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Hard Times
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Tom, it is hard to see the keyboard over my grin… 🙂
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
Does anyone know any information on this Coach. I have been warned about “Concept” Coaches. Any thoughts?
http://premiumcoachgroup.com/product/1999-country-coach-concept-40ft/
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A 2000 Featherlite Vogue recently sold for $35,000 in our area. As I understood the situation, it hadn’t been used regularly for a while and probably needed some “aged out things” addressed as well as some outside and inside repair work.
I kindest thing I can say is that whether its a Featherlite Vogue or a Country Coach Concept, its a Prevost Wannabe. If you had stopped by our coach while we were at the Oneida Casino RV lot on Saturday night to talk to me about this coach, I would have said the same thing. There might not be too much wrong with a Prevost Wannabe, if it can be bought for the right price (which I don’t know what that is, but certainly well south of a comparable Prevost).
Was the Featherlite Vogue or Country Coach Concept chassis built to the same specs, parts and pieces, and attention to detail as a true Prevost chassis? I don’t know the answer. Maybe someone who has had one or if Jeff Rowe has had them in his shop, they might offer their opinion.
Was the Featherlite Vogue or Country Coach Concept “conversion” turned out with the same craftsmanship, components, do-dads, technology, engineering, and fore-thought as a Marathon or Liberty or Beaver or any of the other Prevost converters put into their conversions? Good question. Vogue was Harvey Mitchell who converted Prevosts as Vogue conversions. Featherlite bought Vantare which was owned by Mike Guth and he converted Prevosts. Country Coach converted lots of Prevosts; so both should have known what “right is”. So the Featherlite Vogue or Country Coach Concept wasn’t like you and I meeting at WIR and deciding to build motorcoaches in the Town of Howard in a pole building heated with a wood stove.
While we were searching for our Prevost I was made aware of what I think was a really, really nice Country Coach Concept that was owned by a well known person in the Milwaukee area. A mutual friend put a really, really hard sell on me to buy it. I think both of them are first class individuals. But I had to tell them it was probably a good coach, but it wasn’t a Prevost … which they had a little trouble understanding.
The posts I read on PC and POG as well as a number of phone conversations with Geo Prentice regarding Prevost vs non-Prevost convinced me to go the way we went. Going in a different direction might work out for you, or it might not.
Think about service. Are you comfortable taking a Country Coach Concept coach to the #1 RV service facility in Green Bay or to say Horn’s in Sheboygan? Would they know what to do? Or would they be going to school on you. Prevost just opened up a service facility in the Chicago area. I don’t know if I’m going to use it or not, but that’s close to both of us. ETLC is about 700 miles from me, that’s 800 from you in GRB. But I know when I go there, Jeff has 25 (maybe 30 years now) experience working on Prevosts, Prevosts are 99% of his business, and he knows all the conversions well. I keep reading that in a pinch we should be able to take our Prevosts to just about any seated coach operator running Prevosts that take in outside work. Can you do that with a Featherlite Vogue or a Country Coach Concept? I don’t know.
While I can’t share any real life experiences, I hope I’ve raised some questions for you to think about to help you make a good decision. Good luck with your deliberations.
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The concept was CC attempt to build a look a like Prevost…It has the standard electronics as the CC of the time period….It is NOT a Prevost and is a differant version of the other CC fiberglass coaches..I used to think the Concept was a bad Concept…
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The 2000 Vogue that Dick is referring to was actually our coach that we unfortunately had to recently repossess. We had two choices: sell it as is (incl a horrid body wrap that only related to the owners business and other interests and a ton of issues related to it’s sitting for a long period along with a lack of maintainance) or investing a good chunk of time and money to realize the current value of a good example (70-80K). We took the easy way out. That said, it was a great coach and very much at the top of the non-Prevo food chain. I would not be afraid of a Vogue 5000 as the guys that built them are still around (Ben and Rick at the old Parliament). I would be afraid of the CC Concept as it is a true orphan. It is on a Gillig chassis and most likely the rest would not be supported by the current CC. Geo.
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Thanks Dick and Jeff. I will dismiss the Concept and continue my search for a 1999-2004 H3. Be sure I will take it to Jeff for a going over before I buy it and have him zero it out. Thanks to both of you for your insight. Michael
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