, so to do the math you need to comparing two number greater than zero. In the video they are talking about the industry not just Monaco so obviously there were some number of RV produced in 2009.

[Lukeaa]

I like a company that has put 1,000 people back to work in this economy. Kay may redeem himself, yet.

[jsabatinos]

I continue to be amazed that everyone seems to act as good old Kay is just fine and "might redeem himself yet". I too am a business owner, I too had a terrible downturn. If I simply declared bankruptcy and walked away from all of my obligations to my existing customers, suppliers and dealers, it would be infinitly easier to get my business rolling again. However, I beleive the honest way is to honor commitments and contracts no matter how difficult, not to simply walk away. I guess I am just stupid and integrity is not the best policy.

[bobinaz123]

Hear Hear, jsabatinos.

[BigSkyBob]

At least the reflection was positive, irrespective of the personalities involved. I own a fairly new Monaco product and I'm happy with my purchase. Mr. Toolson was not forthcoming in his business approach with the old Monaco so I was not impressed he was chosen by Navistar to pilot the new Monaco. But in comparison, can you say Alpha and National RV, and the Workhorse chassis compared to the Roadmaster. What I'm trying to say is, in my view, there are many more positives to this RV experience than there are negatives.

[Diplomat Don]

Maybe I didn't pay enough attention to the video, but it sounded like they said Monaco RV is up 111%. To anyone who is not familiar with Monaco's situation it sounds great, but in reality those numbers would be skewed by the few RV's they made during 2010. You then add Navistar's figures in with the old Monaco numbers and you'd be all over the place with stats pertaining to the new Monaco RV.

[SRT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigSkyBob At least the reflection was positive, irrespective of the personalities involved. I own a fairly new Monaco product and I'm happy with my purchase. Mr. Toolson was not forthcoming in his business approach with the old Monaco so I was not impressed he was chosen by Navistar to pilot the new Monaco. But in comparison, can you say Alpha and National RV, and the Workhorse chassis compared to the Roadmaster. What I'm trying to say is, in my view, there are many more positives to this RV experience than there are negatives.

IIRC, Toolson's contract is up at the end of this year. Who knows if it will be renewed.

[itdave]

I know many of you hate Toolson and I would too if he had screwed me on warranty work. I too think that Monaco way overextended contributed greatly to their bankruptcy but we need to remember that Toolson was the CEO and Monaco had a Board of Directors which approved all the expansion and agreed to the way the bankruptcy judge handled the sale.
If I were Navistar and wanted to have someone familiar with the RV business and who knew the ins and outs of Monaco RV production business why would I look beyond Toolson. I bet he has no control over what gets built, how the new company moves forward or what type of new products get developed. Toolson reports to someone in Navistar who reports to the CEO so I think long term decision are out of his hands, he is there to get things restarted. Just my two cents

[moisheh]

Now Iknow why I do not watch Fox Business. What a crock!! And yes he did state that Monaco sales were up 111 percent. The hedline stated that MH's were leading us out of a recession. Every financial paper that I read says we may be in another recession!! I wonder how much Navistar paid that blond bimbo to get Toolson on the show?

[ramblin10]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moisheh Now Iknow why I do not watch Fox Business. What a crock!! And yes he did state that Monaco sales were up 111 percent. The hedline stated that MH's were leading us out of a recession. Every financial paper that I read says we may be in another recession!! I wonder how much Navistar paid that blond bimbo to get Toolson on the show?

Yes stats can say anything and I know how you feel here. There certainaly is plenty to throw stones at but you would have to do this with almost every company since their marketing departments all say they are #1 or the very best or up 110% with some new product. I am just glad that Navistar picked up what was left and have reihired 1,000 employees. I had heard they had limited the re-hires to 700 people so this is better news than expected with more hires coming shortly.

The headline should have said that the RV industry leads us out of a recession. This historicaly is correct going all the way back to the 60s. For the first 6 months of 2010 the entire RV industry is up about 30% in shipments Year to Date compared to last year. This is mostly because of towables. Most industry experts expect RV shipments to be up about 50,000 units for 2010. Class A motorhomes will be flat but up slightly. This pattern is very similiar to 1979, 1980 (remember gas rationing and 20% interest rates) The RV industry looked like it was cooked and then in 1981 the industry took off again.

As far as Monaco Class A Motorhomes go on the retail level they are way down. However according to Statistcal Survey they have sold more than Coachmen and Newmar by twice as many units and have triple the sales Gulfstream. Still behind Tiffin, Winnie and Fleetwood and a long way to go when they had 1 out of every 3 Class As Sold (although trying to drive the market by over producing instead of being market driven is what really got them and Fleetwood in trouble so maybe some slower growth will be just about right).