Sad day for us… Newmar Sold to Winnebago! Sad day as another great “Mom & Pop” company gets bought out by a large corporation. Tiffin last LARGE family owned motorhome company.
We went LIVE to talk about it. Grab a cup of coffee, or a stiff drink, and take a listen to our thoughts on this and also on Tiffin as the last major coach manufacturer.
Just watched your “Newmar” video – Ugh. Not good news, for sure. Since you mentioned the new gray color in Tiffins somewhere along in there, I thought I’d let you know (if you don’t already) that YouTuber TravelingRobert has released several videos he just did at Hershey. One of them was on Tiffins and he went inside two different buses – one was gray, the other was white. They were both VERY shiny. Sorry :(. I agree with you on the shine – makes a beautiful unit look somehow cheaper than it should look. But, again, to each his own. Just thought you might like to take a look at that video if you haven’t seen it.
Truly sad news. I’d like to add Coach House in Florida to the list of family owned RV builders? That is the rig I’m looking at to replace our current home.
Thanks for another video – watched it with interest!
Thought that you might be interested in additional perspectives. This link leads to a video by Brett D, CEO of National Indoor RV Center (NIRVC). It’s a well-considered and articulated analysis from another full-time RVer (Disclosure – I’ve had a career with large multi-national and national public companies that have extensive technology elements. We’ve had a gas Winnebago for about 8 minutes and now have a diesel Newmar. I also am invested in the Apple ecosystem!)
I’ve looked on with great anticipation at the exciting new features that have been introduced since we purchased our coach (accident mitigation, 360 degree view cameras, rear exit doors, electrification & networking of features, etc.). I especially look forward to what new technologies are yet to come for our next coach! (Which requires ever more intensive engineering and capital resources). I especially look forward to a lane-keeping feature to help on long-drives!
Hope that you enjoy this video I look forward to your next videos!
Hi Duane…Thanks for the link. Yes, more “fluff” from a dealer for what could they really say as anything negative would drop sales. I really hope that Newmar continues to do well as I really liked their build and the people that built them. They were a “customer” company like Tiffin. Newmar would actually go further than Tiffin in regards to making custom changes to an ordered coach which was great and one reason it made them so attractive to us. I fear however this will be hurt as the intent that Winnie has is to get product out the door no matter what. (Ship it and we will fix it later if they noticed comes to mind.) As such, they may not be so keen on making customer requested changes any longer as that affects the speed of the line. Only time will tell. BTW…Lane departure has been around for a long time…we have it in our 2014 coach.
Steven Swinehart on September 30, 2019 at 10:19 pm
No one knows the relationship between Newmar and Winnebago at this point. If Winnebago treats Newmar as a subsidiary and stand alone profit center – then Newmar will continue doing business in the same way. If Newmar is simply treated as another product under the overall Winnebago brand – then all bets are off as to how that affects product quality and customer service.
So now your going to stick with Tiffin. No Winnabago/ Newmar for you.
Hi David and Brenda,
Just watched your “Newmar” video – Ugh. Not good news, for sure. Since you mentioned the new gray color in Tiffins somewhere along in there, I thought I’d let you know (if you don’t already) that YouTuber TravelingRobert has released several videos he just did at Hershey. One of them was on Tiffins and he went inside two different buses – one was gray, the other was white. They were both VERY shiny. Sorry :(. I agree with you on the shine – makes a beautiful unit look somehow cheaper than it should look. But, again, to each his own. Just thought you might like to take a look at that video if you haven’t seen it.
Safe travels,
Jackie Fare
Truly sad news. I’d like to add Coach House in Florida to the list of family owned RV builders? That is the rig I’m looking at to replace our current home.
Hi Dave & Brenda
Thanks for another video – watched it with interest!
Thought that you might be interested in additional perspectives. This link leads to a video by Brett D, CEO of National Indoor RV Center (NIRVC). It’s a well-considered and articulated analysis from another full-time RVer
(Disclosure – I’ve had a career with large multi-national and national public companies that have extensive technology elements. We’ve had a gas Winnebago for about 8 minutes and now have a diesel Newmar. I also am invested in the Apple ecosystem!)
I’ve looked on with great anticipation at the exciting new features that have been introduced since we purchased our coach (accident mitigation, 360 degree view cameras, rear exit doors, electrification & networking of features, etc.). I especially look forward to what new technologies are yet to come for our next coach! (Which requires ever more intensive engineering and capital resources). I especially look forward to a lane-keeping feature to help on long-drives!
Hope that you enjoy this video
I look forward to your next videos!
Safe travels!
Hi Duane…Thanks for the link. Yes, more “fluff” from a dealer for what could they really say as anything negative would drop sales. I really hope that Newmar continues to do well as I really liked their build and the people that built them. They were a “customer” company like Tiffin. Newmar would actually go further than Tiffin in regards to making custom changes to an ordered coach which was great and one reason it made them so attractive to us. I fear however this will be hurt as the intent that Winnie has is to get product out the door no matter what. (Ship it and we will fix it later if they noticed comes to mind.) As such, they may not be so keen on making customer requested changes any longer as that affects the speed of the line. Only time will tell. BTW…Lane departure has been around for a long time…we have it in our 2014 coach.
No one knows the relationship between Newmar and Winnebago at this point. If Winnebago treats Newmar as a subsidiary and stand alone profit center – then Newmar will continue doing business in the same way. If Newmar is simply treated as another product under the overall Winnebago brand – then all bets are off as to how that affects product quality and customer service.
If you don’t need a monster bus, Lazy Daze is still making Class C units the old way.