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PDI, things I NEED to know….
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Interesting the direction this thread went, but here’s my 2$ (we are Prevo people after all) worth. Mark hasn’t found out yet what most of us did the long hard way. And that is that: A used Prevost is almost always a better choice than any new other coach. Even if the repair and maintainance costs were the same, which due to the robustness and redundancy of both the shell and converter systems, are not, just the ride and driving pleasure alone would be worth it. Our 2000XLV will still be in service long after our last HR Navigator is land fill.
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Corey, I couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ve put on over 140,000 miles in the last 5 years in a Prevost and believe me once you get in the drivers seat them few bucks that you were talking about Mark are peanuts!!! There’s nothing that drives as good as a Prevost!!
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not to be unfeeling here but, I didn’t know you could buy an English car that didn’t require extensive/expensive (you choose here) maintenance every 4000 miles – maybe Bentley has raised the ‘bar’ for vehicles built across the pond……..
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Orren, the quality of the English cars today are excellent… having an old Rolls a new Bentley and a new Land Rover, I’ve been happy with their product.
We have been German car buyers for many, many years and actually became rather disappointed in their quality so the newer cars are English (still have 3 older Mercedes that were bought new). Honda makes a pretty good product too!
All of the information here that I’ve been reading on the Prevost Chassis is helping me make my decision if I want to proceed to a new coach or not. I certainly understand regular maintenance and hoping that would be enough to make one last 20 yrs. without major repairs. I actually over maintain our cars/motorhome, it’s just the way I like to do it.
I was just a little surprised that a Prevost Chassis owner would say at 10 yrs. they are changing some major components as maintenance. If that’s what’s required, OK. I was in a different frame of mind on that.
As with many things in life, the more you spend doesn’t necessarily mean low maintenance.
MM.
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Hey Mr. Mark, If I was you I would order a brand new one and warrinty will take care of you problems for the next 5 years. Then if by chance its a Marathon H3 I buy it from you and enjoy it for another 5 years and you see everyone is happy!!
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I wouldn’t call the air bags or Norgren valves major components. I also would not let my 10 year schedule influence your deicision. That is MY decision for when to do that on my preventive maintenance schedule. I suspect a lot of coaches running around the country have 20 year old air bags.
My decision was based on the fact that if an air bag fails while we are traveling I believe the coach to be undriveable. Rather than have to make decisions about what to do while I am sitting on the shoulder of the road, I opt to replace the air bags before that ever happens. BTW the cost is chump change compared to the cost of replacing tires when they age out.
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That’s how I feel too Jon…….
Tires $10K
Batteries $4K
Bags and norgren valves $4,800
New belts and hoses all around $ $1,400
Headlight Package $3,500
Diesel service, aqua hot service, genny service, trans service, $2,200
Labor is included in those numbers….
So, all in all I was expecting to spend $25K ++ for added maintenance items…compared to the cost of the coach and the peace of mind I will have it is a small price to pay to zero out the coach. At this point, I will take it in once per year for the annual maintenance schedule. I learned long ago that when you roll a house down the road things are going to happen. I just want to take the extra precautions so I can still “drive” it in for repairs when they need to be done. After you own 6 diesel coaches (fiberglass) that is a lesson I’ve learned. Over the years, I’ve only had two incidents that stopped me from driving…a slide failure in my Vectra (which I bought new and happened in year 2) and an electrical problem that forced the coach to be towed. That was my Journey, and it was 8 days old when that occured in Myrtle Beach, again a new coach. Towed to the Gaffney facility, one day later on the road again.
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A Coach is a home on wheels that does require upkeep and care.
You would not fly an airplane without a current annual? If you ever have an airplane you would understand the cost to maintain a coach is peanuts, the annual I had to do on my plane was in the range of $40K which included an engine change due to lack of use.
You have to upkeep a coach and use it, otherwise it will strand you on the road side. It is not a pretty picture, very costly and time consuming event. In all the time I have been drive our coach we never had an event to put us on the road side, the cost to maintain the coach while a home is far less than getting stranded.
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I have put 35000 miles on this year so far have never been on side of road expect for one time at a rest area the old starter went out I put new starter in it drive and enjoy I sit four days then Drive 3 days every week from march to end of
November enjoy the coach
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I just wanted to wrap up this thread…..
We arrived in Nashville on Friday last week. Brandon got there, at just about dark with the coach, and helped us set up for the night so we could all get a good night sleep before he did the orientation with me on Saturday and Sunday.
First let me say that Brandon is a pro! He never rushed me while learning and was willing to spend as much time as I wanted on Saturday and Sunday to get used to the coach, learn the systems and show me a few tricks. He offered to continue to come to the campground as long as I was there if I had any other questions. You where all right as was Brandon, the Royale coach is very user friendly and not very complicated to figure out.
As I expected (and Brandon) there where a few bugs that needed to be worked out….but nothing major. Brandon ran all over town to make sure we had the parts to get everything working. He overnighted an aqua hot sensor, ran to prevost to get a belt because he noticed the one on the coach had a hair line crack…I didn’t catch that one, but he pointed it out. Early on the morning we left, he ran around town to get a new 50 amp plug head because the one on the coach had a hair line crack and overheated the night before, melting the plastic and charred the plug.
He was also showing a coach at the POG rally so he really had his hands full but never made me feel rushed with anything. His service after the sale was exceptional. We ended up staying in Nashville till Wednesday morning and when we left we had tried every appliance and system in the coach. The only thing I missed was the fantastic fan above the shower opened but didn’t turn on…..no biggie, I can fix that one.
All in all a great experience and I feel Brandon went from a saleman to a friend in that short period of time. Again, a really great young guy who seems to love what he is doing and TRULY cares about every customer and every coach he sells. It was refreshing to meet someone with such a great work ethic.
The ride home was wonderful and the only thing that happened on the way was the front cover to the step well fell off after we hit a rather hard bump in the road. Again, no big deal and an easy project for me over the weekend, I think I can do better in re-attaching it then when it was original. Thanks to all for your help in this process and I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions as I start digging deeper into the workings of the coach.
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Glad it all worked out Jim, now the fun and learning begins…
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