Winnebago Quality

[bachler]

I Like to stand back and look at my motorhome sometimes and ask myself In total How many Persons were involved In making/designing/putting it togather. Maybe 6000 I don't know, I wonder If we should Hold any manufacturer responceable directly for Some of the related problems, That they Generally repair under warrenty. That being said we have bought 3 new Winnebagos. Each of them had problems. and when I quit being nitpicky about the fact I paid paid Money to buy problems; They seemed to just go away; and man I sure Enjoyed the coaches Much more.. Life is good;;

[Deucenut]

Originally Posted by bachler

I Like to stand back and look at my motorhome sometimes and ask myself In total How many Persons were involved In making/designing/putting it togather. Maybe 6000 I don't know, I wonder If we should Hold any manufacturer responceable directly for Some of the related problems, That they Generally repair under warrenty. That being said we have bought 3 new Winnebagos. Each of them had problems. and when I quit being nitpicky about the fact I paid paid Money to buy problems; They seemed to just go away; and man I sure Enjoyed the coaches Much more.. Life is good;;

Do you work for Winnebago or own shares in the company?!? You say no one likes a person who Bitches. Well what do you expect the OP to do? He took it to a Winnebago authorized dealer and Winnebago refused to honour the warranty on a few items! That is downright WRONG. I do agree that you get more bees with honey, but sometimes diplomacy can only go so far. At some point if you get no response at all, you need to start ramping up your efforts.

It seems to me that most motorhome manufacturers cheap out on their gas models and save all the good stuff for their DP's. I don't agree with that.

Unfortunately you won't get the gas to/from the dealer paid. But as someone else has said, I would save up the items needing repair(unless they're major) and go in at one time. That will minimize gas usage. If you are still not getting results from the dealer, I would give the factory a call and get it from the horses mouth. Good luck. I really hope you can get things fixed and get back to having fun.

[Petro]

I am on my 3rd WGO motor home. They were all purchased used and out of warranty. I have had some issues with some of the components supplied and installed by Winnebago. I live about 6 hours from the factory and I have taken my MH back to Forest City twice. My thought was who would know any better how to repair this thing than the manufacture? I was not at all disappointed. I received courteous professional service every time I was there. I would definitely purchase another Winnebago Product again. They have made a Happy Camper out of me.

Don

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by Cobra 427

In July of this year I purchased a new Winnebago Vista 26 HE to tow the AC Cobra I race. In the five times I have been out I have yet to return home then take the unit in for warranty service. First time out cabinet doors fell off in the first 180 miles. The alignment was so bad you could not let go of the steering wheel. Winnebago refused to warranty that saying it was fine when it left you must have it loaded wrong or hit something it only had 390 miles on it.I bought it with 335. Then the jacks started leaking antenna quit working,generator has exhaust leak,trim pieces are falling off, the best the heater quit in 15 degree weather. This is just a short list of problems. My question is is Winnebago quality this bad? This can't be normal. Winnebago is unwilling to help out with the cost of getting the unit to and from the service center witch is 75 miles one way. With my experance with Winnebago I would NOT RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE.

Front end alignment is usually but not always set by the chassis manufacturer and never checked after the "house" is built on the chassis. There is no way for the chassis manufacturer to know how the weight distribution comes out. Most say to load the rig and have an alignment done. It's not a warranty issue either.

[Oscar Mike]

I am learning that age old principle of documenting everything with my dealer and the manufacturer, in my case Fleetwood. Without good and persistent documentation no one seems to take any action. I have had a series of issues with our new Bounder, and one-by-one we are getting them taken care of. I have had to write Fleetwood a couple of emails, one certified letter and one telephone conversation. I have had to do the same with my dealer in order to get them to pay attention.

I have all my warranties in place and with a bit of persistence and patience on my end, I'll get everything done before spring...hopefully.

[bluepill]

It does amaze me how poor the warranties are on RV's, considering the price. How hard would it be for a manufacturer to include a coupon for a free alignment on each new unit? They could co-op with some national truck service chains, and would cost them very little. Customer satisfaction and good word of mouth would more than pay the cost in the long run.

