Caravan Owner Satisfaction Awards

The Caravan Owner Satisfaction Survey was launched in 2012, and over the years many thousands of caravan owners have reported in depth on their experiences of buying, owning and using their outfit.

The purchase of a caravan usually represents a significant investment, and buyers are right to expect a well-built product that has been properly checked by the dealership prior to collection. And it is entirely reasonable to expect good after-sales care from a dealer as part of the bargain.

What makes this survey stand out is that it is interested in both new and pre-owned caravans (we use the description “pre-owned” as “second-hand” implies there has been only one owner from new, and this may not be so in many cases).

The results are essential reading for anyone considering buying a caravan, new or used, whether from a dealer or private sale. The information and league tables of the best performing brands and dealers will be made available to all. It also provides valuable data for caravan manufacturers to make use of when planning and improving their own products.

Although the majority of respondents appear to be satisfied with their caravans, this is no justification for manufacturers or dealers to become complacent. We believe in telling it like it is, however uncomfortable that may be for the industry. In doing so, we hope to improve the whole caravan ownership experience: the aim of the survey is to help caravanners buy better.  

Congratulations to Coachman on winning this year’s New Caravans Best Manufacturer category, with an excellent satisfaction rating of 84%.

Coachman performed well last year, finishing in fourth place. But this year’s win is a reward for a significant improvement on last year’s 80.5% satisfaction score.

Bailey and Swift have often been closely matched in this survey, and they couldn’t be any closer this year. Bailey scores 79.1% and the Swift Group scores... 79.1%. These two big names take joint second spot and complete the podium.

There are Silver Awards for Lunar (74.9%) and Elddis and associated brands (71.1%).

If you have a good memory you’ll recall that last year’s results were dominated by the Continental caravan makers. Their disappearance from the sharp-end of the results isn’t due to sudden drop off in satisfaction, but because the likes of Adria, Hymer and Knaus have not reached the tougher minimum sample size. However, the Gold and Silver Award winners on last year’s podium are all good enough for a mention in dispatches.

In other words, these manufacturers would have earned a Gold or Silver Award this year if a larger sample size had shown equally favourable results.

As in previous years, most respondents to the new caravan survey own British-built tourers. In fact, home-grown caravans make up just under 94.5% of the tourers in this year’s survey.

That’s almost exactly the same percentage as in 2018, and suggests that, however satisfying to own the Continental brands may be, they are not yet making significant headway in terms of sales volumes in the UK market.

2018 update

It’s all change at the top of the new caravan league table this year. Congratulations to Adria with an excellent satisfaction score of 89%.

Last year’s winner, Sprite, drops a long way down the pecking order to fifth but still picks up a Silver award with a score of 79%.

Domestic brands are locked out of the podium places this year. In 2017 the number of survey responses wasn’t sufficient for Eriba to earn more than a mention in dispatches, but this year enough owners have taken part to give us full confidence in the results. Eriba takes second spot with an excellent score of 89%.

Another German brand runs Eriba very close. From nowhere last year, Knaus earns a Gold Award with a score of 88%.

There’s a big gulf between the three top Continental brands and the leading domestic manufacturer, with Coachman taking fourth spot with a highly respectable 81% and a Silver award.

What of the industry’s other big names? Bailey edges this year’s grudge match with Swift, scoring 76%. That’s enough to earn a Silver award. Swift is only a short distance behind scoring 74%, closely followed by Compass (73%) and Lunar (73%).There’s a little daylight between these brands and Elddis with its score of 70%, but that’s still enough to earn a Silver award.

These percentages reflect a concerning trend of lower scores for most domestic brands. However, they still make up the lion’s share of caravans in the survey, accounting for 94% of all the new ’vans. However, that’s a drop from 98% last year. The growing number of Continental ’vans in the survey and their strong satisfaction scores shows the big-name home-grown brands cannot afford to be complacent.

Those are our winning manufacturers. What about this year’s best dealers? Survey respondents are asked about the seller’s knowledge and attitude, the condition and presentation of the caravans, the quality of pre-delivery inspection, the handover, and the efficiency with which any warranty claims were dealt. Finally, there’s the all-important question: “Would you buy a caravan from this dealer again?”

In many cases, the answer is an emphatic “yes”. The industry can give itself a collective pat on the back, with some extremely strong results. No fewer than seven dealers have earned a Gold Award, up from just three last year.

