Hi, new poster here and soon to be new Entegra Aspire RBQ owner.
My wife and I just got back [to MA] from Middlebury (dodging snowstorms the whole way). On this trip we toured Entegra, Newmar and Thor and looked at a couple Winnebago/Itasca units. Last year around this time we toured Tiffin and Fleetwood/American Coach.
Based on the past years worth of research and all the great info on these forums (thanks to all!) we have concluded that Entegra is the coach for us. We believe they provide an excellent product at a good price point and are backed by a solid, people oriented company.
Anyway the main info I wanted to convey were some new aspects of the Aspire and in particular the RBQ floor plan. Sorry if this is old news.
1) RBQ Pantry - The RBQ's (all models) currently shipping now have a narrow pantry (guessing 8-10" wide) to the right of the refrigerator (yay!). The passenger side seating has been proportionately shortened. For us this fixes what we thought was a minor shortcoming in the previous layout and helped to solidify our decision. We don't have any issue with the narrower seat - someday I'm seeing this area perhaps getting converted to a desk. I'm guessing this change has been implemented for perhaps 1 or 2 months as mhsrv has Anthem's on the lot with the new pantry and the latest units to arrive at Lazydays (March) show it in their photos as well.
2) LED overhead lighting - the overhead ceiling lights in the Aspire now appear to be LED's. Our tour guide (Dave) confirmed this and they did look and feel (no heat) to me to be LED's. Yay again!
3) Ducted AC returns - I can confirm that the Aspire has the same ducted air conditioner returns as the other models. No central AC return grill and much quieter. I heard the system when running and while I can't compare it to the old Entegra layout it was noticeable more hushed than the non-ducted AC on our current 2006 Discovery.
4) Trip maker software for in dash GPS - unfortunately I was not able to find out if the currently shipping units have or can be upgraded to the tripmaker software. Dave knew about the change but didn't know when it would be coming out.
I do plan to blog soon about what we learned on the various factory tours and the differences we noted.
For now, pictures of the tour are
here. I haven't had a chance to caption them yet but will do so soon, also sorry for the blurry cell phone shots. There is one photo of an Aspire RBQ slide out before installation that clearly shows the new pantry, plus there are some other interior photos of a completed unit.
Also there are a few photos of lunch at the Rise N Roll (excellent! check out the cinnamon and caramel donuts) and the Essenhaus (highly recommended place to stay in Middlebury).