Roadtrek 2020 Production Forecast

[rockymtnb]

Roadtrek has restarted Class B van production this month under the newly formed subsidiary of Rapido Group SAS. According to CEO Dane Found production will begin on a single assembly line with a capacity up to three and a half units per day using a workforce of about 120 people.

Rapido / Roadtrek's Cambridge Ontario facility can accommodate up to three assembly lines and Found hopes for eventual market penetration of 1500-2000 units per year, which could place Roadtrek back in the number two position among North American Class B van producers.

Presumably that long term market goal would include both Roadtrek branded units along with any European models such as Westfalia that Rapido may choose to introduce in the North American market.

https://rv-pro.com/features/how-rapi...birth-roadtrek

https://rv-pro.com/news/roadtrek-rebuilds-dealer-trust

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by rockymtnb

Roadtrek has restarted Class B van production this month under the newly formed subsidiary of Rapido Group SAS. According to CEO Dane Found production will begin on a single assembly line with a capacity up to three and a half units per day using a workforce of about 120 people.

Rapido / Roadtrek's Cambridge Ontario facility can accommodate up to three assembly lines and Found hopes for eventual market penetration of 1500-2000 units per year, which could place Roadtrek back in the number two position among North American Class B van producers.

Presumably that long term market goal would include both Roadtrek branded units along with any European models such as Westfalia that Rapido may choose to introduce in the North American market.

https://rv-pro.com/features/how-rapi...birth-roadtrek

https://rv-pro.com/news/roadtrek-rebuilds-dealer-trust

I don't know why people got so "upset" when Roadtrek went out of business and got sold to another company. They are still in business and I think it's great that they are ramping up once again as a major player with Class B motor homes which is where they started in 1974.

Yeah, the company has changed hands several times throughout the years, that's business. Many people including those not involved in this meltdown just lost their jobs and this is very sad.

They are still building Class B's on the same Mercedes, Ram Promaster vehicles. I think they had to give up on the Chevy line because it was almost as expensive as the Mercedes and they needed a lower price point, hence, the Ram Promaster. I guess people figured if they were going to spend that much on the Chevy, they might as well just get the Mercedes Benz. Who knows for sure? It might just be a higher profit margin on the Mercedes?

The real shame is the people who purchased an RV a few years ago thinking that they would have a 6 year warranty, unfortunately, the old company and that warranty died.

We'll just have to wait and see how this goes, but, I'm glad they are back in business since I own a Roadtrek. Hopefully, this does not happen again.

Rapido is apparently a major player in the European market with 13 brands.
And Class B's in Europe are very popular. Rapido is family owned company. I think we should give them a chance to prove how good they are in the USA.

[Davydd]

I think you answered your own question about people getting upset. They got scammed by a company that was cooking the books and for at least 6 years some people got scammed with warranty promises. The company went out of business. The name and some facilities were bought, not a continuing company.

"Rapido is apparently a major player in the European market with 13 brands.
And Class B's in Europe are very popular. Rapido is family owned company. I think we should give them a chance to prove how good they are in the USA."

As for your last paragraph, it is wait and see with burned once. You could replace Rapido with Hymer (EHGNA) and the paragraph would be identical if posted a few years ago.

[Bud]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I think you answered your own question about people getting upset. They got scammed by a company that was cooking the books and for at least 6 years some people got scammed with warranty promises. The company went out of business. The name and some facilities were bought, not a continuing company.

"Rapido is apparently a major player in the European market with 13 brands.
And Class B's in Europe are very popular. Rapido is family owned company. I think we should give them a chance to prove how good they are in the USA."

As for your last paragraph, it is wait and see with burned once. You could replace Rapido with Hymer (EHGNA) and the paragraph would be identical if posted a few years ago.

It seems to me that one of the reasons Roadtrek survived with lies, lousy quality, etc. was the success of the 'ambassadors' they hired that would also - how do I put it? They did not tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Or another way would be they lied by omission, implication......

[mumkin]

I agree with Davydd... this is exactly what we were saying when the Hymer family showed up. We all hoped that they would bring back the quality that Roadtrek maintained until the investment company took over in 2011. But no... Hymer also ignored quality control and went nuts expanding at an insane rate... all on borrowed money, of course... which they dumped into Roadtrek and waltzed back to Germany with millions from the sale of their European company to Thor. Leaving their employees, suppliers, and customers in the lurch. (especially those that are under they Hymer name) It seems pretty obvious to me why there were upset people.

