Community Forums

DriVer · 03-21-2009, 07:38 PM

Good News:

See the Story in the RV Industry News Forum

Route 66 · 03-24-2009, 04:44 PM

Route 66 · 03-31-2009, 02:57 PM

Judge gives OK to start production. Details here.

EngineerMike · 03-31-2009, 03:46 PM

This is great news. Doesn't solve any of the real problems (high overhead, dicey proposition for potential customers buying rigs from a bankrupt outfit, dealer issues including ongoing warranty support for coaches out in the dealer network,...), but without starting up, there isn't any point in working those problems out. Hope it all comes out & CC gets back on its feet.

read & learn · 05-25-2009, 10:28 AM

Just saw that MONACO has a buyer which hopefully shows the the RV industry is on the come back.
How is Country Coach doing?

silverpal2 · 05-25-2009, 10:50 AM

Who was the buyer for Monaco?

read & learn · 05-25-2009, 11:02 AM

Navistar they make commerical and military vehicles.
they are paying $52 million.
Go to RV industry News forum

Raca-roni · 06-18-2009, 09:50 AM

Is Country Coach open and building again? Is it true that you can only buy from them direct? No dealers anymore!

EngineerMike · 06-18-2009, 10:07 AM

Yes, they are open & building at the rate of about 1 coach per week, and only selling factory direct. The factory direct thing may change after a while as it is hard to build back to a competitive volume that way but for now you have to arrange your purchase direct from Junction City.
They start one frame & kick one completed coach out each week. At first I thought the BK order allowed completion of coaches in progress; whether that was correct or not, they are on a steady schedule now, and basically in operation. They just mailed out a new New Destinations magazine. Howards are still in charge.
They went to 4 major dealers and offered massively expanded exclusive territories but the dealers said no (at the time). I think the dealers were at about their most monetarily stressed right then. So selling from the factory seemed a usable startup strategy.
I talked w/the head of sales a couple weeks ago about a couple who were having trouble buying a used coach from DeMartini in California; they needed a factory recall clearance letter to be able to import the rig to Canada. As I was talking to the sales guy, Jim Hardy, a voice in the background hollered: "is that about X's coach from DeMartini? Cuz we got that handled," which turned out to be completely true. The factory personnel produced all needed clearance papers for the used coach transaction & Canadian importation. I take that as a sign the factory is fully funtional, tho at a significantly lower rate than we knew them before.

EngineerMike · 06-25-2009, 01:46 PM

Here is the latest press release on the bankruptcy.

In a nutshell:
1) selling coaches at an average of 2/3 coach per seek since resuming ops; might be higher lately or lower
2) prices yield 96 cents on the dollar of costs due to few buyers able to have their way w/all the competition
3) not out of the woods yet, judge calls CC's situation, “precarious, but not hopeless.”

I wonder if the Howards are writing themselves retention bonuses.