The Harpers
Carmel, California, USA
Senior Member
Joined: 02/26/2004
View Profile
|
I retired April 1st 07. We took our dream trip. From Monterey to Everett Washington, then across the country on Hwy 2 all the way to Bar Harbor Maine. June 6 we left and were back home Oct 1, 07. We love the RV life. We have plenty of places here to do short trips. My retirement plan was to travel one summer, then travel the next winter or fall. So far we have followed this plan. I hope the RV industries keeps going. We truly like to meet new people while we travel hope things look up for the next year.
Tom and Sydney Harper - Monterey California
2004 HitchHiker II LS 32.5 UKTG
2003 Chevy Durmax Diesel
Travel companion our faithful rottweiler, Addie[b][/b][b]
Note: Due to invalid formatting, all formatting has been ignored.
|
Bumpyroad
Virginia
Senior Member
Joined: 12/01/2005
View Profile
 Offline
|
was talking to my winnie salesman the other day. they are letting their Class A stock get a little lower and he claims their sales are only down 5%. Hope he was telling the truth.
bumpy
|
Aktravler
Retired from Alaska, On the road
Senior Member
Joined: 05/16/2002
View Profile
Offline
|
The drop sounds worse than it is because the sales over the last few years that they are "dropping from" were at record highs.
Inflated highs, show drastic drops. I bet if you go back several years to do the comparisons, the drop would be non-existent or nominal.
Same as housing.
I do know that this area of the country does not appear to be greatly impacted by the drop in housing sales as the prices were not inflated to begin with.
LOTS of folks are retiring here. It's downright booming in the Branson area. Housing is still a great bargain compared to most of the rest of the country, of course having retirement income is important, as the wages are relatively lower also.
Hanging in N. Arkansas, Surfing on Hughes.net
Mine-'02 Ram 3500, CTD DRW
S&S Avalanche 11DBS-Torklift TD's,SH & FG's
His-'03 F350 PSD SRW & Raptor 3612DS TH
Air Hitch -Edge Juice w/Attitude
Gas & Gumption!!!
26' Alweld, 200hp jet & prop
My Webshots
|
econometrics
35000'
Full Member
Joined: 03/02/2006
View Profile
Offline
|
The manufacturers that put it all on the line by over-extending themselves in recent years as the industry saw sizeable growth are the ones hurting the most. Specialty and niche manufacturers seem to be doing well as do the conglomerates that benefit from economies of scale. The industry is changing as we know it, but recall that market cycles benefit everyone in the long run. No one here needs an RV from a manufacturer with weak performance and an over-valued balance sheet.
The deals are there to be made and they have to be working somewhere as there are still plenty of RVs pumping out of Indiana, Oregon, Ohio, and Wyoming. When I was at the Teton factory last month, the sales director commented that they were experiencing the longest order backlog in company history!
|
klenger
Tucson AZ
Senior Member
Joined: 12/10/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
If they are saying their profits are down, that's actually good news because it implies that they are actually still making a profit. In today's economy, just staying on the plus side is huge.
2008 Tiffin Allegro 32BA FRED Class A Motor Home
2008 Honda CRV, Blue Ox, SMI DUO Stay-in-Play Brake
|
|
|
paulonius
Athens, GA
Full Member
Joined: 10/27/2002
View Profile
Offline
|
I think we are going to see a lot more "permanent" residents in campgrounds. I saw this on my last outing which lasted 2 weeks. A full third of the spaces were full time occupants. I think if I were ever left alone, heaven forbid, that I could easily become a permanent resident at some decent RV Park.
2001 Chevy 2500HD and a Rockwood 30' Fiver
ONE INCONTINENT POODLE AND ONE YAPPER POODLE: (And why were we not warned about poodles) Is there a recall on Toy Poodles????
Fully retired and no desire to go back.
|
Dennis M M
Geneva, IL
Senior Member
Joined: 11/06/2004
View Profile
|
klenger is right - even though they were down 73% they still made more than $3 million profit in the quarter, but their share price dropped 9.6% so everything is doom and gloom.
Part of the problem IMHO is the Wall Street attitude of grow or die, and company management focusing on stock price at the expense of steady income and reasonable growth. It happens in all industries.
'99 Volvo VNL610 - 425 HP Volvo; Super 10 Spd
'05 smart fortwo on Volvo
'05 Newmar Mountain Aire 35 BLKS
Trailer Saver; Bigfoot; Pressure-Pro;
Optima Batteries
|
minnow
Upstate New York
Senior Member
Joined: 08/30/2001
View Profile
Offline
|
I for one am glad to see it. RV industry has had too good for too long. This has led to arrogance from both the manufacturers and dealers towards the customers. I for one would like to see one more real bad year of sales and then maybe these guys would re-learn words like humility and appreciation.
|
JIMNLIN
Big Cabin, OK
Senior Member
Joined: 09/14/2003
View Profile
|
overall RV sales are down nationally according to RVIA manufactors web. Stay tuned tho and see what it looks like after 180 more days. We saw much the same thing in the big oil created crude shortage crisis of '73. Most small low volume RV manufactors went by the way side. Boy did Rvs come back big time in the late '70s.
That period also saw big changes in fuel economy with fuel injection/computer controlled ignitions/etc on all vehicles that are a big improvment over those old tech cars/trucks.
Also many changes in RV construction methods and materials after the crisis was over and new tech was the norm.
Jim
'03 2500 Dodge/Cummins HO 3.73 6 speed manual Jacobs
'97 Park Avanue 28' with two slides
|
JIMNLIN
Big Cabin, OK
Senior Member
Joined: 09/14/2003
View Profile
|
minnow wrote:I for one am glad to see it. RV industry has had too good for too long. This has led to arrogance from both the manufacturers and dealers towards the customers. I for one would like to see one more real bad year of sales and then maybe these guys would re-learn words like humility and appreciation.
WOW. Do you realize if sales go down and layoff time comes who that hurts. For what purpose does laying off the workers with families serve.
What in the world is your point ??
|
|
|
