What constitutes an "entry level" Class A?

[AllenTC2]

So I've been researching, reading about, and even seeing first-hand various Class A RVs.

I was told to specifically check out Newmar, Tiffin, and Winnebago as they were better quality than the Thor models that got me thinking about RVing in the first place. But I came across a post regarding Newmar's Bay Star Sport that surprised me. It was an older post, can't recall if it was on here or iRV2, but the poster opined that all "entry-level" Class As had the same "cheap" materials.

That kind of surprised me. The Tiffin I was on was a 31' Allegro, which is one of their smallest current models. It seemed anything but "cheap." Even the much less expensive Winnebago Vista seemed to be made of nice stuff.

So what constitutes an "entry-level" Class A? Price? Size?

[Effy]

Not sure how folks make this out to be a vague or personalized term. Each manufacturer produces an entry level model in their tier of offerings. It says so on their websites. If I have the funds to buy a Prevost for my first RV, it is NOT an entry level MH. Scratching my head as to how "first" and "entry level" are considered synonymous. They aren't. Entry level is an actual term manufacturers use to define their cheapest model in their lineup. I've bought 2 entry level motorhomes, what would you call the second one? It certainly doesn't become a higher tier just because I had another one previously.

[falconbrother]

We bought our first motorhome used, from a friend. It was pretty cheap and needed a little TLC. We had been RV-ing for many years. Starter motorhome is a vague term. To me it means the first one you buy. That's a starter. I knew an old guy that bought a 1/4 million dollar starter. He had it long enough to know that driving a big motorhome wasn't for him. It stressed him out. He got into the mountains and hated it. An expensive lesson but, life's like that. We enjoyed our motorhome. It taught us that a travel trailer fits what we do better.

Reminds me.. My buddy died from cancer 18 months ago. We rode motorcycles together and were best buds. His saying was: "Life is short. Buy the **** motorcycle." Which was literally true and metaphorically true. What he meant was if you consider doing things and never actually do them life runs out and the window of opportunity closes.

[ct78barnes]

When we ordered our Winnebago we looked at the Adventure and it was 30,000 more than a Sightseer. We ordered our Sightseer with every options on the list . It still was less money then the Adventure with the same options. The year before we went to the Big Rally and the 45 ft coaches where going down the same line as The Vistas and Sightseers We got the 22.5 tires and full body paint and that was 6 years ago today we took delivery. We still love our 36 ft coach and have not found a campground that we could not fit into.

[Executive45]

IMO..construction is paramount to finding an excellent coach. Check the cabinetry. Is it fastened with screws or staples? 1/2" or 2" screws? How is the fit and finish? Do the cupboard doors close well? How about when you close the front door? Does it sound tinny or solid? How about amenities? Stinky slinky or macerator? Water heater or AquaHot? Full body paint? Did they paint the INSIDES of the slides so the body paint flows with the slides open? Electric awning or manual? What about the slide mechanisms? HWH or Schwintek? If it has air bags, how many? Inboard or outboard? A 10 bag system outboard mounted will ride much better than a 4 bagger. Lots of things to consider as you move up the food chain within a product line. To me, an entry level coach is simply the mfgs cheapest model. As you move up, the sticker list grows and so does the price. Once you move to the luxury line you will see differences but until you reach the top two or three coaches, it's all about amenities. Bigger tvs, residential fridges, solar panels, number of a/cs, etc.

One mfgs "entry level" coach may be head and shoulders above another's "up the line" coach. Choose your mfg wisely.......Dennis

[traveylin]

For your entry level, first rv,, there are two primary decsions.

Where you will use it will have a lot to say about the length. Many of the National and state parks and forests in the west were built for up to 30 foot rv's. A 45 footer will not fit in many of the public facilities. When taking the Alaskan ferry into Skagway it was a breeze to pull in to ship with toad attached in my 30 footer. The next motor home was full sized and had a bear of a time making the turns, without a toad. Lost a chrome strip.

