Test drove American Eagle, Tiffin Zephyr and a Cornerstone

[LWBAZ]

Originally Posted by buddy110

Lisa and I really loved the layout, colors and floorpans of the American Eagle and Tiffin Zephyr. I was dead set on the Cornerstone. We decided since I do 100% of the driving that test driving them all was the smartest way to aid in making a decision.

First let me say that I already love my Anthem, and especially Joyce and the customer service staff. They are the very best! Going into this I would need a crane to move me to another coach. After driving both, I'll need three cranes. The CS is by far the best driver. Both the Tiffing and AC drove mediocre at best. They were loud, the AC's ez drive was over boosted even at the lowest setting. The dash was high in your view. Neither took bumps or undulations well at all. The CS OTOH handled like a dream.

Lisa wants a lighter interior, so if you are watching, Entegra, please add a light wood in 21. I'll be first in line for one

Surprised you didn't include a Newmar London Aire or Essex in your test drives, since Newmar's construction methodology is closer to Entegra's than either American Coach or Tiffin.

Same with chassis - Entegra builds on Spartan, American Coach on Freightliner, Tiffin on their proprietary PowerGlide chassis. A Newmar London Aire can be built on Freightliner or Spartan; Essex is Spartan only.

Not a commercial for Newmar - we have a 2018 Cornerstone and chose Entegra over Newmar. Just saying a London Aire or Essex would have been more similar to a Cornerstone than an American Eagle or a Tiffin Zephyr.

[LWBAZ]

Originally Posted by RubiconTrail

Back to the original topic, ride...before we transitioned from the Anthem to the Cornerstone, we test drove Foretravel and a Newell (used, but only a few years old). What steered me back to Entegra was the windshield. Virtually every other brand, including Prevost (which I didn't drive, just sat in), has what I consider to be poor visibility forward compared to Entegra. The same is true of Tiffin and American Coach.

The difference was so dramatic, I was sold on that alone. The rest of the differences were not enough to sway me at all, and especially at a $200K+ price increase.

Originally Posted by DebbieMH

Very true ... and something we don't talk about enough. Yes, the visibility out of the front windshield. Entegra really does do that the best. I came from a Fleetwood Excursion, and wow .... what a difference!

Hard to imagine any Class A motorhome having better forward visibility than a Prevost conversion, especially one built on the H3-45 platform (see first photo below). I sat in an H3-45 coach and found it borderline scary with regard to where I was positioned and how well I could see the road in front of me.

Test drove an X3-45 coach (see second photo below) and found the forward visibility to be excellent. Not quite as scary as the H3-45, but somewhat the same sensation.

Now, am I willing to pay three of four times as much as we spent for our Cornerstone?

Not unless I have an elderly rich uncle I don’t know about!

[DebbieMH]

Originally Posted by LWBAZ

Hard to imagine any Class A motorhome having better forward visibility than a Prevost conversion, especially one built on the H3-45 platform (see first photo below). I sat in an H3-45 coach and found it borderline scary with regard to where I was positioned and how well I could see the road in front of me.

Test drove an X3-45 coach (see second photo below) and found the forward visibility to be excellent. Not quite as scary as the H3-45, but somewhat the same sensation.

Now, am I willing to pay three of four times as much as we spent for our Cornerstone?

Not unless I have an elderly rich uncle I don’t know about!

You are probably right, a Prevost probably does have excellent visibility. However, of the three coaches the OP was comparing, I do believe that Entegra has the best visibility of the three. I have never sat in the drivers seat of a Prevost, and probably never will (unless I win the lottery, and then maybe I'll get a Cornerstone instead)!

[buddy110]

Originally Posted by LWBAZ

Surprised you didn't include a Newmar London Aire or Essex in your test drives, since Newmar's construction methodology is closer to Entegra's than either American Coach or Tiffin.

Same with chassis - Entegra builds on Spartan, American Coach on Freightliner, Tiffin on their proprietary PowerGlide chassis. A Newmar London Aire can be built on Freightliner or Spartan; Essex is Spartan only.

Not a commercial for Newmar - we have a 2018 Cornerstone and chose Entegra over Newmar. Just saying a London Aire or Essex would have been more similar to a Cornerstone than an American Eagle or a Tiffin Zephyr.

I have owned a Newmar. They are superb coaches, but I'm not a fan of the LA's interiors. That and there was only so much time to test drive. Since I had no intention of buying anything from lazy days, I didn't want to consume too much of the salesmen time.

[LWBAZ]

Originally Posted by DebbieMH

You are probably right, a Prevost probably does have excellent visibility. However, of the three coaches the OP was comparing, I do believe that Entegra has the best visibility of the three. I have never sat in the drivers seat of a Prevost, and probably never will (unless I win the lottery, and then maybe I'll get a Cornerstone instead)!

Correct.

[LWBAZ]

Originally Posted by buddy110

I have owned a Newmar. They are superb coaches, but I'm not a fan of the LA's interiors. That and there was only so much time to test drive. Since I had no intention of buying anything from lazy days, I didn't want to consume too much of the salesmen time.

