Quality

[richfaa]

I believe that RV buyers have been seduced by the auto industry into thinking "QUALITY" is job one for all "vehicles" made today. If you were buying autos and RVs 40 years ago you would have noticed that both cars and trailers (for example) had a similar number of manufacturing defects. It was commonplace and everybody just accepted it as a necessary evil.

Then in the 70's, the US auto industry took a shot to the heart when imported cars were perceived as having better quality. US sales slumped and Japanese or German cars became the standard of excellence in quality. The US auto industry took it seriously and quality improved substantially in the 80's and 90's. So today, all autos are way better in quality than they were 40 years ago and we all consider that the new "standard" of excellence for vehicles.

But the RV industry has never had to contend with foreign imports. Nobody has ever challenged the US industry with a low cost quality RV and become a major player. Bottom line is that RVs here are still being built by companies with a 1960's mindset towards quality. So yes, as a rule of thumb, you're going to have manufacturing defects and short lived component problems in any RV.

That's what I believe, your reality may vary.

-JBN

I just had to bring this over from a poster on another forum. he is right on the money.

[Montana Sky]

I belive more in the thought of "you get what you pay for". While nothing built by man is perfect, I have come to think that the Keystone Montana has set the bar to which many of the upcoming rv's are going to be measured by. My 3400RL while being a 2004 has only had a few minor problems. My 04 Duramax (which is made by machine) has also had a few minor adjustments that needed to be done. Does this mean I am going to look for the bad each and everytime I step into an rv?? I know that things are going to be adjusted, replaced and or fixed. I guess I have two options, 1). Buy the rv and enjoy what it does bring to my life or 2). Dont buy an rv and just figure they are poorly built and a waste of my time and money. I will chose the 1st.

[richfaa]

I do agree with you Montana Sky.. I mean we do know that Rv's are lacking in quality but we buy them anyhow as the above poster said we accept it as a necessary evil but that came back to bite the auto industry. It is up to the Rv industry to improve quality or suffer the same fate as the auto industry. I also believe that Keystone is a cut above the other manufactures in quality. I describe it as "the best of the worst" I mean I have one on order. If you take a look at the sales numbers through Sept 05 published on the Keystone web site for ALL manufactures you will note that 26 out of the top 45 show negative numbers, some in the double digits for a all over decrease of 6.2% over the same period last year and that is WITH the FEMA orders. That would be a down trend and my guess is that when the 4th quarter numbers are out it will be worse. The good news is that negative numbers draw attention as to WHY they are negative and perhaps some manufacturer will say...you know maybe if we worked on our quality we could improve the numbers//Let us hope that is Keystone before Honda or Toyota sees the light.

[Wrenchtraveller]

The RV makers have not had a Japanese quality lesson shoved down their throats like the auto industry but they have improved their quality a lot in the last 10 years.
Look at Fleetwood stuff built in the 80s. The quality of workmanship was poor at best.
I have gone through some new Fleetwood stuff and it is much better.

I bought two brand new Kit Companion Fivers, an 87 and a 95. These were economical units built with cheap components but they never let me down and IMO the workmanship on Kit products was much better than Fleetwood stuff.

Kit is gone and Fleetwood is still here so someone made a better business choice and competition in the RV industry is pretty keen and the consumer is not always motivated by the lowest price.
People will pay more if they can see the quality go up with the price.

The RVs I looked at yesterday were more expensive than Montanas but I could not see an improvement in quality or materials and IMO the Montanas just looked so much classier inside.

That is one thing most of us agree with here on this site. We love spending time in our units.