2022 - Newmar Quality Call to Action

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by StevL

+1

When will this industry really be policed? We all put up with many more problems than we should. Problems should be rare, not consistent issues.

Never, as long as the suckers keep lining up to purchase garbage. As long as the sheep keep lining up, they will keep getting sheared.

[Mle75749]

Originally Posted by az99

I totally disagree. They should leave the plant with ZERO defects. The stuff they are shipping with all the obvious defects is UNACCEPTABLE.
I bought a Newmar because it was supposed to be a top of the line coach. Turns out the QC was no better than a Jayco.

Zero defects is unrealistic. Have you ever built a new home, bought a new car, anything new and complex that has had zero issues?
I’d hate to sell you anything.
I expect some. The quality of the manufacturer is really the degree to which they are willing to make things ‘right’.

These are complex machines. Oftentimes people buy used so the fixes are dealt with by the OO.

If new is your preference and you have the money to buy these coaches, I suggest you do the 5 day Factory Pick Up at Newmar. You’ll have the time and the manufacturer to roll out with most things fixed.

[Kountry_star]

be prepared because the only thing always working is the owner." Told him he should make t-shirts...

Make them in many sizes. I'd buy a few!!

[Kountry_star]

I understand defects that are found after months of use. Hard to find / fix before it leaves the factory. Though after feed back of these types of problems to the factory. They should find a way to fix it so it does not happen again. Quality would go up.

Ones you find on first use should of been fixed before it left the particular station in the factory. Every system should be checked by Quality control or even just the supervisor of that station and all on a signed sheet. That sheet goes with the coach to the future owner and to the final quality control inspection. A final overall quality inspection should fix all obvious cosmetic, fit finish, etc.. All systems should be run and checked for proper operation. Letting them get away with crap quality control will fix nothing.

[NewmarDave]

Hi All
We are at Newmar as I write this doing our FPU on our 22’ London Aire.
We have been very happy with the quality control and Newmar’s approach to our concerns. We spent over 6 hrs going over the paint with our own lighting and Newmar’s lighting( which was great), looking at the paint and fiberglass from every direction.
Overall, I rated our paint a 9 out of 10 and the defects I did find and just wanted to document, Newmar said this is not to their standards and wanted to address them.

They even put us up in a lake resort for the next couple nights so they could have the coach at 5:00am.

On the interior, we had a few things such as:

Some of the drawer fronts were not finished on the back side. Since a lot of the fronts are bigger than the drawer box, it was noticeable and is being taken care of.

A few grout touch ups on the floor and splash.

SS fridge panel was already noted that it needed to be replaced due to a scratch on it and it’s handle.

A few doors needed to be adjusted as they were not aligned. I’m only talking about an 1/8” but coming from a background of high end construction projects, this bugged me. Lol

There was a few things that I will mention to me team leader and who ever else I think should know. This way it will help with QC and production on coaches coming down the line behind me and keep Newmar at the top!!

So far, this being my first Newmar I have been very happy and will rate my experience and overall coach a 9 out of 10.

I know I’m still in the honey moon stage and I’m sure there will be some bumpy roads ahead, but we feel we picked the right partner in Newmar to experience the highs and lows of RVing!!!

[StevL]

Originally Posted by Mle75749

Have you ever built a new home, bought a new car, anything new and complex that has had zero issues?

Actually we have built two homes, one had zero problems, the other a few dry wall issues but nothing else. We have bought over 50 cars in our lifetime and I only had one with an issue when we drove off (the ac didn't work). All the others were perfect (at least for a year or two), probably purchased 15 boats and no problems with any of them on delivery.

The RV industry can certainly minimize these issues. I feel most RV buyers would be happy to pay more to get a quality product.

It seemed our first year every other vacation we had a problem, second year every few vacations, now all seems good in our 5th year.

Honestly 5 years ago I was looking forward to full retirement, getting out of our first RV ever and move up to a luxury coach to travel with. Now at my age I'm more inclined to stay away from the problems and just enjoy hotel/resort travel. It's ashamed as we really love the travel, just hate the problems with a passion.

Steve

[StevL]

Originally Posted by Kountry_star

the only thing always working is the owner." !

+1

I'm in for a few too!

Steve

[CLIFFTALL]

We’re getting off topic here in a few different directions. Let’s please get back to the topic.
Thanks.

[MRUSA14]

Originally Posted by az99

I totally disagree. They should leave the plant with ZERO defects.

That is absurd. A 2 million dollar Newell doesn't ship with zero defects, and you want zero defects on a Newmar that costs 1/8th of that amount? Insisting on zero defects is a great way to insure that you will be constantly frustrated and unhappy. If you insist on zero defects, don't ever buy any brand of RV .

[Rev. Roy]

You really can't compare the RV industry to the automotive or any other industry. Cars don't have plumbing, slide outs, cabinets or many other features that make it a home on wheels. Cars are mass produced using a lot of robotics and automation. This contributes to a consistent quality of the end product. RVs cannot be produced the same as a car. First of all the numbers they're able to sell does not even come close to cars therefore automation likely is not as "cost efficient" to the market. Also, because of the design of RVs, it is near impossible to design a way to automate. Second, today's cars are "module built" with sections constructed off site and simply snapped in. Third, the RV industry has been set up for the dealership to "finish the build" for as long as I remember. This is reflected in the price they pay in comparison to the MSRP. The difference is often a 33% or more margin. The mark up on cars isn't even close to that. This really reflects the importance of choosing the right dealership. I have seen some shoddy PDI. This doesn't excuse shoddy construction or paint, but does explain some of the minor things. What has really compounded the problem this year is supply chain issues.

