What's in a name?

[copcarguy]

Hey all!
 
Adam you wrote:  "Keep in mind these are travel trailers with an average life of ten years, just like your car and hot water heater there built around a replacement factor..."
 
If ANY of my cars, trucks, vans, boat, water heaters, CD players, - anything - began to fall apart as quickly as BOTH of my brand spankin new Coleman/Fleetwood PU's have I am sure the situations will have been handled better than my campers.  I guess we are just supposed to live with the camper breaking apart around us.  If it was one of my cars, I am SURE it would've been bought back with the lemon law by now.  I have had vacuum cleaners hold up better than my 2 Fleetwood PU's.  Like I said earlier (and answered the question of this thread) I bought my initial PU because it had "Coleman" on the side.  I expected a level of quality because it had "Coleman" on the side.  I thought we had a lemon with the entry level Taos, and now we have a top of the line with every option possible Carmel and it is falling apart too.  When we were taking delivery of the Carmel and gently sat on the sofa for the first time, (with the salesman there as a witness) the cushions literally tore apart and exploded.  Replacement cushions have also lasted about 5 seconds as the entire service dept watches.  There are so many things wrong now that we laugh as we're popping up as to "what'll break on this trip".  At this rate, I doubt we'd get THREE years out of the camper, let alone ten.  The thing that gets me is that I take so much pride in my stuff that I wonder what would happen to a "normal" person that is not anal and careful like me.  Maybe the things wrong with my campers wouldn't bother a "normal" person.  Like I said before, I can't wait to dump this SECOND POS first thing in the spring.  It is funny how I read elsewhere in this thread that Fleetwoods PU sales have slid now that the "Coleman" is not there.

[mike4947]

Actually Tim, it was the roof vendor that supplied the unwritten "extended" warranty coverage. Before Fleetwood subbed out the manufacturing the written warranty was upheld. After the vendor started showing problems THEY reimbersed/absorbed the shipping charges AND gave original warranty coverage to second owners. This all came to a screaching halt once the vender went under and Fleetwood would have had to pick up the charges.
Many dealers had assurances from Fleetwood about the unwritten warranty provisions and got caught between a rock and hard place when Fleetwood stopped them. Without by the way any notifaction to their dealers. I know of at least two cases where the dealer was nice enough to EAT the extra charges when Fleetwood refused to pay what they had been paying for several years as a standard policy. The dealers found out when the invoicing came in with the roofs,. Nothing was said when they were ordered about the recinding of the unwritten reimbersments.

[hoppy]

Returning the thread back to the original question asked, all things being equal between the two "identical" units, I personally would purchase the unit with the Coleman logo. I base this from an actual experience I had. While shopping at a RV show here in Atlanta, the local  "Coleman" dealer had a couple of  leftovers that he was willing to sell me at the show discount price. The Utah was my choice. He had one on his lot with a Coleman logo, and one with the Fleetwood logo.  He would let me have the one with the Fleetwood logo for $ 100.00 less than the Coleman. He did not state that this was the cost of the royality for Fleetwood to use the Coleman trademark, but was willing to let me have it for less. (I am willing to bet that Fleetwood was not paying only $ 100.00 on a $ 9,000.00 unit for the logo rights) I assumed that his offer was based upon resale value of the name Coleman versus Fleetwood. Weather right, wrong, or indefferent, the trademark name of Coleman is recognized as the leader in the industry for quality camping supplies. For all the potential people in the market looking to purchase a used PU, they recognize the Coleman name and would be more inclined to purchase with a larger degree of confidence. Keep in mind that not everyone on the planet knows about the Fleetwood ABS sag/delamination roof problems.....but just about everyone associates Coleman with quality camping equipment. IMHO.

[mike4947]

Hoppy brought up a good point about the dealer with the leftover Coleman logo'd trailer.

Dealers were allowed to use the Coleman name in their advertising. As long as they had any trailers in stock with the Coleman logo.
I do know one dealer that had a Taos in the back lot for quite a few months after the removal order just to keep the Coleman name on his advertising.
Also a rental company kept the "we supply Coleman trailers" in their advertising until quite recently.
Talking to many RV folks as well as others "just looking" and out to purchase trailers the general opinion was they'd rather buy a Coleman.
At the summer show a lot of folks stopped over to the local (now Fleetwood) dealer asking where they could find the Coleman trailers.
A good many walked away and the dealer put up a 7 foot high sign trying to "explain" why they didn't have any "Coleman" trailers.