I can sympathize with this. I really, really despise the excessive use of self-tapping screws everywhere.
Because Ford, GM, BMW, Mercedes and VW sell hundreds of thousands of cars per year, just in the US. The RV industry as a whole sells maybe 100,000 units per year combined, of which Class A Motorhomes are maybe only a few percent. For Newmar or any other company to invest in the kinds of tooling and resources necessary to build RVs to standards of automotive vehicles, your RV would cost a lot, lot more. The automotive industry is able to do this because of their economies of scale. It’s much easier to lower the tooling cost per unit to a palatable number when you’re selling 12,000 units/month of just a single model in your lineup. Don’t forget that whenever they do a model refresh in the automotive industry, some of the tooling has to be scrapped and they have to reinvest in new tooling. So are you willing to pay 40%-60% more for your RV?
I’m sure its not that they don’t know how to do it. It’s probably much more expensive, or they’ve not invested the time and resources to experimenting with it enough. Newmar in my opinion takes the same philosophy as Apple when it comes to RVs. To be clear upfront, I’m not comparing the quality of an Apple product to the quality of a Newmar product, I’m saying their philosophy when it comes to innovation seems similar and that philosophy is essentially “we don’t care about being first. we care about doing it better than everyone else”. Assuming that’s right, then 9/10 times that means your innovations will come later, when the kinks have been worked out and the product is ready for prime time. Speaking generically, many companies make the mistake of trying to be first to market and end up producing a dumpster fire of a product, often going under because of that rush to market.
Actually, you do because the market is willing to buy it that way. I get that you want more out of it. I think I lot of us, myself included would welcome some tech improvements but I’d also caution to be careful what you wish for. The KISS principal is real. Multiplex might eliminate a lot of wiring but it can also make troubleshooting much more difficult when there are problems, and lets not kid ourselves and assume there won’t be any problems.
Yeah, I don’t really have a counterpoint to this. They could do some things better here. Snap Rivets come to mind. Predrilled holes where needed with countersunk, stainless steel screws also seem better. I really, really do not like the excessive number of self-tapping screws used.
This part I agree with wholeheartedly. A good, modern infotainment system is not hard, its not terribly expensive and there’s really not much of an excuse for the lackluster tech currently being installed in the dash, even on the high lines. It’s all pretty terrible when there are a lot of really good, off the shelf units that could be used instead and just plugged right in.
As a software developer, I don’t fear technology. I embrace it - for the right use cases. I’m no fan of smart homes or Alexas as I think they make our society dumber, more lazy and they provide an avenue for corporations to gather private data about their customers. If you think that’s not happening, you are absolutely deluding yourself. I could go on an entire rant about this, but I am resisting the urge.
That’s because there’s not much left to do to a car to improve it besides giving it more HP or improving the fuel economy. People don’t care so much about HP because honestly, when are you going to use 500HP in real life? It’s great for track days and every other day, you’re using a 10th of that to haul yourself to the grocery story or work or wherever. People do care about fuel economy as that touches the wallet and so those have started to climb, but much of that innovation was spurred by regulation, not the car makers desire to improve their product.
Oh man, the glass dash. Cool? Yeah its neat. BUT, come with me down a little hypothetical road. You’re moving down the road at a reasonable speed and all of a sudden, your glass dash goes dark. Just plain turns off. You now have zero instrumentation. There are no analog gauges for you to fallback to. Did anyone else notice this? It’s 100% completely possible and I am confident it will happen to someone at some point. You no longer have any information about your speed, fluid levels, temperatures, gear, engine load - you’re flying blind.
They would almost certainly have to make a deal with a residential furniture maker. As @TJ&LadyDi mentioned, the pilot and co/pilot chairs would still be too unique to be replaced by any residential off the shelf unit, though it would be funny to see a couple of lazyboys in place of them. The booths would also be problematic.
I’m not dismissing and agree it probably should have been available on a 2018 DS, but...almost all of those options became available on the 2019 DS...as options. I’d offer that some of them should have been standard but it all comes down to the numbers that Newmar is seeing. I can’t expect them to take a haircut on their margin to give me something for nothing.
I think I am seeing where you are coming from, @Neal; a "vehicle" vs a small house with wheels. If we have the same expectations of both, then I suppose technology becomes an important factor.
Idk. Seems I can find a bunch of other posts where @Neal enjoys the effort he put into “making the coach his”, learning about its systems and how it works. You don’t have to be thankful to manual switches, windows, or shades. 2019 Dutchstars introduced a power drivers-side window (power windows in the sidewall would be cool but imagine the labor in replacing them if/when they break!). Power shades have been an option for quite a while now and are nothing new. You don’t even need a new coach for that. Would you want square dials on your dash instead of round? What shape would you like? I’m sure that 3D printer can crank out any shape you might like!
