TheSearles Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 Hello everyone, we are newbies about to buy our first motorhome. We are speaking to a couple of suppliers including West Country Motorhomes with whom we are very impressed, but I wondered if anyone has any experience of them. We are so niaive that I worry we could chose the wrong dealer all too easily. We are also talking to Marquis about whom there a lot of comments both good and bad. The salesman we are dealing with is a bit matey but seems to have given sound advice. It will probably come down to price, but reputation and support will be equally important. Thank you in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 Purchased a Autosleeper Symbol from them about 20 years ago, and found service and personnel very good. WE don't live too far from them, and would certainly use them again, though as we last used Chelston, some 10 years ago we have just purchased another MH from them. In fact did have some discussions with them re new vans, and would certainly have used them again had they been able to supply what we wanted, though Chelston are geographically our nearest dealer and we were happy to deal with them again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 You are right to enquire about dealers reputations in your search. But one of the most important factors is the proximity of your dealer to your home. Sadly motorhomes are not perfect when they are first delivered and there are often snagging issues to be addressed. And unlike cars motorhomes mostly need to be serviced by the supplying dealer in order to keep the warranty going. What you don't need is a long drive to get any problems sorted so my advice is to choose the best dealer you can find as long as it is within a reasonable distance from your home. Sorry if you find this post states the obvious but you did say you were inexperienced.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jobboyce Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 Over the past 20 years or so we have purchased 5 motorhomes and Marquis was one of the dealers (with Marquis it depends on the location as to the quality) My last purchase (which was this year) the after sales service is poor but the dealership seemed good (so it could be me) So all you can do is trust your in-stinks and try to buy as localy as possible so you don't have have to have over nighters (which will be at your expense) just to get bits of things put right. Good Luck ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSearles Posted May 29, 2017 Author Share Posted May 29, 2017 Thanks or the advice so far, all very useful. We live south of Stroud in Gloucestershire so Marquis in Tewkesbury are about 40 minutes away and West Country about an hour, it's the perils of living in the country. It is the after sales service I am concerned about particularly with Marquis becuase of the mixed reviews, which might be unfair given their size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanS Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 We have purchased 2 new motorhomes from West Country Motorhomes and although the MH's have not been totally trouble free, WCM have always reacted well to any problems we have had. The handover has been excellent and they allow a good amount of time to go though everything with you - I think we were with them for about 2 hours on our last motorhome. We live quite a long way for WCM and if there have been any problems we notify them and get the work done if we are visiting near them, or wait for the service time to have it done (if the work is minor and can wait). They have also sent me parts in the post for me to fit if we cannot get to them and once with a faulty lock the got a local engineer to come to our place to fix it.. As for sales we have managed to do reasonable deals with them and they were not too pushy. We had one dealing with Marquis and their attitude was 'couldn't care less' and they didn't reply to email or phone calls so we went elsewhere. Alan TheSearles - 2017-05-29 6:35 PM Hello everyone, we are newbies about to buy our first motorhome. We are speaking to a couple of suppliers including West Country Motorhomes with whom we are very impressed, but I wondered if anyone has any experience of them. We are so niaive that I worry we could chose the wrong dealer all too easily. We are also talking to Marquis about whom there a lot of comments both good and bad. The salesman we are dealing with is a bit matey but seems to have given sound advice. It will probably come down to price, but reputation and support will be equally important. Thank you in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FRANKP60 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Purchased two motor homes over the years from Marquis ,first had problems that were eventually sorted . Second one here was major problems that took ages to sort out ,first quoted nearly 3k to fix then it came down to £800 . Always very good at taking your money ,salesman friendly but once you have driven of forecourt totally different matter.Never return phone calls. Will never use them again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 To be fair to Marquis, they have many branches, and the salesmen do move around. WCM are smaller, and therefore should give a more personal service. We bought our van from Marquis. 