Twice the money twice the quality?

[RV Vagabond]

I bought a new Winnebago Solei for $170,000. I have found they used many cost cutting poorly installed shortcuts and seemed to skip the quality control department. They have another similar model but 5 feet longer, the Ellipse, which costs almost twice as much. I wonder if for twice the money would I just be getting more square footage or if I would also be getting a much higher quality product. What do you think

[Jim_HiTek]

From all the threads I've read recently about a large lack of quality in new Winnies? I'd say you'll just be getting 5 more feet but not any better quality.

[saddlesore]

Same production line, same people building them, = same quality

[NLOVNIT]

I think, no matter whom the mfr is, twice the money won't get you any better quality, especially if you buy new.

Lori-

[UtahBolt]

Yikes, that makes me nervous as we will be purchasing a 2017 Vista LX 35B soon. Has the Winnebago quality declined in the newer units?

[wa8yxm]

Now what would make you think that just because they double the price they do not use the same "Low Quality Cost Cutting Measures" like for example Quick-box Electrical outlets instead of a proper bend the wire around the screw type?

If I were a betting man. I'd bet on the same construction.

[Cranemec]

Go look at other coaches. We looked at them all, including a Winnebago Tour. It only took us 15 seconds to walk out of the Winnebago to realize they are not even close to the others for the same cost.
We found our 2 year old coach, still brand new on a dealers lot and paid Winnebago Journey money for it. The deals are out there.

[NLOVNIT]

Originally Posted by UtahBolt

Yikes, that makes me nervous as we will be purchasing a 2017 Vista LX 35B soon. Has the Winnebago quality declined in the newer units?

As long as you go in with eyes open, knowing you will have bugs to work out & accept your coach will spend time at either the dealer or factory for warranty work that 1st year, you'll be ok.

If you can, do a shakedown weekend at a campground near where you'll be picking up your coach so you can go over everything in detail, test all systems, push every button, turn every knob, open every latch...etc. It'll go a long way towards correcting items missed in a PDI. Things may still go wrong later. Just don't be discouraged.

Lori-

[ed rzepka]

After my vi.sit to the factory, it probably will be five more feet of problems.

[RV Vagabond]

Originally Posted by UtahBolt

Yikes, that makes me nervous as we will be purchasing a 2017 Vista LX 35B soon. Has the Winnebago quality declined in the newer units?

I think except for some really high end brands, Winnebago is typical of competition, trying to keep their price down by cutting corners.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by RV Vagabond

I bought a new Winnebago Solei for $170,000. I have found they used many cost cutting poorly installed shortcuts and seemed to skip the quality control department. They have another similar model but 5 feet longer, the Ellipse, which costs almost twice as much. I wonder if for twice the money would I just be getting more square footage or if I would also be getting a much higher quality product. What do you think

We bought a '98 Santara Type A MH. Had so many problems with it we started looking for a different one. The club we belonged to had 12 MH's, one was a Prevost, one was a Foretravel (my parents) and six were Newmars, the rest were other brands. That gave us a head start on what company to go with. Ordered a 2000 DSDP, then I wanted a bigger engine and the late DW wanted more room (slides) so we ordered the '02 DSDP. Kept it for 13 years and it was the best MH we ever owned. Had I listened to the DW at the time I'd still have it even though I like the present Magna. Should probably have gotten a King Aire.
Sometimes more money buys a better rig, sometimes not, just more space and electronics that can go bad.

[hfbundy]

If you buy knew, it would be worth checking out the reputation of your dealer. You can plan on taking it back at least 3 or 4 times in the first year. My dealer has a good representation for fixing things, but has a 2 or 3 month lead time for appointments. This can be a real pain.

[MTK46]

Originally Posted by UtahBolt

Yikes, that makes me nervous as we will be purchasing a 2017 Vista LX 35B soon. Has the Winnebago quality declined in the newer units?

For the price of the new one your looking at I'd look used. You should be able to find a much better built top of the line MH a couple of years old.

[Electra 225]

I have a 2014 Ellipse, now, I can't speak for 2015 to 2017, but mine is built really well. There's a couple spots where fit isn't totally micrometer accurate, but only I can see it. Other words, pretty darn good. I have been a builder, and I have a good eye. Bad fit, crooked lines etc drives me mad..... (obsessive).....ha! That goes for cheap junk materials too. I would have never given the coach a second look if I saw that in the 1st couple minutes.

I think my coach is big bang for the buck really.

It is very possible that the further up the line, the better materials are used on some things. I owned a Canyon Star which I loved....but although materials used were good, it didn't have the same materials on some parts as the Mountain Aire for example. Which makes sense to me, quite a spread in model lines there.