Peter Roberts Caravans in Huddersfield is this year’s winner in our New Caravans Best Supplying Dealer category. The dealership received full marks from every single respondent.

It’s very close in second and third. Coupland’s takes second spot with a satisfaction rating of 91.3%, just edging Broad Lane Leisure into third with 91%. Both have turned last year’s Silver Awards into Gold, with significantly improved scores. Last year’s winner, Blackmore Vale Leisure, may have dropped down the pecking order but still does enough to secure a Gold Award with a score of 89.7%. The other dealers reaching the gold standard this year are Salop Leisure, Shrewsbury (90.3%), Winchester Caravans (87.6%), and Davan Caravans and Motorhomes (82.3%).

Some fifteen dealerships earn a Silver Award, slightly up on last year’s ten. Top of the league is Swindon Caravan Centre (77.6%), which made healthy gains on its 2018 score of 70.8%. Even more dealers would have been in contention for awards had enough of their customers completed the survey. For example, last year’s second place finisher, Sussex Caravan Centre, earns a mention in dispatches this year and might have been at the sharp end once again had a few more owners responded to the survey.

2018 update

Of course, the caravan itself is only part of the ownership experience. Good dealer service is vital to make owning a tourer enjoyable. It’s easy to be all smiles and handshakes when someone is handing over his or her hard-earned money, but the best dealers will be there for their customers through thick and thin. As the manufacturer portion of the survey shows, faults do crop up. What really counts is how quickly and courteously problems are put right.

Let’s look at dealers selling new caravans first. This year’s top spot goes to Blackmore Vale Leisure with a remarkable score of 97%. It’s an exceptional achievement from the Dorset dealership, and reflects strong scores across all aspects of the dealer’s operations, from sales to the pre-delivery inspection to warranty work.

Blackmore Vale Leisure has leap-frogged some more familiar names from previous surveys to take first place. Sussex Caravan Centre earned a Silver award last year with a score of 80%, but turns Silver into Gold in 2018 and moves into second position with a score of 92%. That’s a strong year-on-year improvement, founded on very good scores for every aspect of the dealer’s services.

Last year Ropers Leisure was mentioned in dispatches, with some very satisfied customers but not enough of them to provide a robust enough sample to include in the main results. With more completed surveys this year and most of them speaking of the Catterick Bridge dealership in glowing terms, Ropers finishes third scoring 88%.

Our top three are the only dealers to reach a high enough standard to earn a Gold award, but there’s a respectable number of high-achievers earning Silver. Some ten dealerships across the country make the grade, although that’s down from 16 last year. In fairness, many other dealers achieved strong scores but without enough respondents to give us the confidence to include them in the main results. Some 14 dealerships fall into this category, up from nine last year.

Overall, the best dealers are achieving very high standards, with even stronger scores than last year for the top three. The high flyers are backed by an able supporting cast, but with the majority of dealerships surveyed missing out on an award there’s work to be done for those at the wrong end of the league table.

Pre-owned caravan buyers expect high standards from dealers as well as from the tourers they buy. We expect them to be treated just as well as caravanners shopping brand new, so they answer exactly the same questions about their supplying dealer in our owner satisfaction surveys as new caravan buyers. Do they receive the service they deserve?

If you shop at Blackmore Vale Leisure, they certainly do. The Dorset dealership wins the pre-owned category with a Gold Medal-winning score of 96.4%.

There’s very little between the dealers at the top of the table. Peter Roberts Caravans ranks favourably in this category too, taking second place with a score of 95.6%. Davan Caravans and Motorhomes completes the podium with a score of 92.3%.

Five dealers earn a Gold Award this year. The other two are Salop Leisure (83.2%) and Swindon Caravan Centre (80.4%).

No dealers achieve a Silver Award this year, although that’s because of insufficient responses rather than insufficient service. No fewer than nine dealerships earn a mention in dispatches, and would have earned either Gold or Silver if a more robust sample size had produced similar scores.

Many of those that fall into this category reached the threshold for the main survey in the new caravan dealer category, including Broad Lane Leisure, Lowdham Leisureworld, Oxford Caravan Centre and Winchester Caravans. So appearing in both lists should give prospective customers confidence.

2018 update

You should be able to expect good service, whether you are spending £3,000 or £30,000. So it’s interesting to see which dealers treat their pre-owned caravan customers with as much care as those buying new.

Congratulations to Winchester Caravans for a near-perfect 99% score. Every one of the survey respondents would be happy to buy a pre-owned tourer from Winchester Caravans again.

