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MaShep · 10-07-2003, 02:36 PM

Thanks, I didn't want to come off as an alarmist, but I think if the LP line is damaged it could be VERY bad. The QC issues really bother me. Our 16CCD is in the shop for a lot of the same kind of issues, some of them cosmetic. I don't want to make a stink about them as I believe they are being properly addressed. - We have faith in this. Will update when we get our little pod back and I'll post pictures of fixes for y'all. Our 16CCD build date is 7-30-2003.

Turtle · 10-07-2003, 05:26 PM

First, we LOVE our trailer & I'd recommend it to anyone under 5' 8", 150#. Now... the dirt:

Our 16' CCD rolled off the line 6/30/03.

The exterior of the trailer is tight. Had some issues with the interior. Closest shop is in Eugene, OR. (300 miles away) so I fixed everything myself.

We had the LP line rubbing against the stablizer jack problem. Fixed it with washers as spacers.

I had to add more caulking to the inside of the bathroom. There was one rather sizable hole. The cut of the panel on the bed side of the bathroom was rough so I cleaned it up with caulking.

The panels on the overhead above the dinette were on in the wrong sequence making it so you couldn't get the optimal opening. Took a bit of effort to get it right. (I would have made the dealer do it if they were any closer.)

The hold down snap for the bed shade was missing on the wall. The shade had its part but that was it.

The orange panels on the bed overhead came loose. Hot glue took care of that.

The shower curtain against the window wall was put on backwards so the Velcro didn't match up & the pattern is backwards. Couldn't figure out how to get the curtain off to turn it around so unstitched the velcro & sewed it on the correct way.

The handle on the middle kitchen drawer came unglued.

The safety latch on the dinette was horribly misaligned so it didn't hold. At first I didn't even think there was a catch for the drawer until I was under the table cleaning up from the trip and saw it. I'd drilled a hole in the side of the drawer and the drawer slide to stick a latch pin in. Might just stick with that.

Edge tape around table was sticking up over the table top and was sharp on the arms. Hit with some sandpaper and much more comfortable now.

Grease spots on the dinette cushions, thankfully all spots are hidden.

They laid the floor down over 2 pieces of sm debris & it telescoped through (I feel I'm getting really picky here).

Finally, the manual is completely useless for the CCD 16.

John · 10-07-2003, 05:38 PM

I wonder if they have different teams putting different models together.

Ie. Classic/Excella, CCD, Safari

I say this because it seems that the Classic/Excella units have less problems/defects than the other models.

Either way, it's great that you all are voicing these problems and it sounds like Airstream is listening.

frozen chosen · 10-07-2003, 06:53 PM

First, we LOVE our trailer & I'd recommend it to anyone under 5' 8", 150#

Uh oh, I'm 6-4, 290. Will this be a problem??

Silvertwinkie · 10-07-2003, 07:20 PM

FC...not at all...a sawzall can fix almost anything....

Eric

Turtle · 10-07-2003, 09:04 PM

Frozen, Could be. The water closet is cozy. Bed? Depends on how you sleep. The rest of the space will be just fine for you. We've had people over for lunch and did fine.

KIMILI · 10-07-2003, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Edge tape around table was sticking up over the table top and was sharp on the arms. Hit with some sandpaper and much more comfortable now.

Yep, we had that too, just forgot to include it!
Fixed it ourselves.

No Jamie you're not picky, you're just asking for what you paid for.

The trouble is we all live fairly far from the dealers and tend to solve our problems ourselves, so AS never really gets the brunt of our situations.

The good part is that we know as a fact that the President of AS reads /checks this forum. He might even be a member and participate in our discussions.... Hi Dick! Please take note of all these issues we're all having and make sure your QA improves.

Porky Pig · 10-07-2003, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by KIMILI
and pay the Dealer $495 for dealer's prep, these problems should not exist!!

We're very dissapointed with AS QA.

You had to pay the Dealer $495 to prep your new AS???

