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xrvr · 10-05-2010, 01:29 PM

I believe AS of Arkansas is out of business? My apologies if not. jim

HowieE · 10-05-2010, 02:04 PM

Colonial is basically a used car dealer that picked up an Airstream franchise and is selling lots of inventory at lower prices. There pricing put Park View, in Del., under is lees than a year.

If you know the competition you can more than likely get a better price there but the deal ends at that point.

As far as being close to the ocean Lakewood is a good 15 miles inland as the crow flies and salt spray is not a consideration.

patentguy · 10-05-2010, 02:25 PM

We purchased our AS from Colonial. Lauren and Patrick are top notch and, in our experience, great to deal with. Days on lot inventory is probably low enough for any potential corrosion to be a red herring issue. You can go to their web site and get realtime information on their inventory and do your own study on how fast the inventory moves. Not sure how many other dealers offer this much transparency.

Our service experience has been nothing less than superb. We had some damage to our unit earlier this summer

that was expertly and timely repaired by Tony and his team

.

We are very happy with Colonial - both sales and service.

rseagle · 10-05-2010, 02:50 PM

Read my earlier post. Patrick is a good salesman, but be wary of the GM. He used a "bait and switch" on me. I should have walked out, but I was lured 300 miles.

Air Apparent · 10-05-2010, 02:52 PM

I purchased my Airstream from Airstream of Arkansas last year. Airstream of Arkansas is still in business. Gene (Airhog1) who was the general manager left Airstream of Arkansas earlier this year for a non RV business venture.

Airstream of Arkansas was good to deal with.

I have a friend who was in the market to purchase a new Airstream last year and was trying to work a reasonably price deal with Colonial. Even though they say they are the lowest priced and will not be undercut that is not his experience. He was able to purchase the unit he wanted at a better price elswhere. This was a cash deal with no trade. You can tell how good of a deal you are getting by the discount percentage off MSRP.

I always operate with the philosophy - "Buyer Beware".

Al - K4GLU · 10-05-2010, 03:07 PM

I believe that Colonial is close enough to the ocean - and I didn't say one word about salt spray but said salt air - that you need to be extra careful about corrosion if you purchase from them. Less than two months after buying my unit in 2009 I discovered that all four wheels had corrosion. A miracle then happened and I got them replaced free - not at Colonial but at Jackson Center. Let me make it clear that I made no attempt to get it done by Colonial so have no idea what their reaction would have been. But I will relate two things that happened to me:

1. Gave them a personal check for the purchase price. Expected them to hold things while it cleared. They absolutely promised that the paperwork would be sent over night in 10 days. After 14 days I called and they still had not sent anything and New Jersey only gives you a 20 day temp tag and my check had already cleared my bank two days after I gave it to them - they got it on a Thu and the following Sat morning I checked my account on the I-net and it had cleared.

2. On the first trip the two drawers below the curbside closet came out and fell on the floor causing damage to the floor covering. When I called Colonial about this the first words out of the guys mouth was that it was my fault because I had overloaded the drawers. He had no idea what I had put in them but it was automatically my fault. Yes the drawers were fairlly full but if they were only good for two twinkies and a powder puff they should have been labeled as such and while this wouldn't be Colonial's fault they shouldn't have been so quick to blame the problem on me.

Just be aware that like all businesses when they have your money in their cash register the relationship changes. Overall they probably are no worse than most but they ain't a bunch of angels either.

Bluto · 10-05-2010, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluebird

I purchased my Airstream from Airstream of Arkansas last year. Airstream of Arkansas is still in business. Gene (Airhog1) who was the general manager left Airstream of Arkansas earlier this year for a non RV business venture.

Airstream of Arkansas was good to deal with.

I have a friend who was in the market to purchase a new Airstream last year and was trying to work a reasonably price deal with Colonial. Even though they say they are the lowest priced and will not be undercut that is not his experience. He was able to purchase the unit he wanted at a better price elswhere. This was a cash deal with no trade. You can tell how good of a deal you are getting by the discount percentage off MSRP.

I always operate with the philosophy - "Buyer Beware".

My experience was similar. I found a dealership right here in TX that had much better prices than the NJ dealership when ordering a new unit.

Al - K4GLU · 10-05-2010, 03:25 PM

Airstream of Arkansas is no more. This has been covered in another thread.

pattonsr · 10-05-2010, 04:28 PM

Bluto,

What is the Texas dealership that you referred to?

Barry

boondockdad · 10-05-2010, 05:22 PM

BTW- Colonial was not the best price. Bill Thomas and Jim May RV, both offered better percentages over the phone.

Al - K4GLU · 10-05-2010, 05:53 PM

Bill Thomas is still around but May went bankrupt a couple of years ago. All their inventory was brought back to Jackson Center - don't know who ended up with it.

golfgal · 10-05-2010, 07:41 PM

We have had an excellent experience with Colonial, both with sales and service. We think they ROCK!

JFScheck · 10-05-2010, 09:01 PM

Great, wonderful, fantastic, honest...

They know the product, how to service it, and have customers that purchase from them from all over the country!!!

GREENovaters · 10-05-2010, 09:27 PM

I called Colonial parts department because AS in its' infinite wisdom forces its' loyal followers to pay inflated prices to "authorized dealers" who pay franchise fees and pass them on to us in their prices. Anyway, the person in the parts department was ignorant as to what was needed to replace the front windshields on a '95 moho classic. After he supposedly called and spoke with AS in JC he still was unsure of how many feet of "locking strip" I needed or what the "locking strip" was for. I asked him to please find out and let me know before I gave him my cc. Two days later still no word from him..... I called the dealer in DE and got my stuff through them. IMHO if you can't speak with a paid staff person in "the largest dealership east of the Mississippi River" and get someone who will get the answers you need, if he/she doesn't know the answer already, then that dealership sucks and should be boycotted. AS has issues today because of their lack of standards with the dealerships and we, the faithful, are paying the price.