So here we are... new company... new family. They sensibly dumped the Chevy line - mainly because they are high labor - but probably equally that GM has been waffling about supply for a good 5 years and unable to say the same thing two years in a row. Even Chevy dealers have had trouble with getting vans on and off over the last few years. Seems to me a good business decision by Rapido.

I am thus far impressed by Rapido's slow and steady progress. They hired some of the best customer service people and finally have their website updated, people at the end of the phone line, and emails get answered quickly. They are working through the warranty claims from the limited warranty that they have provided for past buyers. Mine has been approved... just waiting for the check.

My one concern is the new CEO. He has some years of experience in the RV business, but with towables... with a very poor quality reputation. Watch this space. Hopefully Rapido will be more hands on and supervise management more closely than Hymer.

[RossWilliams]

"They got scammed by a company that was cooking the books and for at least 6 years some people got scammed with warranty promises."

"Scammed?" As far as I can tell, the only scam was claiming the company collapsed as a result of embezzlement and fraud. It appears instead that Hymer NA was not a profitable business as a going concern. Thor wanted to have nothing to do with it and the EHG parent company used the bankruptcy process to recover as much of its investment ("loans") as it could by selling it off in parts and claiming most of the proceeds from the sale as a creditor.

Its likely Hymer NA's problem was overly aggressive expansion at EHG's behest. Whether local managers feed that process with phony sales reports we will never know. Rapido does not appear to be taking that same route. While a new company, in practical terms they are producing the same Roadtreks with the same designs in an existing facility using many of the same employees. The only differences in the units will likely be fixing problems, like the second row seats. And, of course, at a slightly higher price and minus that six year warranty. And under different management.

[MobileCabin]

I like this statement on quality improvement from the first referenced article in post #1:

“In the beginning, they will look like traditional Roadtreks, but we will implement quality measures similar to what we do over here to ensure quality and increase quality compared to what it’s been before, and introduce slight modifications where we or our dealers will think they can be introduced and transferred from the European product to the North American product,” Reuer says. “But we have to be careful on that.”*

This would be the greatest improvement to these production rv-s, if such a process could be successfully implemented over here. It would make customers very happy.

[lovetotravel]

Originally Posted by Roadtrek Adventuous RS1

I don't know why people got so "upset" when Roadtrek went out of business and got sold to another company. They are still in business and I think it's great that they are ramping up once again as a major player with Class B motor homes which is where they started in 1974.

Yeah, the company has changed hands several times throughout the years, that's business. Many people including those not involved in this meltdown just lost their jobs and this is very sad.

They are still building Class B's on the same Mercedes, Ram Promaster vehicles. I think they had to give up on the Chevy line because it was almost as expensive as the Mercedes and they needed a lower price point, hence, the Ram Promaster. I guess people figured if they were going to spend that much on the Chevy, they might as well just get the Mercedes Benz. Who knows for sure? It might just be a higher profit margin on the Mercedes?

The real shame is the people who purchased an RV a few years ago thinking that they would have a 6 year warranty, unfortunately, the old company and that warranty died.

We'll just have to wait and see how this goes, but, I'm glad they are back in business since I own a Roadtrek. Hopefully, this does not happen again.

Rapido is apparently a major player in the European market with 13 brands.
And Class B's in Europe are very popular. Rapido is family owned company. I think we should give them a chance to prove how good they are in the USA.

Wow. I think it is unforgivable that a company either one RT or H would keep up this practice of nulling your very expensive warranty through just starting up somewhere else. WIll they now honor your old warranty?I think not.
I once coveted a Road Trek and was going to pay 50000 more for one and so glad I was spared. (It was because of their longer warranty.)
Sorry all of you, that this happened to.
How else can we hold companies accountable besides refusing to buy.

[RossWilliams]

"I think it is unforgivable that a company either one RT or H would keep up this practice of nulling your very expensive warranty through just starting up somewhere else"

Except that isn't what happened. instead, this is a little like the service station down the street where you had your vehicle fixed went out of business and someone else bought the empty service station and reopened it. You wouldn't really expect them to honor the previous owners warranty on the repairs and fix your car for free.

And if they did offer to do some free work for you as a customer of the previous owner, you wouldn't complain that it wasn't enough. Well, maybe you would. I wouldn't.

I am not sure why anyone would want to hold Rapido/Roadtrek accountable for the sins of Hymer/Thor/Roadtrek. They had nothing to do with them.