Has anyone else paid this?

rbyrnesanmateo · 10-07-2003, 11:08 PM

Hi Kimli,

Seen your recent QC issues reguarding your new trailer my wife and me purchased a 02' international as model in april of 03', after our first trip in the unit we started discovering problems with the interior of the unit, by the end of that camping season we had a rather large list of problems which we posted on 03' international section, our unit went back to jackson center and most of the items were fixed but it also came back with a couple new problems, it just seems to me that there is too much vibrating going on the during transportaion, unit started doing some of the same things again with the formica delaminating on the radius corners though out the unit, once again notified airstream into reguards of the problems and they sent out Al McInnes which I believe is the western regional sales rep out from utah to actual look at the unit after that, I was contacted by Larry Hubble with our options, one of the options was to send the unit back to jackson center and let them try to fix it again, I really didn't want to put all those miles on the unit a second time since we live in the sf bay area, and if we were to have problems again I don't think airstream would like to deal with me again because it has been so frustrating enough to pay all that money and have so many problems, so I gave airstream an option, that I would keep the unit and fix the problems myself and never bug them about the interior ever again since I will be doing the work myself I feel that is only fair, luckily I have a friend that has a cabinet shop and I once was a cabinet maker and now I'm a electrical contractor that works with alot of lv lighting and controls system so this should be a good challange for me, I'm in the process of gutting the unit now so I can remove the fabric from the walls since it is bubbling so bad still thinking about what to replace fabric with maybe leather... for total custom look and I will be making all new cabinets with no laminates to help reduce weight of the trailer, sorry about my rambling on and good luck with your trailer and and hopefully many happy trails ahead.

big bob

MaShep · 10-07-2003, 11:25 PM

Hi Bob: Is Airstream compensating you for all the trouble, expense and work you are now doing yourself?

joshua32064 · 10-08-2003, 12:46 AM

I have to admit that if I have 5% of the problems with my new Airstream that Kimili had with hers, mine will be on a transport back to Ohio paid for by Airstream and fixed by Airstream.

I can appreciate that many people out there want to do their own repairs, but the lack of quality found in these new units will never hit home until Airstream is made accountable for what they produce.

Regarding Kimili, I can't believe that you have been as tolerant as you have. I would have had a lawsuit filed against Airstream within a week and demanded that they buy back your unit and produce a new one for you. Why should you have to suffer with problem after problem and not enjoy the unit which you paid thousands of dollars for?

That's at least my opinion.

Silvertwinkie · 10-08-2003, 06:58 AM

This may be adding fuel to the fire, but I believe it is relevant to the discussions....

I found this on the Airstreamer site today:

http://www.airstream.com/airstreamer...t=126&start=75

Scroll down to the bottom.

Now I believe Streamer when he says they are making improvements and it is clear that Airstream has heard us. The company acknowledged the issues in September on a public forum. Also there have been serveral comments that have been made by folks that I would consider from the company clearly stating that there are plans underway to make the long overdue improvements to the overall interior quality of these units. Since most, not all of what I have seen so far is for coaches either on or before that info was shared, I am kind of taking a wait and see attitude. I know Josh, Jack and I will have units built almost 90 days (one quarter) since Airstream has claimed to be ramping up on the quality issues we all have been talking about for almost a year.

I am happy to give them the benifit of the doubt. This by no means make any of the issues before any less significant.

I look forward to seeing my new coach in December and I am sure that both Jack and Josh will be equally as pleased as should anyone taking delivery of a new coach as these measures at the factory are being implemented.

Please continue to post these great posts. The info is key to tracking the quality improvements.

Many thanks to all.

Eric

rbyrnesanmateo · 10-08-2003, 07:27 AM

MaShep,

Airstream is compensating for my troubles, bot believe most of compensation is the transportation fee, with the plans I have for the unit it should cover most of the cost of materials and not for labor but that is my problem the compensation amount is a far amount, into reguards of a lawsuit don't think it is an option since lemon law does not apply her it is not a motor vehicle and also one of the options was to replace the unit with new different unit since the international as series is no longer available and I did not want to give up my trailer and me and my wife want to do is go camping and not think about what is falling apart this time so if anything falls apart after this time I have nobody to blame but myself so trust me I don't want to listen to my wife complain about the trailer, all the people I work for and all do quality work we work on multi million dollar custom homes and we know how to keep our customers happy.

rbyrnesanmateo · 10-08-2003, 07:29 AM

sorry about all the bad spelling off to work west coast time.

thanks

idahosafari · 10-08-2003, 07:57 AM

It's hard to gauge what percentage of coaches have quality control issues by reading this forum. Human nature being what it is, people complain loudly when things are not right, but when a unit is delivered in satisfactory condition, there may be no feedback.

Perhaps it would make sense to have a poll for owners of units built after Aug. 03 so we could get a better idea of percentages of good versus poor quality. It could be titled "Are you satisfied with the quality of your post-Aug-2003-built Airstream?"

