Press Releases |
Good Sam Club to Partner with RV Dealers to Create National Network
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Affinity Group, Inc.
Thursday March 24, 2005
(Ventura, CA) - The world’s largest organization of RV owners, the Good Sam Club, is creating a national network of authorized RV dealers. Good Sam Authorized dealers will have exclusive access to a wide range of products and services designed to increase store traffic and consumer confidence, including a national advertising campaign in leading industry publications, a free “RV Bonus Package” with $200 worth of products for every RV sold, and access to the highly acclaimed Good Sam Continued Service/Extended Warranty Program.
The authorized dealer network will also sell select pre-owned RVs as Good Sam Certified pre-owned RVs. This new sales tool will create a higher resale value for the RVs while giving the buyer greater peace-of-mind. A majority of pre-owned vehicles are on the market because their previous owners are purchasing newer rigs. As they spend more time RVing, they frequently upgrade to larger RVs or find another model that better suits their travel needs.
By requiring both high quality standards and a user-friendly structure for certified RV sales, the Good Sam Club program benefits consumers, RV dealers and the RV industry while bringing more credibility to the process of buying and selling pre-owned RVs. “With a million members and more than 35 years of experience in the RV industry, the Good Sam Club is uniquely qualified to design and implement this exciting new program,” said Sue Bray, executive Director of the Good Sam Club.
“Our experts have developed strict requirements that every pre-owned RV must meet in order to earn the ‘Good Sam Seal’ of approval,” continued Bray. In addition to the comprehensive vehicle inspection that all Good Sam certified pre-owned RVs will undergo, a 60-day warranty is included that covers the vehicle’s major components. “If the Good Sam Club is willing to stake its name on a particular pre-owned RV, then it had better meet or exceed customer expectations,” added Bray.
The same holds true for RV retailers who wish to join the new, elite network of Good Sam authorized RV dealerships. Dealers will be given territorial rights and the program will be promoted to the entire Good Sam member base. However, RV dealers will also be required to comply with strict quality standards for repair and customer service in order to qualify as an authorized pre-owned dealer. “We know that RV dealers throughout the United States work hard to meet the high standards that RV owners expect” said Bray. “We look forward to adding this certification to their measurement of excellence.”
The Good Sam Club is confident that a combination of high standards for both certified pre-owned RVs and the authorized dealers who service and sell them, will inspire trust and confidence on behalf of consumers and in turn promote the lifestyle served by the RV industry as a whole. They also believe that the Good Sam name will add credibility to RV dealerships just as it has for 1,700 campgrounds across the nation and Canada.
About the Good Sam Club
The Good Sam Club, www.goodsamclub.com, is the world’s largest RV owner’s organization with nearly one million member families. Founded in 1966, the Club offers its members a wide variety of services, including Extended Warranty on RVs (the Continued Service Plan), Emergency Road Service, RV Financing, Good Sam Credit Card and Life & Health Insurance, as well as member discounts at parks, campgrounds, and RV events. Good Sam Club members also receive a subscription to Highways, the Club’s popular RV travel magazine. Additionally, the Club represents more than 2,000 local RV chapters designed to bring RVers together from similar geographic regions for group camping excursions. Extremely committed to its RV members as well as to the environment, the club is a founder of the annual National Cleanup Day program and an advocate of public land access, Adopt-A-Highway programs and Adopt-A-Park programs, to name a few. The Good Sam Club is headquartered in Ventura, California, and is a subsidiary of Affinity Group Inc.
Contact: Kevin Hobbs, AGI Vice President/New Product Development
805.667.4255 khobbs@affinitygroup.com
Scott Blanc Dealer Program
1-800-547-9814, sblanc@affinitygroup.com,
Julie Calzone, CEO/Calzone
337.235.2924 Ext. 3 jcalzone@calzone.com
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