Why No Loaners from Dealers

[Thiss]

Why don’t dealers give loaners while our rigs are in for warranty repair?

We are losing a few supper great weekends to camp.

Units would pay for themselves in the long run in happy customers and resell.

[Bill M.]

I think because it would cost them more money than they are willing to spend.

[Belegedhel]

...and there is no such thing as a "one-size-fits-all" trailer, so they would have to have multiple sizes. Plus, one of the main reasons we all have our own trailers instead of renting an RV or a room somewhere is that we like the idea that we aren't sleeping on the same icky mattress that someone else did.

Besides all that, the thought that a trailer might spend weeks or months in the repair shop probably doesn't enter into the calculus when folks are buying a new trailer, so it is hard to see how dealers providing loaners would ever pay for themselves.

[21Airstream]

Originally Posted by Belegedhel

...one of the main reasons we all have our own trailers instead of renting an RV or a room somewhere is that we like the idea that we aren't sleeping on the same icky mattress that someone else did...

THIS is the main reason I’ve had a travel trailer for the past 33+ years.

[Hittenstiehl]

We've seen how people treat rental houses and rental cars. [emoji849]

[Wazbro]

Originally Posted by Belegedhel

...and there is no such thing as a "one-size-fits-all" trailer, so they would have to have multiple sizes.

Multiple sizes wouldn't be the biggest problem. With how backed up they are with repairs they would need 20-30 trailers per dealer, if they use Airstreams averaging over $100,000 each that's $2-3,000,000 in non-sellable inventory per dealer.

[Colossus]

Originally Posted by Hittenstiehl

We've seen how people treat rental houses and rental cars. [emoji849]

This^^^. Could only imagine how people would treat a loaner Airstream.

[Acheron2010]

With perhaps one exception. The Mother Ship should consider providing their latest fleet in the camp area as overnight accomodations to campers bringing their trailers in for service. Would be a great marketing tool to provide an upgrade experience.

[Thiss]

I think it would be marketing all the way around.

Car dealers do it. It must be profitable somehow. Sure it would have a whole host of headaches for the dealer, but again car dealers make it profitable or at least a business write off.

They should start leasing rigs. Leasing is fleecing of course, but I bet some would sign up for it. Then when they get returned put them into a loaner fleet.

Not everyone would want a loaner. They could also make it part of their extended dealer warranty crap to incentivize more people to sign up for it and of course make it more expensive upfront.

Maybe it isn’t even fully comped, but a small rental fee for in-warranty rigs and a higher for out of warranty.

I 100% agree the mother ship should do it and even have a whole little resort set up where people could try before buying. I bet they could have a lot of them booked. If random RV resorts (there is one on the coast with 3mill in Internationals and another in Dundee with a grip too) can make it profitable to have the “Airstream” camping experience, certainly the mothership (maybe it is even in a different location, like a Disneyland of Airstreams) or even a big dealer could.

Whatever on the mattress. I would just bring a sleeping bag.

I doubt any of this will ever happen but still worth a thought. A thought all initiated by my unit sitting at the dealer for a major warranty repair while I am still making the payment on it and can’t use it this month and an upset wife that we are missing out on fall camping, her favorite.

[21Airstream]

All it would do is increase the price of an already overpriced trailer. The dealers sure aren’t going to let anything cut into their profit margins.

[Hittenstiehl]

I don't know that loaners are profitable. Seems more like an extra touch of customer service to keep satisfied customers coming back. And probably a good write off for the dealer.

Maybe set up a nice vintage camp at the mothership. Lots of good original or partially gutted trailers to be fixed for stationary use only. Kind of like a mini campground. You could choose if you want your trailers returned at night or stay in a park model.

[G8trwood]

If excess inventory was sitting around, maybe, but once rented, is it still new?

[Belegedhel]

The basic issue seems to be that your trailer spends weeks or months waiting to be repaired. Supplying loaner units is just a very expensive band-aid on the original issue that they don't have a big enough repair staff to manage all the repairs in a timely fashion. You would think that it would be much cheaper to hire a few contract guys to work on trailers in the "high" repair season than to procure loaner trailers, but either way, it is more expense for the dealers, so it is a non-starter.

It seriously blows me away when I read posts on these Forums where people are talking about a trailer being stuck at the dealer for many months, waiting on repairs. I guarantee every dealership has sales objectives for every month, but evidently, there is no objective on repairs...or if there is, then they fudge the metric by doing all the quick and easy repairs first and save those big semi-rebuilds for the "off season."

On a "comparison to the automotive industry," note, I recently had a timing chain job that needed to be done on one of my vehicles. Literally NOBODY was competing for that job. They knew that they would have a mechanic's bay tied up for several days while somebody learned to do that job, and at the end of the day, if they screw it up, they would at least be on the hook for more time consuming, expensive repairs. Your dealers are probably in the same boat.

And don't get me started on the real root cause which is workmanship, and design.

Sorry for derailing this thread.

[Thiss]

Absolutely would be rational to hire some more techs and get things moving faster.

No worries on the derailment. I don’t think it is a thread that will have long legs anyway.

[richard5933]

It seems to me that the solution to repairs taking 2-3 months (or longer) isn't to provide loaners. The solution is to fix the system so that repairs can be completed in a timely manner. There is no good excuse for things to take so long, and whatever money could be spent to provide these loaners I'd rather see on hiring more qualified techs and shop space so the repairs could be done in weeks or days instead of in months.

[Wazbro]

Originally Posted by richard5933

It seems to me that the solution to repairs taking 2-3 months (or longer) isn't to provide loaners. The solution is to fix the system so that repairs can be completed in a timely manner. There is no good excuse for things to take so long, and whatever money could be spent to provide these loaners I'd rather see on hiring more qualified techs and shop space so the repairs could be done in weeks or days instead of in months.

Next your going to say a decent QC program would eliminate 75% of the repairs and save way more money then anything else they could do and make customers much happier.