Maybe a lot of laid-off GM executives found jobs in the RV industry?

[Colorado Kay]

Originally Posted by bluepill

It does amaze me how poor the warranties are on RV's, considering the price. How hard would it be for a manufacturer to include a coupon for a free alignment on each new unit? They could co-op with some national truck service chains, and would cost them very little. Customer satisfaction and good word of mouth would more than pay the cost in the long run.

Maybe a lot of laid-off GM executives found jobs in the RV industry?

[Gary - K7GLD]

We've had 2 different Winnies - both old and very used units - first was a '75 or so Brave version, only issue I remember was fuel consumption on the old Dodge 440 - 5 mpg, uphill or down, but lots of power!

Current one is the '88 Super Chief - immediately needed a new refrigerator cooling unit - about $450, and later, new Bilstein shocks all around and new steering stabilizer - and finally, a full set of new tires.

All pretty much normal stuff on a 24 year old rig, and with the 66K miles on the good old 454 GM and drivetrain, she runs great, gets between 7-8 mpg in our 3000-5000 foot elevation with steep grades and narrow winding roads that force lots of downshifting.

She's outside right now in windy, rainy weather, all gassed up and ready to roll - and I'd have NO qualms at getting in and starting out for the opposite coast!. Absolutely EVERYTHING in the old girl works exactly as it should - guess we either just got a pair of good ones - or else all the bad stuff had been taken care of before they ended up in our hands.

Sorry to hear about so many issues with the later stuff...








Total investment to date, $7K original purchase price, plus about $3K in maintenance items - and even if I could only get about half that $10K back if I decided to sell, not all that much lost for the fun we've had with it so far...

.

[Cobra 427]

For the record it a 2013 model. I picked it back up today and took the owner of the dealer for test drive after the repair to the windows made them worse and behold another cabinet door fell off hitting him in the head. It took 22 stitches to close the wound. Needless to say I did not take the unit home and now the carpet will need to be replaced because of blood stains.If you don't know head wounds bleed alot.

[Deucenut]

Originally Posted by Cobra 427

For the record it a 2013 model. I picked it back up today and took the owner of the dealer for test drive after the repair to the windows made them worse and behold another cabinet door fell off hitting him in the head. It took 22 stitches to close the wound. Needless to say I did not take the unit home and now the carpet will need to be replaced because of blood stains.If you don't know head wounds bleed alot.

Oh wow, that's awful!! I hope he recovers ok. But now at least maybe he knows you're not just making this stuff up. Did they say what they are going to do for you?

[Redsman]

Oh my, and I thought I had problems with my wrecked 2013 Four Winds. This stuff just can't be made up!

[Dsouthw524]

I might point out that the DEALER is allowed an allowance and expected to perform a quality check on units prior to delivery to the customer. They are given a check list by Winnebago. Maybe now your dealer will change the way his people do customer prep!

I have had Winnie products for over 30 years and had problems (including the furnace) while away from home base. I called Winniie and was directedd to dealers. The dealers did their best to work me in to their schedule. I have had varrying experience at Camping World. They are a part of a large corperation, Affinity, and I worry about them being dealers as they are a corperation that is taking over the entire industry as manufacturers of components and publishers of Motorhome and Trailerlife and Good Sam!

[Luckiest Dreamer]

Originally Posted by Cobra 427

In July of this year I purchased a new Winnebago Vista 26 HE to tow the AC Cobra I race. In the five times I have been out I have yet to return home then take the unit in for warranty service. First time out cabinet doors fell off in the first 180 miles. The alignment was so bad you could not let go of the steering wheel. Winnebago refused to warranty that saying it was fine when it left you must have it loaded wrong or hit something it only had 390 miles on it.I bought it with 335. Then the jacks started leaking antenna quit working,generator has exhaust leak,trim pieces are falling off, the best the heater quit in 15 degree weather. This is just a short list of problems. My question is is Winnebago quality this bad? This can't be normal. Winnebago is unwilling to help out with the cost of getting the unit to and from the service center witch is 75 miles one way. With my experance with Winnebago I would NOT RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE.

