Nec Motorhome Show

[nagsheadwarrior]

Tis Nec eve again!

For those of us in the industry it means our bi-annual holiday to Birmingham to stand in a hall of 25000 mainly pensioners trying to find the rare 1 that might one day if not today buy something while fighting a raging hangover and trying not to catch NEC flu!

Anyone going?

February is not as well stocked as October with Hymer group and Swift group not there but at a time when there's not many vans on dealers forecourts its still a good place to see a lot of options in a day.

If anyone is going I'm Jody and will be awkwardly standing on the Adria stand trying to look happy say hi if you see me!

Edited by nagsheadwarrior on Monday 20th February 22:39

[i4got]

I'll be there with the wife and a couple of friends on Friday. We have a motorhome and our friends are looking for one. May see you there.

[stevemcs]

We are going, but it’s really just to see the accessories rather than vans and boxes.

[Essel]

I'm going tomorrow. Allowed out by myself as my wife didn't fancy taking a days holiday for it. Just me and my credit card.

[nagsheadwarrior]

Come see me I can relieve your dresit card of its pesky balance lol

[Reginald Molehusband]

I bought advance tickets to go today, but this particular pensioner didn't have a good night's sleep and couldn't be bothered to drag himself out of bed this morning. Mrs Molehusband was slightly disappointed but we were only on the lookout for can't-live-without accessories and places to stay.

No doubt we would have climbed into some brand new caravans and motorhomes just for the smell and lights.

Our 2013 Coachman Laser, new to us a few weeks ago, will suffice for the time being.

I hope you had a good day NagsHead. I've exhibited at the NEC many times myself with the commercial vehicle industry. It can be fun but very tiring.

[Essel]

Reconnaissance and accessories only this time. .The current one will last a few more years, theres a couple I want to see the insides of.

[Scrump]

Was thinking of going, but only to scope out some accessories. Decided not to go this time.

[nagsheadwarrior]

Reginald Molehusband said:

I bought advance tickets to go today, but this particular pensioner didn't have a good night's sleep and couldn't be bothered to drag himself out of bed this morning. Mrs Molehusband was slightly disappointed but we were only on the lookout for can't-live-without accessories and places to stay.

No doubt we would have climbed into some brand new caravans and motorhomes just for the smell and lights.

Our 2013 Coachman Laser, new to us a few weeks ago, will suffice for the time being.

I hope you had a good day NagsHead. I've exhibited at the NEC many times myself with the commercial vehicle industry. It can be fun but very tiring.

A 2013 Laser is a mighty fine thing tbf
You know the trauma of the Nec then lol, was a passable day

[Dunclane]

We're going as a family on Saturday.

Not been since before covid and whilst we'll only pick up some accessories for our tent setup I'm trying may hardest to get the wife around to upgrading to a caravan in the near future!

Looking forward to it.

[LeighW]

I went to the show on Friday, took my uncle who was looking to replace his touring caravan. Business seemed to be brisk still as far as I could see, my uncle put a deposit down on a new caravan for June delivery. I can only assume that there's either no cost of living crisis, or that most buyers are retired and busy spending their very generous public sector pensions (like my uncle )

[nagsheadwarrior]

LeighW said:

I went to the show on Friday, took my uncle who was looking to replace his touring caravan. Business seemed to be brisk still as far as I could see, my uncle put a deposit down on a new caravan for June delivery. I can only assume that there's either no cost of living crisis, or that most buyers are retired and busy spending their very generous public sector pensions (like my uncle )

Lol yeah you pretty much nailed it there.
Tbh a lot of the cwravansales chaps I talked to struggled where as motorhomes were still selling briskly despite crazy prices and lead times

[LeighW]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Lol yeah you pretty much nailed it there.
Tbh a lot of the cwravansales chaps I talked to struggled where as motorhomes were still selling briskly despite crazy prices and lead times

Some of the motorhome/camper prices are mind blowing to me. I saw amongst the sea of VW T6 conversions one for £130k, and it was sold. Loads of them, not really any nicer inside than my T5, priced at around £70k.

[nagsheadwarrior]

LeighW said:

nagsheadwarrior said:

Lol yeah you pretty much nailed it there.
Tbh a lot of the cwravansales chaps I talked to struggled where as motorhomes were still selling briskly despite crazy prices and lead times

Some of the motorhome/camper prices are mind blowing to me. I saw amongst the sea of VW T6 conversions one for £130k, and it was sold. Loads of them, not really any nicer inside than my T5, priced at around £70k.

