Buying new, actual price

[waldosgone]

Wasn't brand new but a 2015 FC20 listed at 52K paid 44K with Equalizer hitch installed and a Tekonsha P3 brake controller.

First travel trailer we've owned to house us for a month on our move back to Alaska and possibly most of the summer until our tenants move out of one of our condos in Alaska. We can't wait to get back to the "Great Land!"

[Maddmike]

The wife and I are considering an 23FB either FC or IC. Good to know that +20% is the target point.

[Jeffndaile]

Originally Posted by switz

From the ongoing QC issues, maybe the wholesale cost is closer to 50%.



That would help explain the selection of so many inexpensive parts like the plastic catches, single stage converter/ battery cooker, really cheap solid state transfer switches for the front power inlet and linoleum flooring so thin it has one side (the dinette table leg wore a hole through our 2015 23D International Serenity flooring in under two thousand miles).



How can a $140,000+ Classic be shipped after the last Airstream quality control inspection and go through a dealership pre-delivery inspection and still have the main door misaligned? Misaligned main doors happens on the less expensive models as well.



With a lot of effort, most of us get the kinks worked out over time - maybe that is called the Rite of Passage to be an official Airstream owner.

Totally agree with you there we've had our share already. :-(

[switz]

We used an independent repair shop (A&P Vintage Trailer Works in Paradise, TX Paul Mayeux at (817) 919-3651) to do all of the repairs and modifications to both the 2014 Classic and the 2015 23D International Serenity.

After watching them blow the pin striping off the Classic on their lot after less than hour after the trailer arrived and from prior negative experiences with our 2013 25FB International Serenity being serviced there, I told the Phoenix dealership all further work would be done elsewhere. We had north of $70k of work done on the Classic to fix the issues and custom work.

I personally showed the Airstream QC supervisor the issues in our Classic while on the line and sent a follow-up email with photos to him that afternoon. None of the issues were addressed at the factory.

The very large east coast dealership for the 23D had very obviously NOT done a PDI from the glaring issues we found (like no "AIRSTREAM" on the back of the trailer, broken vista view blind, major installation issues with the toilet and shower., plastic film from installing the aluminum still partially attached beside the bed...) and we spent north of 30k getting all issues resolved and modifications done.

A major safety issue was lack of grease in the 23D wheel bearings. The trailer had a total of under 2,000 miles when I got it to A&P and one set of bearings were completely scored from lack of grease and the other three needed grease.

The wife is beyond happy with both units now, so all is well in our Airstream world.

It is too bad (politely worded) that Airstream does not care about their quality control enough to provide many of their customers a trouble free new unit experience.

[dkottum]

We got 25% off our new 2007 Safari 20 SE in the 2009 model year. It was factory assembled very well but the dealership did not take care of it while it sat on the lot, and it suffered.

We got 12% off our new factory fresh 2012 FC 25 in Sept 2011. It was assembled beautifully and we have not had a failure of original equipment in 1200 nights camping with it. The dealership could not even wash it without damaging it, and we had to readjust the weight distribution hitch they installed before leaving the lot.