Again, I can't speak past 2014 model year, and haven't been looking around the new WBGO models lately. Therefore I'm a little surprised if your finding cheaper stuff in your coach Jerry. It's not that distant a sister to the Ellipse. But it could be possible a few things changed in that regard since the 2014's were built?

You have a fine coach there Jerry nonetheless. It's a good bang for buck unit in it's class also.

Regards,
W.D.

[Jasper]

Can you give some details on what you are disappointed with. We are looking at Forzas now and would like to hear the good as well as the bad.

[aiken rver]

We have a 2015 Journey bought new in 2015. Have not had any major problems. The Infotainment unit had to be replaced but that was not Winnebago's quality issue. We have done one cross country trip and one Canadian trip. The rest of our usage is local. Generally 2-3 trips a month. Most are 3-4 days sometimes dry.

We have also built 2 custom homes, both of which had to have repairs made to the electrical, plumbing, and roof. In one the oven had to be replaced. These were both quality built homes but still needed things fixed after completion. A motor home is no different.

Also remember, on any forum you are only seeing input from people with a problem. People who are happy have no reason to be starting a thread.

For my money the bigger problem is finding service. We have no Winnie service around here except Camping World which is worse than no service.

[Jasper]

We have had pretty good luck with our Adventurer. Prior to the Adventurer we had a 2000 Brave. Had pretty good luck with that one to. Overall we have been satisfied with our Winnebago's. Minor issues but like you said no different than our house. We had issues with our house after it was built as well. All the siding had to be replaced after just 2 years. Siding company paid for it but still a pain. Roof had to be redone in 8. Bad shingles. Shingle company picked up a portion of that tab as well.
Fully retired now and looking at traveling more and think we would like a little more room. We like the Forza 36G floor plan as well as the Journey 36M. Going to look at all makes and models next week at the Tampa RV Super Show.

[RV Vagabond]

Originally Posted by Jasper

Can you give some details on what you are disappointed with. We are looking at Forzas now and would like to hear the good as well as the bad.

Forza's are fine vehicles and I would not discourage you from buying one. From what I hear, all Winnebago models do have short cuts in many ways to keep the price down. However, this is no different than competing brands in the same price range. I have had 22 warranty issues in the first 6 months and that is probably average or better than typical RV's in my price range no matter what brand.

If you are not on a tight budget, and looking for a new RV, I suspect that you would be most happy buying from nexusrv.com

[Yellowboat]

I purchased a new 2016 Sightseer in August 2015. We did 6 months of local trips to find and fix problems. Our previous 2005 Sightseer, was bought new and had very few defects.

We started an around the US trip. We had issues most of the way. Some problems were Winnebago and some were Ford.

There were too many problems to list all here now.

Ford had programming issues with the engine caution light and another with the brake caution lights. These issues should be fixed on new chassis. Ford also has an issue with the pinion seal leaking on their 2016 chassis.

For winnebago here is a condensed list.

Delivery driver hit something damaging the front fiberglass cap. Had to go to body shop for repairs.

Side view cameras were foggy. They had to be replaced.

Shower drain broke flooding passenger side of coach. The plumbing was at an angle breaking the fitting that attached to the shower drain. After three tries Awesome RV installed a short piece of rubber to get enough flex to make the attachment.

Ice maker filter defective flooding drivers side of coach. The clip that retaines the output water source to the ice maker failed to secure the water line.

The livingroom window valence/shade fell off the wall.

The bathroon door delaminated.

Panels on the under side of the lift up bed delaminated.

At GNR the bedroom slide mechanism failed.

Combined radio / backup cameria failed just after one year warranty. My dealer, Awesome RV, in Chehalis Washington replaced it even though it was out of warranty.

The rubber seal on the livingroom slide was coming loose. I was just out of warranty. My dealer called to say that the livingroom full wall slide mechanism had broken. I have Power Gear slides. Even though I was out of warranty Winnebago steped up and repaired the slide under warranty. According to Awesome RV the new Power Gear slide mechanisms have been redesigned to correct the cracking problem.

There is a much longer list. These are the ones that come to mind at this time.

While attending the GNR Michael Happe, the new Winnebago president, apologized for Winnebago's quality issues. He said that they were aware of poor quality issues and that they were working hard to make improvements.

Hopefully he and his staff can correct quality issues. Winnebago's problem is that Forest City is a very small town and doesn't have a large population. Labor is a limited resource for Winnebago.

I believe that I have finally found and fixed most of the problems with our new coach.

I love the layout and the 2016 Ford chassis is so much easier to drive than our 2005 Ford chassis.

Safe travels. JD

[D Lindy]

I think you'll see a big improvement in all their RV's quality now that they have moved their diesel Class A production to the west coast facility. Their facility at Forest City IA was just over crowded with all the different models they needed to push thru there to meet demands.