Winnebago stops all Paseo orders

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

Chief reasons,

1. Poor profit contribution, in other words, they don't make enough money on each sale compared to what it cost them to build.

2. Poor sales; people are NOT buying it which translates into discontinued item

3. Terrible reputation is tamping customer enthusiasm, see point 2

4. They change the name to run away and hide because of the terrible reputation.... just ask Chrysler... they have to keep changing the names and models of their terrible cars...they get bad reviews and people don't have any confidence in the product.

The Ford Transit 350 has a very confined front dashboard... just try getting out of the driver's seat to go the bathroom..... it's so tight, many of you would rather exit the driver's door go around and enter from the entrance door on the coach.... this is BAD...

What is this "Terrible reputation" you are referring to?
and what name change ???

The "confined front dashboard" is a personal feeling. It can hardly be called a "reputation".

If you think the Transit is bad, then it should affect the other RV builders too.
Coachman is still building the Crossfit on the Transit platform.
Winnebago and many other RV manufacturers are still using the Ford Transit for their Class C motorhomes.


I can see this suspension as a temporary tactical move;
WGO needs the production facility to build the unexpectedly popular Revel. The 4x4 outdoorsy adventure RV has become the best seller in WGO's Class B line up. They are selling more Revel than the industry-leading Travato. The wait time for a new Revel order has exceeded 7 months. The dealers are selling existing inventory at MSRP (at least they are trying).

The Revel is new. The sales is riding on an euphoria. It will not last forever. Things might change (again) when the summer camping season comes to an end. Stay tuned.

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

Chief reasons,

1. . .


The Ford Transit 350 has a very confined front dashboard... just try getting out of the driver's seat to go the bathroom..... it's so tight, many of you would rather exit the driver's door go around and enter from the entrance door on the coach.... this is BAD...

Is it that bad?

[Storysrvwego]

22jul17 -For those that have not looked at an RV based on the FORD Transit, you might visit your local dealer. Sit in the driver or passenger seat and then turn around and go into the coach area. And back the other way. Yes you can do it. Very awkward. Try this in a Sprinter or a ProMaster also setup as an RV. It is too bad because otherwise the Transit is a nice platform for an RV. You might find other reasons to overlook this passage issue. My wife and I tried to push this issue away with so many other positive points. I even tried to self-justify that opening the driver or passenger door to get out and walk to the slider would be ok instead of turning around inside the Transit. Of course not so great in bad weather. Ultimately it was the only factor that eliminated the Transit from our purchase as the basis of our Class B or C RV.

StorysRVwego

[Bud]

Originally Posted by Storysrvwego

22jul17 -For those that have not looked at an RV based on the FORD Transit, you might visit your local dealer. Sit in the driver or passenger seat and then turn around and go into the coach area. And back the other way. Yes you can do it. Very awkward. Try this in a Sprinter or a ProMaster also setup as an RV. It is too bad because otherwise the Transit is a nice platform for an RV. You might find other reasons to overlook this passage issue. My wife and I tried to push this issue away with so many other positive points. I even tried to self-justify that opening the driver or passenger door to get out and walk to the slider would be ok instead of turning around inside the Transit. Of course not so great in bad weather. Ultimately it was the only factor that eliminated the Transit from our purchase as the basis of our Class B or C RV.

StorysRVwego

I went to the Crossfit website. There are what appear to be some good pic's of the space between the driver's seat and dash area. Looks ok to me, not necessarily awkward. I did that because I could not recall any problem when I sat in one.

Bud

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by Storysrvwego

22jul17 -For those that have not looked at an RV based on the FORD Transit, you might visit your local dealer. Sit in the driver or passenger seat and then turn around and go into the coach area. And back the other way. Yes you can do it. Very awkward. Try this in a Sprinter or a ProMaster also setup as an RV. It is too bad because otherwise the Transit is a nice platform for an RV. You might find other reasons to overlook this passage issue. My wife and I tried to push this issue away with so many other positive points. I even tried to self-justify that opening the driver or passenger door to get out and walk to the slider would be ok instead of turning around inside the Transit. Of course not so great in bad weather. Ultimately it was the only factor that eliminated the Transit from our purchase as the basis of our Class B or C RV.

StorysRVwego

More truck like, not as smooth, and confined dashboard... YES...it really is hard to get between the seat and the dashboard..... UNLESS you're willing to get out and walk around...
A show stopper for me....

This didn't impress me either... A few videos....it's something to consider

https://youtu.be/C3kN6WF5vAA

https://youtu.be/noWao0ndYRw

The Ford Transit is actually closer to the ground than the Mercedes Benz Sprinter...


More safety ... Mercedes Benz Sprinter

https://youtu.be/w0hxy8DXmYs

[BillsPaseo]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

More truck like, not as smooth, and confined dashboard... YES...it really is hard to get between the seat and the dashboard..... UNLESS you're willing to get out and walk around...
A show stopper for me....

This didn't impress me either... A few videos....it's something to consider

https://youtu.be/C3kN6WF5vAA

https://youtu.be/noWao0ndYRw

The Ford Transit is actually closer to the ground than the Mercedes Benz Sprinter...


More safety ... Mercedes Benz Sprinter

https://youtu.be/w0hxy8DXmYs

And this is why it is good to have choices. You love your sprinter based Roadtrek, I love my transit based Paseo.

