Were we defrauded?

[Lahogue]

Last Summer we bought what we thought was a 2012 Thor Daybreak at an RVShow in California. It was sold to us as a 2012 but when the registration came, DMV had it registered as a 2011. What? So we went to the DMV with our sales receipt to verify the current year and change it to 2012, only to find it is in fact a 2011. What do we do now?

[chaperon]

I've seen this before - the motor home is mounted on a previous years chassis....might be what you have gotten

[JimM68]

happens all the time, not a problem. title and registration goes by year of the chassis, real year is year of the coach.

[BFlinn181]

It is a shock, to find out the RV is a year older than you thought, but normal. The manufacturer buys a bunch of chassis/drive trains and stores them in a lot at the factory. You have a 2012 model RV on a 2011 chassis. The DMV is going by the chassis VIN, so they register it as a 2011.

[lllkrob]

What you have is a 2012 model coach body built on a 2011 chassis. This is a normal thing in the RV industry. They buy many, many chassis at one time and then build coaches on them till they need to order more. So you can have a 2012 coach sitting on a 2011 chassis.

[hooverbill]

All states are different. Much of the above information is not true in several states in which I have lived. My MH chassis and the coach were built in 2008, but it is a 2009 model and the title and registration both say 2009. Look at the autos that come out as next year's models during the prior August. This August they will start making 2013 models, built in 2012, titled as 2013s.

[Cousin Ed]

Just for laughs... we bought a 2010 Journey to get a pre-DEF engine. When we registered, it was a 2011 chassis!

[2Labs]

We had some title issues when we purchased our motorhome and when we went to register it, we ended up having to make 3 separate trips to the DMV and get 2 replacement titles.

Our 2005 National Sea Breeze, like I would think most (or all) motorhomes has 2 certificate of origins. One is for the Chassis, in our case a 2004 Ford, the other for the completed motorhome delivered to the dealer.

In our case, the Ford chassis is 07/2004, the NRV date of manufacturer on the inside and exterior stickers is 11/2004, yet the NRV certificate of origin states its a 2005 Motorhome. When we purchased the motorhome, it was sold to us as 2005.

The day we did the paperwork it came to our attention that the motorhome had previously been registered as a 2004, which is where the fun came in. The dealer had not picked up on this (or at least said they had not) already and suggested that the prior owner probably left it registered as a 2004 to save some money on property taxes! Well that was fine for him, but now it became our problem.

At the dealers request, we took the current Mass. title (showing as a 2004) along with copies of the 2 original certs of origin to the DMV and tried to get it registered in CT. CT DMV wanted nothing to hear of it so back we went to the dealer to get them to have the State of Mass fix the error. It finally took two replacement title requests, two (ahem) 30 day temporary plates and about 2 months to get it all straightened out.

I would certainly go back to the selling dealer and have the title issues checked out and make sure the year on the title/registration is correct for the actual Model Year you purchased. While you'll probably save some money annually on property taxes, registration and insurance - seeing as how your motorhome is actually a year older - this could be a problem for you when you try to sell it, or I might think if you need to make an insurance claim, etc and the question of year might come up.

best of luck!

[arby]

I sense the general attitude here is, it happens all the time. Not a big deal. I beg to differ.

Let's just say it got totaled yesterday in one of those 120 some tornadoes. As an insuranse adjuster I am going to settle with you as a 2011 because legally that is what it is. Just because you say it is a 2012 interior won't matter.

If you think it is no big deal, go to NADA and pick a similar 2007 coach value then check the same thing for 2006 and see if it is a big deal.

[Ridgmar]

Like others have said this is common. My Daybreak is a 06 on a 05 chassis and registered as an 06 here in Oklahoma. Don't know about other states but really a non issue here

[SarahW]

Howdy and welcome to the forum. No, you were not defrauded, but the motorhome should have been registered with the year of the motorhome--not the chassis. There are many threads here about this same situation.

[Steve N Sal]

I know it's been said all the time that the motorhome should be titled and in fact there is even government documentation to the fact that it should be titled to the year it was built. Unfortunately some states DON'T adhear to this and do not change the information on the title.

[leadfoot3]

Originally Posted by Ridgmar

Like others have said this is common. My Daybreak is a 06 on a 05 chassis and registered as an 06 here in Oklahoma. Don't know about other states but really a non issue here

same here in utah........96 chassis and 97 coach.....registered as a 97 on the title

[Midniteoyl]

Originally Posted by SarahW

Howdy and welcome to the forum. No, you were not defrauded, but the motorhome should have been registered with the year of the motorhome--not the chassis. There are many threads here about this same situation.

Originally Posted by Steve N Sal

I know it's been said all the time that the motorhome should be titled and in fact there is even government documentation to the fact that it should be titled to the year it was built. Unfortunately some states DON'T adhear to this and do not change the information on the title.

Agree.. The Certificate of Origin should have the correct year and info and is what the DMV is suppose to use..