Roadtrek has a buyer...

[Davydd]

Lot of turkey buzzard pickings.

What really is left of Roadtrek? The Hymer introduced models going with Thor's buying of the European Hymer? If so that leaves the Roadtrek Sprinters and Chevys? The Chevy models may go away. The Sprinters have nothing unique other than the Ecotrek stuff which any sane company would not want or should redo anyway. I still think they are just buying the Roadtrek brand name, a quick intro to North America with facilities and a dealer network (I think). If they were smart they would introduce all new models. Would they retain the phony three decal windows?

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I still think they are just buying the Roadtrek brand name, a quick intro to North America with facilities and a dealer network (I think). If they were smart they would introduce all new models.

Sure, but all new models will take them years to develop, certify, and roll out. In the mean time, they are probably very concerned with not letting the dealer network atrophy. Pushing through the current contents of the pipeline will help with that, and also help them learn their way around the NA market. What they are doing makes good sense to me.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Lot of turkey buzzard pickings.

What really is left of Roadtrek? The Hymer introduced models going with Thor's buying of the European Hymer? If so that leaves the Roadtrek Sprinters and Chevys? The Chevy models may go away. The Sprinters have nothing unique other than the Ecotrek stuff which any sane company would not want or should redo anyway. I still think they are just buying the Roadtrek brand name, a quick intro to North America with facilities and a dealer network (I think). If they were smart they would introduce all new models. Would they retain the phony three decal windows?

They will also have the Promaster Roadtrek branded models like the Zion, I would assume. Didn't they also have a prototype on the Transit, too?

[hbn7hj]

So,who gets the WATT Imperium propane fuel cells?

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by avanti

Sure, but all new models will take them years to develop, certify, and roll out. In the mean time, they are probably very concerned with not letting the dealer network atrophy. Pushing through the current contents of the pipeline will help with that, and also help them learn their way around the NA market. What they are doing makes good sense to me.

It could be a Hymer redux for this European company now handicapped with a scandal tainted brand.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Davydd

It could be a Hymer redux for this European company now handicapped with a scandal tainted brand.

Yeah, maybe. But this is all pretty much inside baseball. Doubt that anybody except the dealers and members of this list care much. I suspect they will pamper the dealers. We don't count for much.

I also bet that they double the budgeted build times to get the quality up. They will treat the cost as just another acquisition expense.

[Keyne]

We are very happy with our all electric RT Agile with AGM's, Alde, and no volt start. They could skip the whole e-trek proprietary tech and build Sprinters like we have while they decide what to do with new models. Maybe they will build on the Ford Transit? Who knows, but they did buy the brand and most likely as you mention the dealer footprint. That could be a good foundation to start in North America. Maybe the vanlife movement is slowing but I think similar to the Revel a modern adventure style van with a warranty, dealer network and short lead time (not 12+ months for custom) could be a winner.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Keyne

We are very happy with our all electric RT Agile with AGM's, Alde, and no volt start. They could skip the whole e-trek proprietary tech and build Sprinters like we have while they decide what to do with new models. Maybe they will build on the Ford Transit? Who knows, but they did buy the brand and most likely as you mention the dealer footprint. That could be a good foundation to start in North America. Maybe the vanlife movement is slowing but I think similar to the Revel a modern adventure style van with a warranty, dealer network and short lead time (not 12+ months for custom) could be a winner.

I would agree. You can build totally adequate mainstream vans without the Ecotrek stuff. AGMs, propane or diesel heat (maybe gasoline), even a smaller second alternator and solar either with or without a generator and you could have very usable products without the stratospheric pricing and poor reliability. Walk before you run, so to speak.



The overall quality issue will be interesting to see how they handle it, as we don't really know what caused it all in the first place. It could be poor designs, low end vendors, poor tooling, poor training, too rushed, or a disenfranchised work force.



At least the new owners are starting clean, without any of the old management to carry over bad practices or grudges with the employees. They should be able to install their own values, whatever they may be.

[RossWilliams]

I don't know why they would drop models that have proven popular with dealers and customers and start over with all new models. It would seem that is just devaluing the Roadtrek brand you just paid for by slapping it on an a bunch of entirely different products.

As for the phony three window decal, would you expect someone to buy the Nike brand and drop the "phony" swish from their shoes. What you want is for every time someone sees those three windows they associate it with your products. Why would you give up that free advertising?

[Keyne]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

I don't know why they would drop models that have proven popular with dealers and customers and start over with all new models. It would seem that is just devaluing the Roadtrek brand you just paid for by slapping it on an a bunch of entirely different products.

As for the phony three window decal, would you expect someone to buy the Nike brand and drop the "phony" swish from their shoes. What you want is for every time someone sees those three windows they associate it with your products. Why would you give up that free advertising?

I think the quality issues might be a mix of all of those things, but with a quality culture and strong leadership I think they could experience huge improvements in initial quality in short period of time. Then look for areas to re-design and then introduce new products. Our van has been great once we got the initial quality issues out of the way... If I were running the company:

1) Quality culture (Six Sigma, TQM style PDCA) from the beginning with process orientation to manufacturing and measuring quality
2) Training of company staff
3) Training of dealers and quality measures... with the tech the dealers not knowing how to service the vans is a problem. Also, a dealer qualification process with score cards, etc. would help a lot.

