Coachman caravans quality

Hello Fastnet, you’ve probably bought your Coachman van by now. Have you used it yet? In May we bought our new VIP 460. On day 9 of our holiday the fridge door fell off. We were in St Andrew’s and had to return to Glossop to have it fixed temporarily. 

Back in Bucks, the door is still fixed on though for security I gaffa taped the door. 

The two small front blinds don’t retract properly and table is, as usual very unstable.

Otherwise our ninth caravan is ok - so far….

Hi Fastnet,

we took delivery in April of a new VIP 460 as a replacement for a Pastiche. As with others our fridge door fell off ,and the fridge door open alarm was sounding constantly, after speaking to a Dometic engineer the alarm was silenced by inserting a small amount of Bluetac under the sensor magnet in the top of the fridge door. The falling off effect has reportedly been sorted by adjustment to the door hinges, our next trip should confirm this.

The Russel Hobbs microwave kept tripping out and my dealer is awaiting a replacement from Coachman ( However long that will take), but our main problem is a creaking floor in the kitchen area which our dealer says was fixed and on inspection at the dealer was ok.But on returning home and putting the legs down evidently was not the case .

We were more than happy with our Pastiche but now have reservations regarding build quality, although two of our problems were due to other manufactures faults ,or maybe poor PDI.

 

 

Yes we have.  We have been very happy with the van.  We have only had one problem and that was because we had not RTFM.  ☹️

Took delivery of a new Laser Xcel 875 in the middle of May and have used it for three weeks over two trips.

General build quality is excellent with no significant issues other than front blind pleats not consistently folding smoothly when opening them but a few up and downs and they are absolutely fine. Cabinetry, soft furnishings, electrics and all gizmos are of the standard I expected and I am delighted with my purchase. 

we bought our second VIP second-hand ten years ago and have been delighted, only recently have we seen problems you'd expect from a fifteen year-old van. Looking at more recent models on the forecourts and NEC show we've been disappointed with the finish and quality. As mentioned above, Coachman tend to be on the heavy side and I fear they've compromised on the materials to make them lighter. Not sure what our next van will be, but rather taken by Bailey more than most on the value for money front. 

Hi Fastnet,

We own a 2021 Coachman Laser 575 Xcel (1800kg MTPLM) (Powertouch motor movers and air conditioning), which we collected from Golden Castle Caravans at the end of Apr. Our shortlist was between Knaus Sudwind and the Coachman. Our assessment is based on 3 trips totalling 12 nights since we collected our caravan.  Overall we are delighted with our caravan. With the exception of one faulty USB socket on an over bed reading light there have been  no issues with our caravan. We are impressed with the build quality particularly the cabinetry and soft furnishings. Soft furnishings are very comfortable. Veneer/laminate finshes are well done. The exterior feels solid and well constructed. The Alde heating setup is excellent and can be easily linked to the air conditioning to provide 'automatic climate control'. In terms of design niggles: we would have preferred the option of a wrap around front seat rather than the chest of drawer and the centre/rear locker under the transverse bed is partly obstructed with plumbing (to avoid items sliding into the plumbing I have added some light batten 'guards' which are held by velcro). Bathroom is superb as the kitchen area.

The caravan tows well even in fairly strong cross winds. Payload of 221 kg based on the unladen weight is excellent - and turned out to be accurate when I took the caravan to a local weigh bridge on collection (weigh bridge accuracy was +/- 20kg). 

Hope you find what your looking for,

Roger 

 

 

 

 

I was talking to the Service Manager of our Knaus dealership the other day - they also sell Coachman.  He was telling me that they have very few problems with Coachman and if they do - and they can't fix it, Coachman send someone out to sort it.  They are also very prompt at supplying spares and taking the van back to the factory in the rare event there's a major problem. It seems that at last I am about to get the warranty items on our Knaus that have been on order for nearly a year! Hymer aren't much better either.

 

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Same issue with fridge door on our new Coachman 460 VIP bought new March 2021. I.E fell door off. Now fixed, but currently away and although fridge is cooling the control panel is saying fault 03 communication issue. back to dealer on Monday

The Domestic engineer l contacted was excellent and talked me through some possible fixes, sadly despite his efforts still faulty. What confidence does it give in Dometic if they can’t produce a fridge without a door falling off? 

Our third new coachman and with other problems that have been “ fixed” the worst one . Caravanning 25 yrs, 7 new ‘ vans and Coachman is the only manufacturer  we returned to three times, because the 2008 Pastiche and 2014 festival were problem free.
To me the quality is no longer there. The web site prides itself on “ test row “ for every caravan. I think the tester had a day off for ours. 
l will again contact the manufacture when we are home to express my views, loyalty in the product needs rewarding with better customer service . 
The dealer has been helpful but shouldn’t be faced with fixing manufacturing defects and a justifiably dissatisfied customer 

There seems to be a bit more to it than the obvious, David. Knaus's first excuse was that the parts had been sent but that they were stuck in a warehouse in the south awaiting 'customs clearance' (for nearly a year?????) However, when they were re-ordered, the Service Manager was told that they had been despatched and would be with him within a few days (we will wait and see). I get the impression - and so does the dealer - that having made a brief foray into the UK market, Knaus have lost interest post-Brexit.