OK Brothers and Sisters, The DW and I put a down payment on a 2004 Country Coach,Newport Model.
We will sign for it next week, but until then I (WE) need some feedback from other Country Coach owners as to what we are getting into.
I went to a Country Coach fourm and found nothing but problems, I know if everything is going right we tend to keep quiet and only post if there is a problem, thats just human nature.
Judging from the fourm this could be a very unwise move, because we are selling our sticks and bricks to go full timing.
Someone make me feel better and tell me something good about the Country Coach PLEASE
Larry and Rita
I don’t need anger management-I just need people to stop pissing me off.
Vancouver, WA
2006 Holiday Rambler DP
Welcome to the full timing lifestyle. My wife and i have been full timers for going on 6 years now, in a Monaco, which has many similarities to CC. Please understand that the overwhelming majority of posts on coach specific sites are looking for help with one problem or another. Reading of these issues will help you and you will find that as time goes by you will understand the issues better and better. These coaches are complex and things do go wrong.
I think your "Newport" name is a floor plan name. There should be another name on the side of the coach near the door. Aspire and Intrigue are a couple. Most of the important components in the coach are built by others and used in many different coaches. Country Coach built there own chassis which was a semi monocoque design and was highly reguarded in the business. I believe they used mostly Cat engines and of coarse Allison transmissions. If you can fill us in on the specifics of the equipment in your coach I'm sure you will get lots of feed back.
Over all CC was a respected brand with build good build quality and good component selection. The biggest deal for you is how well this coach was maintained. If there are maintenance records available, of over them in detail.
Hi Larry and Rita,
The pecking order for Country Coach in 2004 was, Affinity, Allure, Inspire, Intrigue, Lexa and Magna, with Magna being the top of the line. The only "Newport" model listed on Nada for 2004 was an Allure. I have no personal knowledge with this unit, but we do own a 2000 CC Intrigue, and have found it to be a very good and reliable unit for our needs. If you find that the reviews on line are too negative, you may consider moving up in model quality and down a few years in age. We have had very good luck going with higher quality slightly older units.
Hope this helps,
Good luck,
Grant
We have a 2004 Country Coach Allure Seaside 33' and love it. We full time in it. We have the 370 ISL Cummins. It has 2 slides, living-dining and bedroom. High quality coach. We have 90,000 miles on ours. I would not hesitate to purchase another. Other than normal maintenance, the things we have had go wrong on our CC are not CC related items. Things such as Hydro Hot repairs, new Dometic refrigerator, Kwikee step problems, etc which you would have on any brand coach.
Country Coach is back in business although not building coaches yet. The Country Coach yahoo forum is a great resource. There is a former CC technician who monitors that forum and can assist obtaining parts. We still go to RV shows but have never found any other coach that enticed us to even consider a trade.
Lonny & Diane
2004 Country Coach Allure 33' "Big Blue"
Towing 2008 Chev Colorado 4x4
Semper Fi
furycove wrote: Hi Larry and Rita,
The pecking order for Country Coach in 2004 was, Affinity, Allure, Inspire, Intrigue, Lexa and Magna, with Magna being the top of the line. The only "Newport" model listed on Nada for 2004 was an Allure. I have no personal knowledge with this unit, but we do own a 2000 CC Intrigue, and have found it to be a very good and reliable unit for our needs. If you find that the reviews on line are too negative, you may consider moving up in model quality and down a few years in age. We have had very good luck going with higher quality slightly older units.
Hope this helps,
Good luck,
Grant
I think if you check REAL CLOSE you'll find a pecking order of Inspire; Allure; Intrique; Magna; Lexa and Affinity at the top of the heap. Lexa was short lived I believed because of design problems.
My friend has an 05 Allure, major problems. Cracking slides, cracking roof, electrical night mare, busted air bag. ECM fried, rear camera never worked right. Run Forrest run.
The Newport is the Allure (and Sully, you forgot the Inspire ant Tribute models, which all slotted in below the Allure in different years).
This 2004 Newport should come with the same ISL 370 mentioned, we have the same year and engine in the High Cascade model.
A few things to confirm, to know going in:
-Does it have the aluminum radiator? (Ours does not, but worth knowing going in, as many manufacturers (not just CC) had problems with the aluminum radiators)
-Does it have a PTO (Power Take Off)? Not all do, ours coach does not. If it does, has the 'Wet Seal' modification been made to it?
-Many CC's, and other coach manufacturers too, had problem fiber glass 'spidering'. That can cause the darker paints to have problems. (Ours did, and I knew this going in. If properly cleaned and waxed, this can remain a cosmentic item only. Worse case, it could cause the need for a paint job...) (Looke for little flexs or spots inside of the darker paints, to see if this coach could be impacted.)
All of the above, as well as normal age of tire, batteries, maint records, and over all care condition - become a factor.
As mentioned, all of these more advanced rigs, have complex systems that require maintenance - and things do go wrong. As Chevy Chase was known to say 'It's al part of the experience!'!
IMO, the Allure gets you all of the great mechanicals of the CC line, and without many of the 'glitz' items of the higher up the food chain CC's. It, along with the CC Intrigue, were coaches we had on our 'short list'. The only 'Must Have' missing on this coach from our shopping list, was a slide out generator. 04 Intrigues, Magnas, Affinity units had the slide out - but the Allure did not get it until 05 I believe. The coach had too many othe 'Must Have's' for us to walk away from it - and it was in good low miles condition - so it is our rig for the long term!
If you go into this, knowing you will need to put time and money into this over the years ahead to make it 'your coach' - I believe it is a solid foundation coach to provide years of good service.
Factor some of those check points, and if not too late - negotiate accordingly.
Best of luck, and have fun, and remain safe,
Smitty
Sully2....you are quite right, sorry about that. The Affinity was indeed the top of the line.
To the OP, just a footnote on Country Coach. We stopped in to see the newly re-opened facility in Junction City Oregon this past spring, on our way home, and were very impressed with the people and the service. They were very helpful, and if I were looking at a used unit, I would not hesitate to call them with any concerns about a particular model.
Happy Hunting,
Grant
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