2015's Online

[Nowabeachbum]

Originally Posted by hogdriver

I'm watching this whole London Aire vs Cornerstone thing develop as a lurker. Don't tell DW as I'll be sleeping in the doghouse if I drive another new RV in. I don't know if the two of us could handle debugging another coach. I hope Entegra responds to the competition. I think Newmar is pushing more chips across the table and not ready to give up.

Both are good companies, committed to their products and their companies so the winners here will be us, the customers. Let the competition begin!!

[zman62]

I must say I am kind of liking the fact that what every I want to change the answer is "sure". We have specific needs in a coach and typically you find something that will work the best. My hope is I can make the london aire fit our needs perfectly.

[wnytaxman]

Originally Posted by zman62

I am sure that the huge changes made by Newmar for 2015 were motivated by Entegra. Entegra has taken a chunk of market share from newmar. Newmar's changes for 15 are huge. I agree that entegra is an incredible bang for the buck. The most important feature of a coach is the floor plan and they seem to be falling behind. I would bet they will catch back up but hopefully they dont wait too long. I have been patiently waiting for a better floor plan in the cornerstone. Newmar seems to have answered that for me with the london aire. They are more than willing to make my modifications which helps the floor plan fit me even better. I love the loyalty of the entegra customers which pains me to leave. Our numbers are getting close so I may be in a london aire sooner than later. Time will tell.

Zman, ironically the changes made by Newmar bring the Dutch Star in under the Anthem and the Ventana under the Aspire with much more flexibility in floor plans. You can get a Dutch Star loaded up to a list of around $400,000 while the comparable Anthem is $450,000. The margins seem to be lower on Newmar for the dealers, but not 10% lower. The changes Newmar made for 2015 has put them square up against the corresponding Entegra models where they used to be halfway between. The Dutch Star used to be about halfway between the Aspire and the Anthem and now they appear to be going head to head with the Anthem with a lower price and more flexibility. That can be hard to beat.

[Cruzer]

Fortunately, much of the lack in responsiveness that was in the past is disappearing. Entegra is listening but Rome wasn't built in a day. The new regime really has their act together. There will be two new floor plans, one 39' and one 44 announced in September at the dealer open house as well as at the Hershey show. I don't know all the details of the floor plans yet, and what I do know I can't release, so please don't ask. I will say that they are step one in a series of improvements.

Entegra has also put in place a dedicated quality control team. After each unit is completed it must go through a rigorous inspection by the PDI team, whose head reports directly to Tadd and is not under any authority by the production team. Basically, if the coach doesn't pass their inspection it can't be shipped. The coaches coming out of the new PDI are now receiving higher scores than what was previous and the difference is huge, to say the least.

I certainly understand the feelings of Entegra owners and potential buyers who got tired of waiting for some great floor plans that never showed up. That was the biggest hurdle in my path as well. It's nice to see the new changes that are being made and what the future will bring.

Note that this not to take anything away from Newmar products. Their changes to the Dutch Star and the new London Aire are in direct response to the market, and in some ways to Entegra. I'll be interested to see the London Aire in September when I do an article on it for FMCA. It looks like a winner.

[DSL417]

Thanks, Mark, that is indeed good news...it would be nice to hear of the floor plan changes at FMCA in Redmond. I had a good feeling that Tadd would address quality as he took the reigns.

[MRUSA14]

At the Tampa show this past January, Pat Carroll of Entegra held a meeting with about a dozen Entegra owners present. It is Pat's job to get feedback from the owners and transform this into product improvements. He did this for Monaco for many years, and Entegra hired him because of that experience. We threw everything we could at him. He listened intently and seemed very sincere, but I don't know what the process is from there. A couple of the things we mentioned at that meeting have already been changed for the better, but I don't know if the changes resulted from the meeting or were already in progress. So all I can say is that Entegra is making an effort in this direction, and we will have to see how successful it is.

As for Entegra executives and managers using the product, I totally agree that this should be done. The benefits to Entegra would be enormous. It would allow them to identify and correct design issues that they never would have thought of, as well as those that they have been getting complaints over. Until you experience some of these issues, you really can't understand how annoying they are, and how easily they could be corrected. Entegra, please do this.

Originally Posted by Nowabeachbum

.

Since everyone has an opinion and I'm no exception, here's my 2 cents. I think Entegra suffers from their people not using their products! I love that Entegra is always willing to attend owner functions but it baffles me that they stay in hotels. I'm sure that some of the employees have stayed in their coaches but I don't know first hand of any and certainly not any for any period of time. If you don't stay in it, how can you ever fine tune it or understand what works and what doesn't?
At the very least Entegra should consider starting an owners council. They could invite some owners in, of their choosing, to stand in front of their products and discuss the pluses and minuses based on their experiences. They might just have a few aha moments! JMHO

[AlKat]

Originally Posted by DSL417

Russ, et al...Can't agree more on the web site. Very slow to respond to changes...can be misleading....can even get them in trouble with their offerings and their rolling changes to the product line.

Ed, absolutely on the mark...no evolution on floor plans pushes you to look elsewhere, no doubt. If Newmar stepped up with a two year warrantee, it is hard to see Entegra competing well...unless they evolve!

I am the member that ordered a 2015 Anthen 44B and wrote the post stating my disappointment in the molded entry in the 2015, replacing the beautiful tile entry. We were not informed of this change and the brochure we were given didn't have a date on it, so we thought it was current. It plainly states in the brochure under Well Appointed, "HAND-LAID 12" X 12" PORCELAIN TILE STEPS GIVE YOU A GRAND ENTRANCE.

I feel we this is very misleading. Without a date on the brochure we thought we would be getting what was advertised.

[CLIFFTALL]

If it's like most others , it probably stated that items are subject to change without notice. Unfortunately

[AlKat]

Originally Posted by Clifftall

If it's like most others , it probably stated that items are subject to change without notice. Unfortunately

I do see some very small print on the back, but the Lazy Days sticker covers almost all of it, therefore it is not legible.