Good Sam RV Owners Survey Results

For Immediate Release

Council Contact:
Good Sam Club
Sue Bray
805.667.4440
[email protected]

Public Relations Contact:
Julie Calzone
337.235.2924, ext. 3
[email protected]

Good Sam Club RV Owners? Advisory Council Identifies Major Concerns for RVers

First Report To Members Includes Member Survey Results


(Ventura, Calif.) - The Good Sam Club?s RV Owners? Advisory Council (RVOAC) was appointed earlier this year for the purpose of identifying RV-related issues of major concern to the membership of the Good Sam Club, an RV owners club of more than a million members. RVOAC is also charged with analyzing those issues and making recommendations to the Good Sam Club management on matters of policy and legislative priorities. 

RVOAC has already completed a detailed member survey to determine what issues Good Sam Club members deemed most important to them.  The survey presented nine specific questions on issues thought to be of interest to RVers.  It included an opportunity for ?write-in comments? to catch other issues of major concern not addressed in the specific questions used in the survey. 

The tabulated results of the survey showed the following results listing members? concerns, starting with the highest ranked issues first.

1.  Quality of RV manufacturing 98%
2.  Availability of competent RV service                            93%
3.  Existence of adequate Lemon Law protection                                 87%
4.  High fuel costs 86%
5.  Protection from local parking ordinances                                 79%
6.  Availability of suitable commercial RV parks                                                 65%
7.  Federal access user fees (80% retained by federal facility)                                                            63%
8.  Decreased Availability/high cost of RV storage yards                                                                 52%
9.  Uniform state special RV drivers licensing                                     33%

Unlike the tabulated questions in which fuel costs came in as the fourth ?most important? issue, comments about high fuel costs clearly ranked first in the ?write in? portion of the survey.  Complaints about high costs of everything (including fuel cost), from campground fees to RV repair costs clearly attracted the greatest number of comments. 

RVers are increasingly concerned about local restrictions about where they can park their RVs.  There are a number of issues relating to ?big rigs?, including campgrounds that do not adequately provide for them, fuel stations that don?t have adequate room to maneuver (or have steep curbs), and a general desire for RV-friendly highway signage.  Interest was also expressed in ?no frills? campground options, and in having federal state and local parks provide an adequate percentage of non-reservable sites.

?Most notably, the rather startling result is the 1-2-3 place finish of RV quality, RV service, and Lemon Laws,? said Tom Gonser, chairman of RVOAC.  ?As the Council said in its report, it's as if RVers were saying ?build it right? and if you don't, get it fixed the first time.  And if you fail on the first two I want Lemon Law protection.? 

According to Gonser, "RVers would not be at all surprised at the high rankings of these three items. The real surprise is that RV owners now have a forum through the Good Sam Club to express their concerns, and potentially have them represented in meaningful discussions with industry leaders.  RVOAC members intend to use the survey as a means to bring constructive focus on the issues pertaining to RV quality and service.?

Neither the Council nor the Good Sam Club can have any major influence on pricing.  However, other issues, including concerns about RV quality, RV service, and even the availability of suitable Lemon Law protection have the Council?s attention as matters of priority, and the Council is studying possible courses of action to deal with these key issues.

The issues pertaining to Lemon Laws are to some extent an emotional reaction to the frustration so many RVers have to the quality and service issues.  There are substantive issues here as well, as the state laws are a very confusing patchwork that offers some protection in some states, but virtually none in others.  Moreover there is confusion about which state laws govern which transactions.  The real need here is for reasonable protection that is consistent among states. ?What constitutes ?reasonable? will require balancing the interests of the industry and RV owners to come up with a fair and balanced solution,? said Gonser.

All Good Sam members, the Council?s four members were appointed late last year.  Chairman Tom Gonser founded the popular website, www.rversonline.org after retiring as a highly regarded attorney and having served as Executive Director of the American Bar Association.  Jan McNeil is a full time RVer who retired from her career as a realtor and now works out of her RV with her husband, Chris, a physician.  Leo Everitt has been RVing since 1972, and was an executive with such major manufacturers as Cummins and RV maker FMC.  Bill Estes retired in 2006 after 38 years with Trailer Life and MotorHome magazines, and is considered to be one of the most trusted and influential voices in the RV world.


