Jo and I took a trip last month with two purposes. One was to take pictures of Fall foliage in NE Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. The other reason was to check out a Mobile Suites 38 foot fifth wheel on an Arkansas dealer's lot. (His was the only dealership in about a 350 mile radius of Oklahoma City that had the model in which we were interested. That model in particular has sliding glass doors that let one close off the living room area of the camper from the kitchen area.)
The line of fivers we are considering is the Doubletree RV line, which includes the Elite Suites (highest quality and price), the Mobile Suites (midrange quality and price) and the Select Suites (low end quality and price.)
We have been looking a lot at the models at the Oklahoma City dealer and we were really surprised at the difference in quality between theirs and the Arkansas dealer's inventory. Apparently, when a dealer orders in stock for his inventory, he has the option of choosing a lot of things that make a big difference.
For instance, the OKC dealer's Elite Suites and Mobile Suites models ALL have "pocket doors" between the kitchen and bedroom that slide back into a recess in the wall. Those doors even had glass inserts. At the Arkansas dealer, we found that even the Elite Suites they had were equipped with the plastic folding door that just telescopes to one side to open up.
After seeing that, we began to take notice that other things looked different. The quality of wood in the OKC dealer's stock looked better than the Arkansas dealer's stock. Sadly, it didn't look like the Arkansas dealer's prices were any cheaper than what we had already seen in OKC.
So, for those researching luxury RV's, be careful of what you see. It appears that one needs to take in RV shows in various places in order to see if one dealer orders better inventory than others. If nothing else, it gives one an idea as to what they may have to order to get what they want.
Just a thought. But, hey...
...enjoy the looking.
Terry
Oh, by the way, the fall colors were GREAT!!!
Judy said
06:25 PM Dec 10, 2008
Yes, by all means go to lots of RV shows if you can. We own a Elite Suites 36TK3, and do love it. Ours has the wooden door with a folding door beside the bed.We are in Fl. now at a park with a RV dealer close behind us and so we just strolled over to see some of theyre stock. They are mostly a Air Stream dealer, however had others on the lot. We looked at a Teton 3 axle as we had never been in one before and still liked ours much better. Only difference was the wood structure, it is a heaver rig as dealer said. We told her we could not see why they are so much more expensive. So buy what you will be happy with. BTW Teton is out of business. When we asked how they would take care of parts they said most RV parts are all the same, but a torn up fender could be a problem in replacing. southwestjudy
Speedhitch said
11:02 AM Dec 11, 2008
In searching for our home on wheels we ran into the same thing. I found out that it has to do with the local economy. Some areas don't sell the high end trailers and even if they do they strip them down somewhat to curb the cost. If the MSRP is too high you will not get any lookers in some areas. Now some don't care what the price is they will pay anything for what they want....they have the green to do that with. So you will have to ask questions when shopping in different locations around the US. Look at the MSRP...if it is lower than the unit you have seen and like then you can bet the lower costing unit is lacking something.
Good Luck to you
Joe and Sherri
The line of fivers we are considering is the Doubletree RV line, which includes the Elite Suites (highest quality and price), the Mobile Suites (midrange quality and price) and the Select Suites (low end quality and price.)
We have been looking a lot at the models at the Oklahoma City dealer and we were really surprised at the difference in quality between theirs and the Arkansas dealer's inventory. Apparently, when a dealer orders in stock for his inventory, he has the option of choosing a lot of things that make a big difference.
For instance, the OKC dealer's Elite Suites and Mobile Suites models ALL have "pocket doors" between the kitchen and bedroom that slide back into a recess in the wall. Those doors even had glass inserts. At the Arkansas dealer, we found that even the Elite Suites they had were equipped with the plastic folding door that just telescopes to one side to open up.
After seeing that, we began to take notice that other things looked different. The quality of wood in the OKC dealer's stock looked better than the Arkansas dealer's stock. Sadly, it didn't look like the Arkansas dealer's prices were any cheaper than what we had already seen in OKC.
So, for those researching luxury RV's, be careful of what you see. It appears that one needs to take in RV shows in various places in order to see if one dealer orders better inventory than others. If nothing else, it gives one an idea as to what they may have to order to get what they want.
Just a thought. But, hey...
...enjoy the looking.
Terry
Oh, by the way, the fall colors were GREAT!!!
southwestjudy