The winner of the new caravan dealer category, Blackmore Vale Leisure, finishes a close second with a score of 97%. As with Winchester Caravans, every one of Blackmore’s customers would happily purchase another caravan from them.

Ropers Leisure was mentioned in dispatches last year but moves up to third spot this year, scoring 95%. Salop Leisure is the final Gold award winner with a very strong score of 94%.

That would have been enough to win this section of the judging comfortably last year, further evidence the very best dealers are now setting extremely high benchmarks for the rest of the industry to match.

However, only one dealer earns a Silver award – the Swindon Caravans Group. For most dealers that would be a cause for celebration but Swindon Caravans won this section of the survey last year so it’s not the result the company would have hoped for.

It’s a shame to see the number of Silver medallists drop from four to one. However, there are eight dealerships mentioned in dispatches, so that number might well have been higher with a few more survey responses.

Second-hand shouldn’t mean second best. While many of us would buy a brand new caravan if funds allowed, a pre-owned tourer is often more cost-effective, perhaps allowing the purchase of a bigger or better-equipped caravan for the same budget.

Buying and owning a pre-owned caravan should be just as enjoyable as running a brand new one. Indeed, on the evidence of this survey, pre-owned caravan owners are a more satisfied bunch than their new counterparts.

The most satisfied of all are owners of pre-owned Bailey caravans. With a superb score of 86.4%, Bailey takes the top spot and a thoroughly deserved Gold Award.

It’s a close run thing, though. The Swift Group is only just behind with a highly commendable score of 85.2% and a Gold medal. Elddis, Compass and co also strike gold with a satisfaction rating of 85%.

The only brand to earn a Silver Award is Lunar, with an impressive satisfaction score of 79%.

Wondering where all the Continental brands have gone? Well, it’s a similar story in the pre-owned category to the new caravan awards – there simply aren’t enough responses for them to be included in the main results this year. That said, last year’s first and second (Eriba and Adria) both score highly with the relatively small number of owners completing the survey.

2018 update

The two top-rated manufacturers of new caravans swap places in the pecking order for pre-owned tourers. Eriba (91%) holds on to the top spot it achieved in 2017 with a healthy lead over Adria (87%) in second position.

Sterling (86%) has the honour of completing the top three, and the distinction of being the only domestic brand to earn a Gold award in either the new or pre-owned categories.

Most of the big-name British brands have seen their satisfaction rating drop slightly in 2018. Coachman is an honourable exception, matching last year’s score of 85% and missing out on a Gold award by an agonising tenth of one per cent. Bailey, Swift, Lunar, Elddis and Sprite win Silver awards again, but with lower satisfaction ratings than last year.

Overall, however, owners of pre-owned ’vans tend to be a more satisfied bunch than new caravan owners. Across all brands, the average score for new tourers is 75%. For pre-owned caravans it’s 83%.

This could be a sign that the first owner notices faults and has them corrected, allowing the second or third owner a more trouble-free experience. Or perhaps caravanners have different expectations when buying an older tourer.

Now we come to a new award for 2019: Best Caravan Manufacturer. This combines the results of the new and pre-owned categories to name one overall champion.

And the winner is... Bailey. With second place as a manufacturer of new caravans and first place in the pre-owned category, Bristol’s finest is propelled to top spot overall.

Bailey leads the way with an overall satisfaction rating of 81.7%, but Swift is oh-so-close in second on 81.3%. Third spot belongs to Lunar with a satisfaction score of 75.8%.

So, those are this year’s award winners. Let’s take a closer look at the survey results for any interesting trends and developments.

Some 2,483 caravanners completed the survey this year, a sizeable 18% increase on 2018. Practical Caravan and The Camping and Caravanning Club would like to thank everyone who took the time and trouble to complete the survey.

Most respondents bought a new caravan. Just over two-thirds (67.8%) are the first owners of their tourer, with 32.2% buying pre-owned. That’s a shift back towards pre-owned caravans compared with 2018’s split of 75.1% new and 25.9% used.

Owners of new caravans in particular are likely to be quite, well, mature... Some 39% of new caravan owners are aged 65-74, reflecting touring’s popularity among retired couples with plenty of leisure time to enjoy their caravanning. Pre-owned caravanners are, on average, a little younger, with 27% aged 45-54 and a further 27% aged 55-64.

