A second consecutive overall victory in the new caravans category for Adria, plus two gongs for Midlands dealer Salop Leisure, were among the big wins at the Practical Caravan Owner Satisfaction Awards 2015, which took place today during The Caravan & Motorhome Show at EventCity, Manchester.
Now in its third year, and once again hosted in association with our sponsor Coast, the specialist insurer, this is the only caravan awards scheme that is based entirely on owners’ experiences and judgements. It is also the only one to feature pre-owned tourers and their supplying dealers, as well as new ones. Over the past year we’ve been asking you to give us your feedback on both new and pre-owned caravans you’ve bought since 2011, and the service you received from your dealer.
More than 2000 of you filled in the survey online or in the magazine; now our awards founder and coordinator ‘Gentleman’ Jack Bancroft has analysed your responses and the results are in, with Gold Awards going to manufacturers and dealers scoring a satisfaction rating of between 85% and 100%, and Silver Awards being given to those scoring 70-84%.
The overall winners for each category were given a trophy by Group editor Alastair Clements on stage at the show. And there was a familiar name for the first of those gongs, as Slovenian manufacturer Adria was awarded the top prize among makers of new caravans for the second year in a row, just pipping Polish firm Freedom, with Sprite by the Swift Group the best placed of the British marques, just ahead of Coachman.
There was further success for Continental manufacturers in the Pre-owned Caravans category, as overall honours went to German firm Dethleffs, followed by another strong showing by Adria. The Swift Group once again produced the best-placed Brits, with its dealer special Bessacarrs just edging out its own-brand models.
The trophies in the supplying dealers categories for both new and pre-owned caravans will be heading back to the Midlands after a spectacular performance by Salop Leisure, which achieved an amazing 98% overall satisfaction score to leap from its Silver Award position for new caravans in 2014 to the top of the tree in 2015, edging out last year’s winners Leisure Sales (new caravans) and Beechwood Leisure (pre-owned caravans).
The full listing of Gold and Silver Award winners, along with an exhaustive analysis of manufacturers’ performances, will appear in the March 2015 edition of Practical Caravan magazine, which goes on sale on 29 January, but it was encouraging to see a fall in reader complaints in the perennial problems of new caravan fit and finish and, of course, water ingress. It’s clear that manufacturers are listening to their customers – and that their much-trumpeted new construction methods seem to be working.
And the creation of better caravans for better-informed buyers was the whole impetus behind the creation of these awards, so keep watching here at practicalcaravan.com over the coming weeks for the launch of the 2016 Owner Satisfaction Survey – and be sure to have your say!
It’s clear that manufacturers are listening to their customers