These three things are not expensive to implement but do require strong leadership and commitment.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

I don't know why they would drop models that have proven popular with dealers and customers and start over with all new models. It would seem that is just devaluing the Roadtrek brand you just paid for by slapping it on an a bunch of entirely different products.

Perhaps because they intend to import euro-style materials and construction techniques into the NA market. By any objective measure, they are vastly superior to anything that RT has ever built.

[Keyne]

Originally Posted by booster

I would agree. You can build totally adequate mainstream vans without the Ecotrek stuff. AGMs, propane or diesel heat (maybe gasoline), even a smaller second alternator and solar either with or without a generator and you could have very usable products without the stratospheric pricing and poor reliability. Walk before you run, so to speak.



The overall quality issue will be interesting to see how they handle it, as we don't really know what caused it all in the first place. It could be poor designs, low end vendors, poor tooling, poor training, too rushed, or a disenfranchised work force.



At least the new owners are starting clean, without any of the old management to carry over bad practices or grudges with the employees. They should be able to install their own values, whatever they may be.

Whoops. Quoted the wrong post


I think the quality issues might be a mix of all of those things, but with a quality culture and strong leadership I think they could experience huge improvements in initial quality in short period of time. Then look for areas to re-design and then introduce new products. Our van has been great once we got the initial quality issues out of the way... If I were running the company:

1) Quality culture (Six Sigma, TQM style PDCA) from the beginning with process orientation to manufacturing and measuring quality
2) Training of company staff
3) Training of dealers and quality measures... with the tech the dealers not knowing how to service the vans is a problem. Also, a dealer qualification process with score cards, etc. would help a lot.

These three things are not expensive to implement but do require strong leadership and commitment.

[Keyne]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

I don't know why they would drop models that have proven popular with dealers and customers and start over with all new models. It would seem that is just devaluing the Roadtrek brand you just paid for by slapping it on an a bunch of entirely different products.

As for the phony three window decal, would you expect someone to buy the Nike brand and drop the "phony" swish from their shoes. What you want is for every time someone sees those three windows they associate it with your products. Why would you give up that free advertising?

Personally I like the 3 window branding. As you mention I like to see other RT owners on the road and they make it easy to spot.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Keyne

I think the quality issues might be a mix of all of those things, but with a quality culture and strong leadership I think they could experience huge improvements in initial quality in short period of time. Then look for areas to re-design and then introduce new products. Our van has been great once we got the initial quality issues out of the way... If I were running the company:

1) Quality culture (Six Sigma, TQM style PDCA) from the beginning with process orientation to manufacturing and measuring quality
2) Training of company staff
3) Training of dealers and quality measures... with the tech the dealers not knowing how to service the vans is a problem. Also, a dealer qualification process with score cards, etc. would help a lot.

These three things are not expensive to implement but do require strong leadership and commitment.

Totally agree. Although I have been a frequent critic of RT (as well as Airstream), my criticisms in both cases have always been largely limited to initial build quality. The designs are fine and the materials generally good. They are just assembled poorly. This is the easiest kind of quality to improve.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by avanti

Sure, but all new models will take them years to develop, certify, and roll out. In the mean time, they are probably very concerned with not letting the dealer network atrophy. Pushing through the current contents of the pipeline will help with that, and also help them learn their way around the NA market. What they are doing makes good sense to me.

I think it's an optimistic assumption that Rapido can easily gain market share. Most if not all of the Roadtrek dealers have already contracted with other builders like Pleasureway, Coachmen, Winnebago, Midwest et al for their inventory. Considering how badly these dealers were snake bitten by Roadtrek/Hymer, I'm not convinced that they are going to desert the builders they are currently engaged with.

[RossWilliams]

Originally Posted by Keyne

Personally I like the 3 window branding. As you mention I like to see other RT owners on the road and they make it easy to spot.

Exactly. It makes Roadtreks stand out in the sea of identical chassis that make up the class B universe. Its a part of the branding that established Roadtrek as the leading class B brand while selling a wide range of different models.

[mumkin]

My biggest wish is that Rapido arrive and bring in a new company policy of turning out a rig that the dealers don't have to spent so much time putting back together. We had all hoped that Hymer would bring in quality control to match their reputation in Europe, but instead they became RT2.0...

Will Rapido deliver on our hopes? I've talked to a couple dealers and they are guardedly optimistic and looking forward to seeing a better product.

[RossWilliams]

Apparently the deal for Roadtrek's assets has closed and Rapido is in the process of moving parts and equipment to the plant in Cambridge that they assumed the lease on. We should be seeing some real business activity soon. That may give us a clearer idea of their direction and what it means for current owners in terms of things like parts availability.

[Davydd]

If Rapido (Roadtrek) discontinued the Chevy platform are there any upfitters building on the Chevy anymore?

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by Davydd

If Rapido (Roadtrek) discontinued the Chevy platform are there any upfitters building on the Chevy anymore?

The Chevys have been deleted from the build your own page but I don't think Rapido has announced they are discontinued.

Sportsmobile still builds Chevys.