[DesertRatz]

What an epic take on Newmar! I worked in management for 40 years at various big companies and one thing is certain: Companies are ALWAYS fully aware of what they are doing. They know down to the penny what all their options are for sales, quality, service and support, engineering costs, and more. In the era of Information Management systems, nothing about the company is a mystery to the top executives. Ergo, Newmar is completely aware of the product they are selling and see no reason for alarm, or for change.

If Newmar wanted to make a different product---say, one with 100% perfect paint, they would do it, and that might mean making half as many units, or spending far more on paint, and so on. It's almost impossible for a company to NOT DO exactly what they plan to do. RVs are flying off the shelf everywhere, and obviously these shortcomings are not affecting sales volume. Corporations are not hobbies or art projects, they are financial machinery optimized for maximumizing profits. The entire industry is doing EXACTLY what their plans call for. Maybe this opens an opportunity for some company to make "Perfect Paint" motor homes and own that segment of the market.

[redbaron73]

Originally Posted by NewmarDave

Hi All
We are at Newmar as I write this doing our FPU on our 22’ London Aire.
We have been very happy with the quality control and Newmar’s approach to our concerns. We spent over 6 hrs going over the paint with our own lighting and Newmar’s lighting( which was great), looking at the paint and fiberglass from every direction.
Overall, I rated our paint a 9 out of 10 and the defects I did find and just wanted to document, Newmar said this is not to their standards and wanted to address them.

They even put us up in a lake resort for the next couple nights so they could have the coach at 5:00am.

On the interior, we had a few things such as:

Some of the drawer fronts were not finished on the back side. Since a lot of the fronts are bigger than the drawer box, it was noticeable and is being taken care of.

A few grout touch ups on the floor and splash.

SS fridge panel was already noted that it needed to be replaced due to a scratch on it and it’s handle.

A few doors needed to be adjusted as they were not aligned. I’m only talking about an 1/8” but coming from a background of high end construction projects, this bugged me. Lol

There was a few things that I will mention to me team leader and who ever else I think should know. This way it will help with QC and production on coaches coming down the line behind me and keep Newmar at the top!!

So far, this being my first Newmar I have been very happy and will rate my experience and overall coach a 9 out of 10.

I know I’m still in the honey moon stage and I’m sure there will be some bumpy roads ahead, but we feel we picked the right partner in Newmar to experience the highs and lows of RVing!!!

This is a great report. Newmar is stepping up, as expected, and making it right.



I appreciate you taking the time to post first hand experience with a 2022 delivery, and the quality of the build. Do you happen to know what run you are in? I think it will be very useful for run numbers to be tracked along with the quality, as it may help expose periods of good vs bad quality.


One of the reasons I am a Newmar customer, and will continue to be one, is there approach to customer service. Newmar has always listened to the customer and made every attempt to satisfy a customers request.


For those that are not doing a factory delivery, but rather a dealer delivery, I cannot stress the importance of making sure you contact newmar directly with any quality issues you find during your dealer PDI. This will help you get your coach fixed properly, and timely, as well as help Newmar and future customers by making sure the problem is addressed at the source.


If you report to the dealer, it will not get reported to Newmar in a priority fashion. Save yourself time and trouble, and be sure to contact Newmar directly.

[Mle75749]

Originally Posted by StevL

Actually we have built two homes, one had zero problems, the other a few dry wall issues but nothing else. We have bought over 50 cars in our lifetime and I only had one with an issue when we drove off (the ac didn't work). All the others were perfect (at least for a year or two), probably purchased 15 boats and no problems with any of them on delivery.

The RV industry can certainly minimize these issues. I feel most RV buyers would be happy to pay more to get a quality product.

It seemed our first year every other vacation we had a problem, second year every few vacations, now all seems good in our 5th year.

Honestly 5 years ago I was looking forward to full retirement, getting out of our first RV ever and move up to a luxury coach to travel with. Now at my age I'm more inclined to stay away from the problems and just enjoy hotel/resort travel. It's ashamed as we really love the travel, just hate the problems with a passion.

Steve

Sounds like you’ve been very fortunate. Sounds like you probably don’t want to be full time or you might have better satisfaction with a Provost etc. we’ve been very happy with our 2020 DS and FPU experience. The coach hasn’t been the flawless experience you’ve had for your many new cars and homes but we’ve been satisfied with Newmar’s commitment to warranty work. At the end of the day, it seems satisfaction varies by individual.
Happy travels!

[NewmarDave]

Originally Posted by redbaron73

This is a great report. Newmar is stepping up, as expected, and making it right.



I appreciate you taking the time to post first hand experience with a 2022 delivery, and the quality of the build. Do you happen to know what run you are in? I think it will be very useful for run numbers to be tracked along with the quality, as it may help expose periods of good vs bad quality.


One of the reasons I am a Newmar customer, and will continue to be one, is there approach to customer service. Newmar has always listened to the customer and made every attempt to satisfy a customers request.


For those that are not doing a factory delivery, but rather a dealer delivery, I cannot stress the importance of making sure you contact newmar directly with any quality issues you find during your dealer PDI. This will help you get your coach fixed properly, and timely, as well as help Newmar and future customers by making sure the problem is addressed at the source.


If you report to the dealer, it will not get reported to Newmar in a priority fashion. Save yourself time and trouble, and be sure to contact Newmar directly.

I really don’t know what run we were but I will find out.
We did order while the dealers were at the show, signed off on specials in June, and only requested a Oct Delivery.
That got pushed to Nov 15 then to Dec 6th.

I will find out though.