You can find haters of any brand, and plenty of bashing videos. For me, the transit chassis was about 90 percent of the reason we chose the Paseo. I love the way it drives, love the comfort of the seats, the visibility, the way it can pass all the other RVs on the road when climbing mountain passes even when pulling a 2000 lb trailer, and the fact that I can pull into almost any Ford dealership and get an oil change for $59 and be on my way.

[skagitstan]

I'll agree with BillsPaseo, even though we did our own Transit based conversion.
We test drove all three vans...the promaster and the sprinter both as stripped vans and as OEM converted units. The Transit only as stripped.

We selected an Ecoboost Transit for our build, because, in our opinion, it handled far better and was more comfortable than the Promaster, was easily as comfortable and drove better than the 3L Sprinter, and did not have the same worries about maintenance as the Sprinter.
The Transit front console was, and continues to be a minor inconvenience. But not by any means a show stopper. Possibly because we are not large people.
Since we did our own conversion, the biggest ground clearance improvement was not having the low to the ground running boards every OEM seems to insist putting on their campers. We mostly boondock far of the beaten path, and the OEM boards on the tested Promaster and Sprinter campers would have been trashed on our first trip

[avanti]

Originally Posted by BillsPaseo

I can pull into almost any Ford dealership and get an oil change for $59 and be on my way.

Yes, but the oil change interval is twice as long in the Sprinter.

[BillsPaseo]

The Transit has a max 10K/1 Yr interval. Is the Sprinter really double that?

[avanti]

Originally Posted by BillsPaseo

The Transit has a max 10K/1 Yr interval. Is the Sprinter really double that?

Yep. Not sure about the "one year" part (they keep changing that), but since MY2015 the OCI has been 20K miles.

[BillsPaseo]

Originally Posted by avanti

Yep. Not sure about the "one year" part (they keep changing that), but since MY2015 the OCI has been 20K miles.

Wow that is pretty impressive.

[booster]

Originally Posted by BillsPaseo

Wow that is pretty impressive.

One question that always needs to be asked is how much oil it holds. Double the capacity and you double most of the intervals, with the exception of times.



The oil change light on our gassers, 07 Express van with a 6.0 both will get to 8-9Ks between changes and sometimes more. The hold 5-3-6 quarts.

[BBQ]

.

Sprinters take 12 qt.

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by BBQ

What is this "Terrible reputation" you are referring to?
and what name change ???

The "confined front dashboard" is a personal feeling. It can hardly be called a "reputation".

If you think the Transit is bad, then it should affect the other RV builders too.
Coachman is still building the Crossfit on the Transit platform.
Winnebago and many other RV manufacturers are still using the Ford Transit for their Class C motorhomes.


I can see this suspension as a temporary tactical move;
WGO needs the production facility to build the unexpectedly popular Revel. The 4x4 outdoorsy adventure RV has become the best seller in WGO's Class B line up. They are selling more Revel than the industry-leading Travato. The wait time for a new Revel order has exceeded 7 months. The dealers are selling existing inventory at MSRP (at least they are trying).

The Revel is new. The sales is riding on an euphoria. It will not last forever. Things might change (again) when the summer camping season comes to an end. Stay tuned.

Manufacturers sometimes change the names of the vehicles.... remember the Ford Windstar, Aerostar and Freestar... All FORD products.... AND Chysler is the worst... changing names all the time ...it causes a lot of confusion and people don't like that.....

Look, here's the issue... when a company "suspends" production...it's usually for a really good reason and it's not seen as far as I'm concerned as a good thing.....

Maybe it's innocuous... we'll see......

My point is...if a vehicle is "developing a bad reputation"...then the company has two choices... drop it....and change the name to something else and call it "new and improved"...(don't you just love marketing) OR just quit making the product.....

[BillsPaseo]

And everybody else's point is... where have you heard of a bad reputation?

There isn't one...

[Technomadness]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

The Ford Transit 350 has a very confined front dashboard... just try getting out of the driver's seat to go the bathroom..... it's so tight, many of you would rather exit the driver's door go around and enter from the entrance door on the coach.... this is BAD...

I don’t remember what RV I was in when I discovered this. I felt trapped and despite entering from the cabin I exited via the driver’s door. Some ergonomic touches were nice but this was a deal killer for me and so I crossed all Transits off the list of consideration.

[Technomadness]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

The space up front is SO much easier to live with on the Mercedes Benz Sprinter....

Or a ProMaster. Both the sprinter and ProMaster have some bone headed ergonomic choices but being trapped in the seat of the ford is across the line.

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by Technomadness

I don’t remember what RV I was in when I discovered this. I felt trapped and despite entering from the cabin I exited via the driver’s door. Some ergonomic touches were nice but this was a deal killer for me and so I crossed all Transits off the list of consideration.

See picture of front dashboard in my 2012 RS Adventurous.

No problem at all and virtually easy to gain access to the back of the vehicle inside the cabin.

[TRFranta]

Originally Posted by BBQ

Is it that bad?

We are considering the CrossFit because we
like the extra room behind the driver seat unlike the ProMaster RVs which seems to always have something right behind the drivers seat

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by TRFranta

We are considering the CrossFit because we
like the extra room behind the driver seat unlike the ProMaster RVs which seems to always have something right behind the drivers seat

Not only are the seats way closer together, but, that stupid dashboard sticks out so far in the front cabin.... you have to be a contortionist to get from either the drivers or passenger seat to get to the back while driving...

Entire reason I chose the Sprinter over the Winnebago Fuse with the Ford/International i5 3.2 litre diesel....