Call for caravan industry royal commission

[A'van]

http://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/e ... sion-57011

Has anyone heard of this? I have just seen it on Facebook.

Hans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3hmwSCepzU

[TramcarTrev]

No I had not heard of this but then Im not a member of that forum.
But if I may quote him;

"He advises buyers to undertake their own due diligence to avoid problems down the track, including taking a building or construction expert on a tour of the factory to see how the caravan is built.

“My advice to people when they ask me what caravan to buy is first, you don’t take your missus when you go to buy a caravan, you take your engineering mate or your mechanic, and look at how it’s built,” he says.

“They sell eye candy, and if you’re after the prettiest van it can often make for a bad end-choice.

“Also ask for a warranty document that specifies certain responsibilities, even if you have to pay a solicitor a fee to write it up."

Thats good advice (sort of) and something we here have I believe been advocating.
You have to look under the gleaming new finish before you buy a van.

BUT REMEMBER YOU ARE STILL COVERED UNDER AUSTRALIAN CONSUMER LAW IF A PRODUCT IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.
https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consu ... guarantees

Paying a Solicitor to draw up a Guarantee/warrranty is fraught with legal problems, yes the manufacturer (NOT THE DE$ALER) would have to sign it then claiming for repairs would be a tad difficult especially as the warranty would be with one person ie the manufacturer... Your chosen Solicitor would have to specialise on Contract law and know all the loopholes...

[Old Techo]

TT, that guy sounds like Cabcar from the other place?

[TramcarTrev]

Sorry OT I dont know him/her...

Seems to state the obvious though and what chance does he have of getting anyone on board to get a Royal Commision? Who is going to pay for the RC? Are the benifits of an RC going to ballance out the costs?

While I tend to agree there are some dubious and dodgy practices in both Van manufacture and sales a RC is not needed. What is actually needed is for vans etc to be built in acordance with the ADR's and built in a proffesional manner. As he says a Hot Glue gun, a Jig saw and a garage do not make a van builder.

More importantly as he points out (as we have pointed out) Consumers need to be aware and see through the gloss before purchase. Frankly thats at times not easy to do and I cite RV shows as being the worst offenders here.

The potential buyers are seduced by "show specials", "I only have this one at this price" and similar inducements to purchase a van that they dont actually want or is of less than proffesional manufacture.

I've done it myself, bought an Olympic off the plan, wow what a dud.... had a shower/toilet in one corner but to get into that you had to climb over the bed as there was 132mm between the bed and the shower door... I solved to problem by converting it to double bunks... Add to that that nothing was square, power points at all angles. Yet Olympic can make a very good van especially if you can purchase from stock...

Now here is an idea for both helping consumers and maybe making a bit of money out of those unfortunate enough to not be in the position through either lack of education or experience to suss out a dodgy job; Open up and run classes either on line or at a facilty. If you register as a "Training Facility" there is a govermment grant waiting....

[Old Techo]

TT, I just checked. You joined 3 weeks before Cabcar's last post so I guess your tramcar and his cabcar paths didn't cross.

http://caravanersforum.com/memberlist.p ... ofile&u=62

I assume his username is a contraction of Caboolture Caravan.

[TramcarTrev]

TT, I just checked. You joined 3 weeks before Cabcar's last post so I guess your tramcar and his cabcar paths didn't cross.

http://caravanersforum.com/memberlist.p ... ofile&u=62

I assume his username is a contraction of Caboolture Caravan.

I'll defer to your knowledge Sherlock, yes CabCar would be a contraction....

I wonder what Cabcar is going to gain from an RC into RV's...
I dont see much support for it from the memebrs here....