Silvertwinkie · 10-08-2003, 08:14 AM

Well, IS, you are very welcome to add a different thread with a poll, but as the originator of this thread, I'm not sure that is the direction I was looking for, but still worthwhile nonetheless. Given that this thread is as new as it is, it would make sense that boiling it down could be difficult at this stage. I have to disagree though. What we are seeing here is a trend, not just a few isolated folks complaining about their units. This trend seems to go back to the 2003 model year and late in 2002. I have not seen 1/3 as many complaints with the pre-2003 models as I have with the bulk of 2003 and some select 2004s that have been delivered as of September. Having the data to me, is the key rather than just simply having a poll. What I find striking is that a good number of the posts are very similar.

In the end, each person should draw their own take on what is posted here. My take on this so far is that I have no take yet. I am looking closely at the info posted, making a few PMs here and there and cruching the data into what I basically did in Reader's Digest form above. I have been in this Airstream community (not just the forum) since taking delivery of my '03. Since that time, several thousand communications have taken place (as you can see by the post counts).

As of now, I would still encourage folks to post the good, the bad and/or the ugly on any 2004 unit that they have taken delivery, and post the month and year of production so that we can continue to track the trends. I know in December of three folks that will be living proof of the quality improvement process that have been in place for about 90 days at the time of manufacture.

Regards,

Eric

KIMILI · 10-08-2003, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Airstream is compensating for my troubles,

...they never compensated us!! not even a zip dee chair or key ring (I read that's their standard "apology gift").

rbyrnesanmateo:
I read of all your troubles with AS in the International section, we really feel for you and wish you had been luckier. Also, we totally understand your aggravation.

Joshua32064:
Until you go through it it's difficult to understand.
You start with choosing what you believe is the most lasting/solid RV, then you pay through the roof for it, are as happy as a child when you take delivery and then the problems start arising. Frustration builds up until it becomes anger. You try to solve everything but after numerous headaches, phone calls, discussions, emails, letters, arguments etc. you're left with dissapointment yet still no doubts on your purchase and you know why? We love our AS! It grows on you daily and you'll notice that no matter how many issues we have with them few of us are willing to CHANGE it with another one.

A law suit cost time and money, two things that tend to lack when you just spent $50 on an AS!!

Still, you're right we should not be so acceptive but what else can we do?

JodynJeep · 10-08-2003, 12:36 PM

Well one of the things you could do - if you are still unsatisified is writing your local BBB (you can also do a search - most BBB's now allow form submission online) - and see what they can do for the arbitration process. Companies really do not like having issues from the BBB end up with unsatisfactory results.

Just for the record.

While you may OWN an Airstream - ultimately it is your dealer who should be handling all these issues. You bought it from them not directly from AS. So your first lodge of complaint should be with the dealer and not AS.

With that in place - you have a third party who has witnessed the ongoing issue and from there you have a much better place to lodge a samll claims suit if you so desire. And honestly it doesn't take as much as you think. Think about it - you spent 50K - and totally feel misrepresented - whats a couple thousand to reclaim damages or what not.

Just food for thought - personally I prefer dealing individually and working the lowest rungs first - but there are times that one either concedes becuase it is no longer worth the hassle - or you go the next step because you were sold a bill of goods at $$$ and you want to see things done right...

my paltry 2 cents worth .00002389 cents Euro

KIMILI · 10-08-2003, 12:49 PM

BBB do not cover us because there is no lemon law for RV's!! So they re-directed us to the consumer association...
They said that since none of our complaints were life threatening but just cosmetic, there are limits to what can be done, especially since everything we complained about is covered by our warranty and both our dealer and AS have complied with those terms.

All you're really left with is going public. We did it here on the forums, someone else may want to write to a major paper or TV channel. We thought this was the best and most convenient place for us to alert future buyers and also ramble and express our frustration amongst people who can actually understand what we're going on about.

It's not as simple as you picture it. Believe me, we didn't just sit here and accept all these imperfections on our unit but we have exhausted our means and to spare us further headaches we're just letting the dealer repair what he can and we'll take care of the rest ourselves. After all before the season is over all we really want to do is enjoy our Titan!

joshua32064 · 10-08-2003, 01:08 PM

I have to admit that this forum has really made me think about whether or not I am making the right decision about purchasing a new Airstream.

After doing a lot of thinking, I am convinced that I am making the right decision. What led to that decision was visiting Airstream's website and taking the time to read all of the posts that dealt with Quality Control.

I have come to the conclusion that Airstream is aware of the quality issues and is really making an effort to make things right. The fact that they have acknowledged that they are taking steps to improve their product now and in the future meant a lot to me.

I can only hope that this philosophy continues and the companies success continues into the future.