Gotcha - thanks for the additional info.

On a number of levels, I like Entegra motorhomes better than Newmar motorthomes, but one thing I like about Newmar is that they offer a chassis choice on the Ventana, Dutch Star, Mountain Aire and London Aire, where you can opt for Freightliner or Spartan. (Kountry Star and New Aire are Freightliner only; Essex and King Aire are Spartan only.) I know most owners are impressed with Spartan, but my experience has been not-so-great.

[RubiconTrail]

Originally Posted by LWBAZ

Hard to imagine any Class A motorhome having better forward visibility than a Prevost conversion, especially one built on the H3-45 platform (see first photo below).

Again, I respectfully disagree...the center post on the windshield (which does not exist on the Entegra DPs) obstructs to the right of the driver at a ninety degree angle (cars coming into an intersection to your right). And the A pillar is set so far forward that it takes out cars coming into the intersection on your left. I was sitting in the seat wiggling around and leaning forward and back trying to see those areas.

[Ann n Gene]

I agree, the Prevost vision is not good for me, as if it would ever make any difference. The blind spots are huge on both sides. JMHO

[LWBAZ]

Originally Posted by RubiconTrail

Virtually every other brand, including Prevost (which I didn't drive, just sat in), has what I consider to be poor visibility forward compared to Entegra.

John, thanks for the additional information. Your original post seemed to be referring to visibility forward so that’s what I was responding to.

Originally Posted by RubiconTrail

...the center post on the windshield (which does not exist on the Entegra DPs) obstructs to the right of the driver at a ninety degree angle (cars coming into an intersection to your right).

The first two motorhomes we owned – a 1999 Fleetwood Bounder and a 2004 Alfa SeeYa – had two-piece windshields. As you can see in the photos below, the Alfa even had windshield wipers that were vertical at rest. With both of those motorhomes – perhaps because I didn’t know any better – the center bars in the middle of the windshields (and the wipers in the case of the Alfa) were virtually invisible (i.e., a non-issue) as I drove those coaches.

[LWBAZ]

Originally Posted by RubiconTrail

And the A pillar is set so far forward that it takes out cars coming into the intersection on your left.

I’ll take your word on that, although I didn't notice it when I test drove a Marathon X3-45 Prevost a few months ago. For what they may be worth, below are photos of the A pillar on an H3-45 Prevost, an X3-45 Prevost and an Entegra Cornerstone. In the photos, the A pillars on the Prevost coaches look less wide than the Entegra A pillar. Perhaps the visibility issue you experienced is related to the position of the driver’s seat in the Prevost coaches versus where Entegra positions the driver’s seat?

To be clear, I’m perfectly happy with the visibility in our Entegra. But if there are any 2018 Prevost owners out there who want to trade me straight across for the better visibility of a 2018 Cornerstone, they won’t have to wait long for an affirmative response.

[Ann n Gene]

The Prevost bothered me not only with the A pillars but even more the windshield divider is a little wider and bothered me but to be honest it was a few years ago and maybe has changed.

[LWBAZ]

Originally Posted by Ann n Gene

The Prevost bothered me not only with the A pillars but even more the windshield divider is a little wider and bothered me but to be honest it was a few years ago and maybe has changed.

I doubt anything has changed with regard to the two-piece windshield or the A pillars.

There's no question that a one-piece windshield will spoil you, but based on my previous experience with two-piece windshields I'm guessing a divided windshield would become relatively non-bothersome after a period of acclimatization. (Maybe not, but I'd be willing to give it a try if the price of the experiment wasn't so steep. )

When we were at Hearthside Grove in Petoskey back in August I asked a Liberty Coach rep why Prevost hadn't gone to a one-piece windshield.

His answer was that the vast majority of Prevosts are passenger buses and the companies that own those buses are very intolerant of down time. Because of that, Prevost designs all serviceable parts and components to be readily accessible so they're quick, easy and no more expensive than necessary to replace. And in that regard, they believe replacing half of a relatively flat windshield is quicker, easier and less expensive than replacing all of a compound curve one-piece windshield.

Whether that's true of just the best explanation they've come up with for being behind the times, who knows?

[jacdehunt]

Entegra does have a lighter wood color and we love it. Checkout this one with the lighter wood - https://www.nirvc.com/Sales/Inventory/4077A. We love the Cornerstone too!

[chuckster52]

Originally Posted by LWBAZ

Gotcha - thanks for the additional info.

On a number of levels, I like Entegra motorhomes better than Newmar motorthomes, but one thing I like about Newmar is that they offer a chassis choice on the Ventana, Dutch Star, Mountain Aire and London Aire, where you can opt for Freightliner or Spartan. (Kountry Star and New Aire are Freightliner only; Essex and King Aire are Spartan only.) I know most owners are impressed with Spartan, but my experience has been not-so-great.

I agree with your comment on the Spartans.....and had my experiences to be not that great...V