About Good Sam Club
The Good Sam Club, www.goodsamclub.com, is the world?s largest RV owners organization with one million member families. Founded in 1966, the Club offers its members a wide variety of services, including RV Insurance, 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.

Thanks for the report.  No surprises there

None what so ever

I'm surprised that they were surprised by the top 3 issues.

wendycoke said:

I'm surprised that they were surprised by the top 3 issues.

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I think you failed to read the comment by Chairman

"RVers would not be at all surprised at the high rankings of these three items.

blueblood said:

I think you failed to read the comment by Chairman

"RVers would not be at all surprised at the high rankings of these three items.

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No, I didn't fail to read that comment. And as an RVer, I was not surprised at all by the rankings. But they also said "...the rather startling result is the 1-2-3 place finish of RV quality, RV service, and Lemon Laws...." The council members were reported to be RVers themselves so they should not have been "at all surprised" and should not have commented that the results were "rather startling."

Not even one suprise on what they covered.

The top three concerns should be no surprise to anyone related to the RV industry.  As long as the the loudest and most frequent voice heard in state and national legislative facilities is the RVIA, we are on our own.  Their agenda is to protect the interests of the manufacturers, not the end users.

I believe the 1-2-3 ranking was a suprise to the publishers of Motorhome and Trailer Life.  According to the reviews published in their magazines everything's hunky-dory in the industry - when's the last time you saw anything even remotely critical in a published "test" report?

Now that Bill Estes is out in the real RV world, maybe the problems will get some press attention, but I doubt it.  We should invite him to join us here and he'll get an earful

Ron said:

Not even one suprise on what they covered.

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Maybe so but put the timing of the survery iin the context of the results. It was taken when fuel prices were at their peak and every e-group was full on nothing else and in addition attendance at rallies at all levels had declined significantly. I expect most folks woould have bet that fuel prices would have been number one.  Yet it came in 4th and with a signifoicant margin from the number one. That is not only a surprise, I think it speaks volumes as to the feelings of recreational vehicle owners and should make an impact on manufacturers.

Leo,

Anyone that has been around very long can remember the long and heated discussions about the lack of quality by the manufacturers, the lousy treatment of customers by the dealers/service and the lack of lemon laws to resolve issues.  Fuel costs get a lot of press too but most accept that they are not good and are really a small part of RVing costs.

What I am surprised about is that there were few if any complaints about the poor design but those may be buried in the quality issues as most people cannot differentiate design from quality.  G

What I am surprised about is that there were few if any complaints about the poor design but those may be buried in the quality issues as most people cannot differentiate design from quality.  G

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I find the inconsistency in design quality to be irksome. Even high end rigs will have several examples of well thought out design and then you find something just plain idiotic. And not something obscure either - it will be something like a poorly placed tank drain or lack of a light switch where it is needed all the time.  Sometimes you have to wonder if those guys ever designed an RV before! Most companies develop internal standards on how to design most things to avoid problems and reduce customer complaints, but in RVs every new floor plan seems to start the learning process all over again. 

James Godward said:

Leo,



What I am surprised about is that there were few if any complaints about the poor design but those may be buried in the quality issues as most people cannot differentiate design from quality.  G

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Good point. Design comes in two flavors. One is the issue I take you to be referring. The other is the design of the product which can have a major impact on the ability of even a concientous assembler being able to do a good job. Tolerance stack-ups comes to mind here as one example.

The survey addressed only the latter in the prepared questions i.e the quality of manufacture. The survey form left two wide open spaces to add any thing one wanted. We got over 2000 surveys returned and thus over 4000 write-ins. I read them all and I don't recall anyone bringing up the concern of the design per se. I just quickly flipped through them again to check myself and I don't see any. 

RV Roamer said:

Sometimes you have to wonder if those guys ever designed an RV before!  

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Sometimes I wonder if the people who design RVs ever actually LIVE in the RVs they design.