You say you purchased it with 335 miles on it and at 390 you had the problem. The service center is 75 miles away. So it was bad before you got home the day of purchase and you continued to use it. They refused? That has never happened to me! I have recieved excellent warranty service from Winnebago. Good luck. I RECOMMEND WINNEBAGO! Glad I do not own stock, RV industry is to up and down.

[Hikerdogs]

I'm sorry your having so many problems. What you describe has not been normal for us or any of the people we know who have bought Winnebago products. I do however believe your expectations for service may be a bit lofty. I am not aware of any vehicle manufacturer (RV, car, truck, etc., etc.) that will "help out" with the cost of bringing a vehicle in for servicing whether it's under warranty or not.

Over the years we've taken our motorhome to the factory in Forest City IA. several times for service work. Even during the warranty period or when there was a problem with a service performed it has always been our responsibility to get the unit to the repair facility.

As for your experience with the dealer who wouldn't put you in front of customers who bought their units there I would say that's pretty normal. Most dealers appreciate customer loyalty and are going to give their customers priority over someone who bought elsewhere. In our case the local dealer wanted a huge premium over other quoted prices saying "that's the price you pay to get it serviced locally". When I protested the big difference in price I was told their first priority in the service department would always be customers who purchased their units there. They felt that if I was willing to go several hundred miles to save a "few dollars" I should be willing to travel the same distance to get it serviced.

At least we knew the score before going into the deal. In our case it didn't make much difference. The price from the dealer we bought the unit from was low enough that it was still economical to drive a few extra miles for service. Since it was a wash driving to the selling dealer or the factory we chose the factory.

[SarahW]

I have removed a couple of posts from this thread that were not aligned with our Community Standards. As a reminder,...

Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully. Sarcasm, belligerence, insults, profanity, extreme anger, offensive comments are not acceptable.

Please be mindful of forum rules when responding. Thanks.

[herbertgk]

We have a o7 Adventurer 38T and have had a few problems, but our dealer is the best, they have taken care of all our issues and stand give the best service after the sale. good luck on your issues and hope your dealer can correct them to your liking.

[Chuck 1935]

Originally Posted by Cobra 427

For the record it a 2013 model. I picked it back up today and took the owner of the dealer for test drive after the repair to the windows made them worse and behold another cabinet door fell off hitting him in the head. It took 22 stitches to close the wound. Needless to say I did not take the unit home and now the carpet will need to be replaced because of blood stains.If you don't know head wounds bleed alot.

I would call an exorcist. Then a lawyer.
I can't imagine having all the problems you are having. There has got to be some legal recourse to get rid of that death trap.

[CPO_Retired]

Not to make light of your problems but I thought you would like to know Winnebago is not the only company with issues. I was at the Good Sam Rally last month in Daytona Beach and found this Monaco parked there. This owner was really not happy and made sure everyone knew about it.

[TwelveVolt]

Originally Posted by CPO_Retired

Not to make light of your problems but I thought you would like to know Winnebago is not the only company with issues. I was at the Good Sam Rally last month in Daytona Beach and found this Monaco parked there. This owner was really not happy and made sure everyone knew about it.

That is certainly one approach. At the last boat show I attended, a family all wore identical T-shirts reading "Donzi Sucks!". As I sat at the helm of a Viking Yacht, I looked up to see a small plane towing a banner that read "Beware of Viking Yachts". I wonder how often this tactic works?

[Izzyblueye]

Keep Winnebago advised of dealers who refuse to service rigs not bought from them. I know of one who was a Winnebago dealer for 25 years, started to refuse service to travelers that had not bought from him. He lost his franchise pretty quick. Yes Winny makes coaches with problems, but if you can get it back to the factory they usually will make it good. They replace an entire body for me, free of charge. I have owned several Winnies and would again.