GD Quality ??? Not in my book

[Justa5th]

"Wife and I say the same thing about dining out. Poor service, cold food, and people lined up around the block to eat there. Its a wonder isn't it?"

Marketing, pure and simple. Why do you think places like Applebees, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Cheesecake Factory, Cracker Barrel, et. al., still exist serving mediocre food?

And marketing causes people to do what….buy the product/spend money. Of course there are all kinds of little idiosyncrasies that make a company work but without profit/money they usually don’t last long.

"Wife and I say the same thing about dining out. Poor service, cold food, and people lined up around the block to eat there. Its a wonder isn't it?"

Perfect example. Did we the public with the money ask for poor service and cold food…or did we accept it buy going to these places therefore they will not change because it is working for them.

[Hoopy Frood]

I think you could still hang the term "Money Pit" on either though.

I suppose you're right, but I've had good luck with the RV's we've owned, most bought used, and I don't care for boats. But there's no denying if you get a bad one, a good trust fund will come in handy.

[Hoopy Frood]

And marketing causes people to do what….buy the product/spend money. Of course there are all kinds of little idiosyncrasies that make a company work but without profit/money they usually don’t last long.

Well, even that is debatable, witness Amazon for many years, FedEx for about 4 years, TBS, ESPN, even Tesla motors, which took ten years to make a profit.

[Hoopy Frood]

And marketing causes people to do what….buy the product/spend money. Of course there are all kinds of little idiosyncrasies that make a company work but without profit/money they usually don’t last long.

Well, even that is debatable, witness Amazon for many years, FedEx for about 4 years, TBS, ESPN, even Tesla motors, which took ten years to make a profit.

Okay, now I'm done. I'll let yawl bash RV's in peace and quiet.

[Justa5th]

Well, even that is debatable, witness Amazon for many years, FedEx for about 4 years, TBS, ESPN, even Tesla motors, which took ten years to make a profit.

Agree to disagree. I’ll leave you with this. Take any 1 rv manufacturer and cut their profit to zero for 10 years and see if they are still around. They couldn’t last through a couple rough years during the last downturn without a lot of them folding. Literally anything in life has examples of not fitting the norm but in business money makes the world go around.

[trailrydr]

........
At least the RV industry doesn't have the motto the boating industry has: "The two best days in my life were the day I bought my boat, and the day I sold my boat".

My boat saying when I bought my Regal was, "Buy once, Cry once". Now after 25 yrs of owning that boat, and seeing where the cost per foot has gone ($2k to $5k per foot compared to $1k per ft for cheaper boats at the time), Im glad for those past tears. We have been happy with it to the point we never had to trade up to boat on a very busy Lake Of The Ozarks even with the larger boats, waves and more traffic.

With minimum schedule PM, we have definitely gotten the paid for quality compared to other things we have owned. Really hard to find these days even if your willing to pay for it.

[BigSam]

My GD Imagine was well worth the money. Found nothing on the walk through, but after 5,000 miles, yes, there are a few issues. Nothing I wouldn’t expect from a box that is nailed, stapled and glued together being bounced over our highways and high speeds.

Every now and then I find a screw on the floor or part of a cabinet coming apart. No big deal. I use a bigger screw and fix the problem. The rear bedroom door bounces out of its track. I put it back in.

I travel with plumbing and electrical supplies. I will be honest, I have had four houses built for me and this trailer had way less things wrong than any of the houses. No build is ever going to be perfect. No employee is ever going always put the customer first.

There is no way I would ever take ownership of an RV with a known serious problem that I couldn’t fix myself. If you purchased from a hood dealership and the problem was known and not fixed, then it was probably a supply issue and taking ownership it isn’t going to fix that.

I’m sorry you had those issues, but there are thousands of RV owners out there who would trade you there quality problems in a heart beat. Very few companies that are bought out are able to keep the same quality up. Certainly GD is not what it used to be, but it still makes a fine RV.

As for as Lazydays. Never bought from them, but very few national chains have great customer service. There are good and bad dealerships everywhere. One thing I learned, if there is a huge turnover in salesmen and service technicians, then you can forget about good service.

[tigerGUY1955]

I have had my own issues since the get go with my GD. I also have a ton of old colleagues that has dealt with the majority of Indiana RV companies. The work force is such that they'll leave a company for being told to redo something and getting their butts chewed out and then end up with their ****** on their shoulders for being called out and quit. There are so many companies in that area that they'll find employment in a matter of days. GD and these other companies won't take the steps necessary to make the changes that would positively affect end product as well as satisfaction of the end user.

Quite honestly, good faith isn't found on the manufacturing and dealer side of the industry....too afraid of the hard work and changes that are necessary to upgrade QC to make a difference.

No. Damned. Pride. If the material quality and a real QC department had teeth, my 375RES would be fantastic. Great floor plan! As is, I constantly make repairs warding off water intrusion.

[MS10r1954]

So I picked up my 337RLS in March and left for a 6 month gig starting late April. 10 days into our adventure, I left a pair of pants on the floor next to the bed. Next morning they’re damp?
Couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, bathroom shares the same wall as the bedroom, but no leaks under the sink or shower pan. Called a mobile tech/GD dealership and he came out 4 days later. Turns out the shower handle was put on upside down, so the weep hole in the bottom was on top, filling with water, dripping down the inside wall and under the shower pan and into my bedroom. Must have been the installers first job! Obviously didn’t know down from up! Lots of other cosmetic issues, but that was the biggest screw up. QC is just wishful thinking and not a reality.

[ajg617]

I changed my retirement plans. I have owned 8 rvs and watched quality decline. I no longer own one. I’m not happy about it but there’s always other stuff to do.

To each his own. I'm not changing my plans - life's too short and there are zero guarantees. I doubt I will live long enough to see quality improve and I have no intention of passing up what I have planned for, even if it is painfully difficult from a maintenance perspective. So don't count me in your majority because I already spoke with my wallet and my informed choices were different then yours. I'm willing to accept the risk of downtime and cost at the expense of improving the quality of your next RV. Sorry, but worked 55 years to get here.