11 years ago. The service we received was fine, BUT we where lucky in that our van did not have problems, Always friendly service. Go for the van you like, as apposed to the dealer. If there are problems there are always other ways of solving them. At the end of the day, the manufacturer is the ultimate answer!! PS much easier if a British van of course! Good luck on your purchase PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Frank60 - 2017-05-30 6:26 AM Purchased two motor homes over the years from Marquis ,first had problems that were eventually sorted . Second one here was major problems that took ages to sort out ,first quoted nearly 3k to fix then it came down to £800 . Always very good at taking your money ,salesman friendly but once you have driven of forecourt totally different matter.Never return phone calls. Will never use them again. I have had the opposite experience. My take on this is that quality of service depends as much on the service manager as the company. I had fantastic service from Marquis in Plymouth. If there was a problem that needed to be sorted they readily agreed to get their service staff in early so they could deal with the problem on my way to the ferry. If a warranty problem occurred abroad I e mailed them in advance from Spain so they could order the parts and would arrange for the issue to be rectified at their depot on my return home from the ferry. Nothing seemed too much trouble. However when that service manager took an extended break resulting in a temporary replacement the quality of service dropped. I would certainly use Marquis again but as they are such a large company it is inevitable that not everyone will be happy or indeed as pleased with their service as I have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Mike88 - 2017-05-30 7:58 AM Frank60 - 2017-05-30 6:26 AM Purchased two motor homes over the years from Marquis ,first had problems that were eventually sorted . Second one here was major problems that took ages to sort out ,first quoted nearly 3k to fix then it came down to £800 . Always very good at taking your money ,salesman friendly but once you have driven of forecourt totally different matter.Never return phone calls. Will never use them again. I have had the opposite experience. My take on this is that quality of service depends as much on the service manager as the company. I had fantastic service from Marquis in Plymouth. If there was a problem that needed to be sorted they readily agreed to get their service staff in early so they could deal with the problem on my way to the ferry. If a warranty problem occurred abroad I e mailed them in advance from Spain so they could order the parts and would arrange for the issue to be rectified at their depot on my return home from the ferry. Nothing seemed too much trouble. However when that service manager took an extended break resulting in a temporary replacement the quality of service dropped. I would certainly use Marquis again but as they are such a large company it is inevitable that not everyone will be happy or indeed as pleased with their service as I have been. Re my post Forgot , we had a problem the second year we had van, while in France. ( Gas valve !)Contacted Marquis, and they told us to get it done at a local French dealer, and when we got home they reimbursed us , so IMO good service, as we could not use the gas, BUT fortunately we have and electric plate on our cooker, (again only in British vans!!) PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polo Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Not had any dealings with West Country but they refused to look at a van we had purchased from someone else as did Chelston. Highbridge and west country are also sort of near as well. I would first find the van you want then find a dealer if you have a choice. Our current van is a Rapido from Highbridge but we were looking for a Globcar and would have been prepared to travel to the Midlands for service to get the van we wanted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 TheSearies You should also consider Cotswold Motorhomes at Twigworth near Gloucester http://www.cotswoldmotorcaravans.co.uk/ Closer to you than Marquis or West Country Motorhomes and with an excellent reputation for customer-care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSearles Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 Thanks all for some great advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSearles Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 The Marquis dealer we are thinking of is in Tewkesbury by the way, if anyone has experience of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 We have purchased 2 vans from WCM and been totally satisfied. It is a 2hr drive for us but take it back for repairs/servicing. We normally stay at the CC site at Cheddar to make it easier. They have always been helpful. For example on a Starfire that we had the oven door fell off the morning of our return from Yorkshire. As we were going to travel down the M5 (to Devon) I phoned, stopped off and they fixed it. Always had good service and will use them in the future as long as they don't get swallowed into a big group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Allen Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 We purchased our Auto Trail Apache 700 from them a couple of years ago. They were very helpful and the service was excellent including the briefing we received on collection. Had a minor issue of the habitation door lock breaking the following year. As we live in Weston-super-Mare (someone has to) we called in to book an appointment to have it fixed and they actually fixed it there and then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fesspark Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Hello, in 2005 we purchased a new 55 Reg Auto Trail Cheyenne from West Country,We had bought a load of rubbish and spent more time backwards and forwards to west Country and also the mileage on the clock when we got rid after 12 months was more than we had spent on Hols. West Country although did the warranty work were far from helpful, we lost £14.000 on that van in12 months. would never in a million years give West country a reccomendation, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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