Younger generations aren’t so well represented. Caravan owners aged 44 or younger made up 6% of respondents to the new survey and 17% of the pre-owned caravan respondents.

Budget-wise, £20,000-£24,999 is the sweet spot for new caravan purchases, accounting for 42% of new tourers in the survey. That was the most popular price band last year as well, when it accounted for 39.6% of new caravans surveyed.

Pre-owned buyers most commonly spend £10,000-£14,999, accounting for 38% of the used caravans in the survey. The £5,000-£9,999 price bracket is the next most popular, accounting for 24%. Together, that’s 62% across these two bands, a slight drop from 64% last year.

Those are the headline results. Let’s delve a little deeper to find out more about the survey respondents and the vans they buy.

The majority of the 2103 respondents have bought a brand-new caravan. Some 75% purchased new and 25% pre-owned. That’s a big shift towards new from last year’s ratio of 59% to 41%.

Across both the new and used surveys, our respondents are a mature bunch. Some 38% are aged 65-74, and 92% are 45 or over (a fraction down on last year’s numbers). Largely reflecting the mature age of respondents, 86% of households surveyed don’t have any children under 16 (a slight drop compared with 2017).

We asked respondents how much they had spent on their caravans. Perhaps all those newspaper stories about baby boomers having all the money are true, as some 40% spent £20,000-£24,999 on their new ’van, making this the most popular £5k price band. That’s up from 32% last year. In 2017 new ’vans costing £15,000-£19,999 were the most popular, making up 43% of those in the survey. That dropped to 37% this year.

Among owners of pre-owned caravans, most buyers spent between £5,000 and £14,999, accounting for 64% of those surveyed compared with 70% last year.

The popularity of motor-movers shows no sign of slowing, with 84% of respondents having one fitted to their tourer, up a little on last year. Powrtouch continues to dominate, accounting for 69% of movers in the survey (up from 62% last year).

Some of the most important survey questions ask owners what went wrong with their caravans. It’s no surprise that caravans with few faults or none at all tend to have strong overall satisfaction ratings.

Applying the same minimum sample size from the New caravan and Pre-owned caravan categories, Coachman seems to build the most fault-free new caravans. Some 35.9% of owners reported no problems whatsoever, an impressive improvement on last year’s 20.3%. The reliability of Coachman caravans has clearly been a big factor in helping it to win the overall Best Caravan Manufacturer category this year.

There’s clear daylight between Coachman and the rest. Of the other big brands, Bailey is next best with 17.4% of ’vans having no faults. Lunar is close behind, with 17.2%. The Swift Group is only slightly further back with 16.7%. There’s a small gap back to Elddis and associated brands with 15.6% of new caravan owners reporting a problem-free caravan.

The question is, are the same brands the most reliable among pre-owned tourers? Well Coachman again does well but falls just under the minimum sample size. Among those manufacturers making the cut, Bailey performs best with 44.9% of owners reporting no faults. The Swift Group is just behind with 43.4%, while some 43.1% of owners report no problems with their Elddis. Lunar lags some way behind the other big names with just 24.6% of pre-owned vans proving fault-free.

At first glance it seems odd that older, pre-owned tourers should develop fewer faults than brand new ones, but it’s a pattern we’ve seen in previous years. We suspect this is due to faults having been traced and solved by the original owner. It may also be that owners of older tourers are prepared to accept some foibles as a caravan ages.

Last year, the Continental brands featured strongly in the list of most reliable caravans. This year, relatively low sample sizes have kept them out of the main results. However, if the survey findings for the likes of Adria, Hymer and Knaus had been repeated in greater numbers they would have been among the most reliable brands in the 2019 survey.

Congratulations to Coachman and Bailey on taking the best manufacturer crown in this year’s New Caravans Best Manufacturer and Pre-owned Caravans Best Manufacturer categories respectively. In fact, Bailey deserves double congratulations for becoming the first winner of the Best Caravan Manufacturer award, reflecting strong scores across from new and used caravan owners.

Last year we found that overall satisfaction ratings were down. This year that has been reversed, with improved satisfaction scores for most brands in both halves of the survey. That’s a trend we hope will continue in 2020.

2018 awards update

Perhaps the most significant result of this year’s survey is the strong performance of Continental brands. Both the new and pre-owned parts of the survey are dominated by Adria and Eriba, with clear daylight between these two companies and the best British manufacturers.

With some honourable exceptions, this year also saw lower satisfaction scores than in 2017. It’s a trend that we hope will be reversed next year.