[jsb5717]

It's an ever-changing industry. Pick any industry with any widget and someone will say "they sure don't make them like they used to". Craftsmanship too often takes a back seat to profit...which shouldn't be surprising. But we already know that all of the brands know how to make a good rig...because they all do. Some percentage of all of their builds are decent rigs with reasonably happy customers. I suppose one downfall of a systemic decline in quality is that the consumers are stuck with choosing the better of the evils. The bar just gets lowered and consumers are stuck with the results. They all have failures so which high priced rig will I take a chance on this time?

But of course there's still competition. Thor owns a lot of brands but doesn't have hands on in their day to day. Thor is a for-profit company and each brand under their control will have its own P&L. They will all have their own management teams and line workers. Thor will not continue to invest resources in a brand that isn't performing well. Declining profits would result in replacing management so the boots-on-the-ground folks leading those brands will all have a motivation to perform. That's competition. If a brand stops selling they will stop making it. I'm sure that the General Managers of each brand want the inherent bonuses that come with performing better than the pack, or increasing profitability, or whatever the bonus metrics are. But again it's profitability that can often drive poor quality. Vicious cycle.

Maybe Thor doesn’t care if Montana loses sales and market share, although I bet they do. However, you can also bet that the Montana Team cares…their livelihoods depend on it. Count on it…there’s competition.

And we're still seeing innovation. New start-ups, like Brinkley, come along and promise better results. At first they deliver, but time, expansion, and profitability eventually take their toll. Alliance was the new kid on the block just 3 years ago. They were going to change the game. Guess what...they have problems too. There are good building practices in all of these brands, but as long as people are building them there will be failures, angry customers, and "never agains".

It's a far from perfect system and it's certainly not regulated as well as many of us feel it should be. But it's still competitive and new things are happening all the time. Us consumers just can't be ignorant. The better informed a buyer is the better chance they have of a good result. Buyer beware and vote with your money. Thor, Forest River, and the rest are all keeping score.