We are thinking it's the VW end that will hit trouble soon as its swamped.
Maybe more the generic aftermarket converters, those with a good name or doing things a little differently might be ok

[LeighW]

Anyone going this weekend? We're going tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see if the lead times have dropped. I've noticed a fair few almost new van conversions coming onto the market of late with much more sensible asking prices.

[Big Rat]

We’ve not been before to the NEC show just a few of the regional interior/exterior ones in the last couple of years so Mrs Rat and me set off early for the opening day with tickets and parking bought online a massive saving over rocking up and paying.
We really enjoyed the sunny relatively traffic free M5 up from our home south of Bristol….we went by car ……and then we hit the M42 two hours of crawling through the road works but hey ho it is what it is…..

Easy entry to the car no problem parking or entry to the show……but my oh my the stupid prices firstly of food and drink was not exactly unexpected from events ……but the miserable lack of interest and lack of knowledge from many of the sellers on the vehicle and caravan stands was a little surprising ….

We have a Motorhome a Pilote 7.5m that’s a little over a year old so we’re not shopping for a big purchase but as regards the accessory side of things typical hugely inflated show prices ….

Examples a stall plastic retaking clip for Thule bike rack ..I broke one of ours…the Thule stand wanted £18.60 it’s about £6+vat at the dealers …..

Cannot remember the manufacturer but a small folding exterior table we bought a second one from Highbidge Caravans recently for £20.00 couldn’t see the same one on any of the stands for less than £49.99….

And as regards the big ticket items Motorhomes Campers caravans and so glad we bought ours when we did…..
The venue was very clean and had a great layout and was good to see the level of security in the venue ….
I appreciate fully the times we are living in but there is without a shadow of a doubt a lot of sheer profiteering going on…..and I like a chocolate muffin as much as the next man or woman but £8.00…
Will we go again Nah will stick to the regional ones….

[chappj]

Does anybody have x3 spare tickets for Saturday?

We hadn’t realised the event would sell out and left it too late :-(

We are hoping to place an order on a motorhome.

Thx

[nagsheadwarrior]

LeighW said:

Anyone going this weekend? We're going tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see if the lead times have dropped. I've noticed a fair few almost new van conversions coming onto the market of late with much more sensible asking prices.

Lead times are very sporadic depending on manufacturers
With the stuff we sell its-
Wildax- Very good, shortish wait or actually immediate availability on some
Swift- Some models coming through noway ford's and some fiat
Comaoss/Elddis- Some in stick but ling waits fir van conversions
Hymer- Nearly sold out for 2024
Adria- Well into next year
Rapido-same
Dethleffs- Same tho some ford's coming through
Hlsode- In stock or coming through

Chausson- Late this year for many
There are others too but generally UK brands are a little better, euros stuff thats higher ticket items are still catching up on orders from sometime ago and selling far in advance

[ChocolateFrog]

nagsheadwarrior said:

LeighW said:

nagsheadwarrior said:

Lol yeah you pretty much nailed it there.
Tbh a lot of the cwravansales chaps I talked to struggled where as motorhomes were still selling briskly despite crazy prices and lead times

Some of the motorhome/camper prices are mind blowing to me. I saw amongst the sea of VW T6 conversions one for £130k, and it was sold. Loads of them, not really any nicer inside than my T5, priced at around £70k.

We are thinking it's the VW end that will hit trouble soon as its swamped.
Maybe more the generic aftermarket converters, those with a good name or doing things a little differently might be ok

Even 70k is just silly. My T5.1 was 6k 6 years ago and another £1500 has Windows, carpet, flooring and wired for EHU.

There's so much depreciation to be had on these near 100k T5/T6's it's eye-watering.

[egor110]

nagsheadwarrior said:

LeighW said:

Anyone going this weekend? We're going tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see if the lead times have dropped. I've noticed a fair few almost new van conversions coming onto the market of late with much more sensible asking prices.

Lead times are very sporadic depending on manufacturers
With the stuff we sell its-
Wildax- Very good, shortish wait or actually immediate availability on some
Swift- Some models coming through noway ford's and some fiat
Comaoss/Elddis- Some in stick but ling waits fir van conversions
Hymer- Nearly sold out for 2024
Adria- Well into next year
Rapido-same
Dethleffs- Same tho some ford's coming through
Hlsode- In stock or coming through

Chausson- Late this year for many
There are others too but generally UK brands are a little better, euros stuff thats higher ticket items are still catching up on orders from sometime ago and selling far in advance

Which brands do you get back most for warranty work ?

I've recently switched from a farming parrs department to a motorhome dealer part department.

I'm amazed how slow it takes to get parrs from Germany, Italy, Slovenia like 6-8 weeks just seems standard.

In farming I'd get stuff from Germany in 2-3 days as standard.