[mumkin]

Originally Posted by lovetotravel

Wow. I think it is unforgivable that a company either one RT or H would keep up this practice of nulling your very expensive warranty through just starting up somewhere else. WIll they now honor your old warranty?I think not.
I once coveted a Road Trek and was going to pay 50000 more for one and so glad I was spared. (It was because of their longer warranty.)
Sorry all of you, that this happened to.
How else can we hold companies accountable besides refusing to buy.

The ones who should be held accountable are basking in their wealth in Germany and under our laws in North America, which are totally written for the benefit of business, that is perfectly fine. Watch who you vote for...

Rapido bought the leftover parts, equipment, inventory and such from a bankruptcy court. They did not buy any of the poor decisions, greed, or legal borderline tapdancing of that dead firm. Nor should they be responsible for EHGNA's mistakes. (and that 6 year warranty was a HUGE mistake) It remains to be seen if they can successfully resurrect the brand.

I hope they can. We need a dependable Class B provider who will bring back the quality we used to see in all of the Canadian Class B rigs... from Great West Van, Leisure Travel, Pleasureway, and the old family version of Roadtrek.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

"They got scammed by a company that was cooking the books and for at least 6 years some people got scammed with warranty promises."

"Scammed?" As far as I can tell, the only scam was claiming the company collapsed as a result of embezzlement and fraud. It appears instead that Hymer NA was not a profitable business as a going concern. Thor wanted to have nothing to do with it and the EHG parent company used the bankruptcy process to recover as much of its investment ("loans") as it could by selling it off in parts and claiming most of the proceeds from the sale as a creditor.

Its likely Hymer NA's problem was overly aggressive expansion at EHG's behest. Whether local managers feed that process with phony sales reports we will never know. Rapido does not appear to be taking that same route. While a new company, in practical terms they are producing the same Roadtreks with the same designs in an existing facility using many of the same employees. The only differences in the units will likely be fixing problems, like the second row seats. And, of course, at a slightly higher price and minus that six year warranty. And under different management.

My opinion-i can't prove it-is Jim Hammill-and a few confederates-cooked the books. Not to steal necessarily-but to make the company look good under his leadership. Looking back he was a snake oil salesman. my opinion with no proof.

[rockymtnb]

Roadtrek has produced and sold its first unit in the North American market under new ownership and management of Rapido Group SAS.

The initial Roadtrek Zion was displayed at the Toronto RV Show in late January and purchased by Leslie Pettigrew, the first owner of a 'new' Rapido Roadtrek.

Roadtrek brought only that one Zion unit to the Toronto show, and sold it. So it does appear to be following Rapido's promise of a 'slow and careful' approach to the rebuilding the Roadtrek brand name.

https://rv-pro.com/news/roadtrek-sells-first-zion

[markopolo]

Congratulation's Leslie Pettigrew!


Leslie, please join this forum & tell us the great and not so great things about your new RV once you've had a chance to use it.



Forums are fantastic folks, search engines index them so if you want the world to see what you've taken the time to write then post it on a forum.

[booster]

I have said for a long time, and still believe, that Roadtrek went under because of their own shortcomings. Poor designs, poor processes, poor quality, poor customer service including intimidating their own customers with their "ambassadoors" and fans. Of course folks got mad, as they were sold a bill of goods and stuck with overpriced, high failure rate, RVs with none of the promised long warranties.


I think we all hope the "new" Roadtrek comes back stronger and better. What we have seen so far would certainly look like they are being careful and thorough, and I hope they are. Time will tell where it all winds up.


The post on "forensic accountants" looking into the Roadtrek past could be ominous for some of the people involved back then, but we won't know for a while, if ever, what was found, or not found.

[markopolo]

For choice & variety, more Class B Manufacturers is better. Can't wait to see the first reviews of Rapido's Roadtrek line.

[rockymtnb]

Roadtrek announced they have reached 500 Class B units sold in the last 17 months since restarting production under Rapido Group SAS ownership. That averages out to 30 units per month, although presumably most would have been in recent months as production ramped up amid soaring RV industry sales.

Roadtrek restarted with a single production line (of three available at the facility) with a capacity for 70 units monthly per line. It seems likely they achieved that rate in recent months, with an annual capacity 800 units. Not enough to break into the top three market share tier, but still significant.

https://rvbusiness.com/roadtrek-inc-...il-sold-units/