The next decsion is diesal or gas. For the same size coach I used about 55-60 markup to go diesal. Its not just the motor, a lot of other upgardes get piled into the diesal coach price I bought a gasser.

Beprepared for first year use to include a lot of adustments and fixes. Motor homes are one off construction. Not like a production line toyota.

We are into our 7 th year with our entry level Class a and look forward to 7 more

[DryCreek]

No matter what you "think" is the difference, look for things that make the most sense to you.

First order of business is floor plan. Cut and dried on that one. If you settle for one that's close, you'll always wish you'd gotten the one that seemed perfect (at the time).

Second, look for features that will mean the most to you. By that, I looked for double-pane windows since it gets hot here in Texas. The other thing I needed was under 32' to fit in a 36' RV carport that used to cover our fifth wheel campers. Lastly, I wanted something with enough GCWR to be able to tow either of our Jeep Wranglers. That was *my* list. The wife's was much longer, but in the end we found something we're both reasonably happy with.

[rockhillmanor]

rgatijnet1 wrote:
An entry level Class A is the FIRST one that you purchase. Theat one purchase will probably be the start of many upgrades, and some down grades, as you continue with the RV lifestyle.

X2!

Entry level means what 'level' financially you can enter into the RV'ing lifestyle. That is your entry level!:C

[Mile_High]

Every manufacturer uses a tier system for the product line. The entry level models are easy to find when you look at the whole fleet, and they are often described that way in the product lineup.

As with any model in the fleet, they aren't apples to apples between manufacturers. An entry level by one manufacturer may be mid-line by comparison to another manufacturer.

[rgatijnet1]

An entry level Class A is the FIRST one that you purchase. That one purchase will probably be the start of many upgrades, and some down grades, as you continue with the RV lifestyle.

[cjoseph]

When we were shopping in 2013, the cheapest new Class A I saw had a sale sticker on it for $69,999. This was at the Hershey show.

That's not chump change in my book. That's good money.

That most certainly was entry level but nothing to laugh at. This lifestyle isn't cheap.

It had white Filon sides and stickers -not full body paint.
The storage compartments were cut out of the Filon Sides -not one-piece rolled aluminum or similar construction.
The counter tops were laminate -not solid surface or stone.
The cabinets were pressed wood with laminate over that -not solid wood.
The flooring was one sheet of linoleum -not tile or wood.
It had a TPO roof -not one-piece fiberglass. This might be debatable whether this roof puts you in the entry level category. Lot's of really nice and more expensive Class As are built with TPO.
It had white, plastic faucets -not metal or plastic with a simulated metal finish.

The furniture looked of a good quality. Everything in it was serviceable and could last a lifetime if taken care of properly. TVs and audio/visual looked about the same as other models.

It was built on the Ford F-53 chassis like all the other gassers. It was most likely built on a lighter-weight chassis, but if that matched the weight of the coach, would not matter in this debate. This coach was short.

I can say with certainty that was an entry-level Class A.

We ended up buying an entry-level Class A.

That is, it was a Class A at the lowest price point offered by Tiffin.

It had full body paint, one-piece fiberglass roof, rolled aluminum storage compartment doors, vinyl tile floor, plastic faucets with faux-bronze finish, solid surface counter in kitchen/laminate in bath (we had them upgrade our's to solid surface in bath) and solid wood cabinets.

I'm not knocking any of the above components. We were shopping several different manufacturers. it seemed to me that they all had something at the same price point. Within that price point, they all had something better or nicer quality then the others somewhere in their coach. Maybe one maker would use all high-end TVs and the other would put in some off brand that I never heard of. Then the brand with the high-end audio-visual would cheap out on the flooring. Then the next brand might have cheaper flooring and audio-visual but the furniture looked to be of higher quality and most likely more expensive.

This also held true on the components. One would have a high-quality inverter/charger with some 110AC devices running on the inverter. Then the other brand only had convertor/charger with no inverter. One brand would put the low-end 13,500BBTU AC unit. Then the next would have a 15,000BTU with heat strip and on and on.

There are Class As out there that are no doubt entry level as described above. Then, each manufacturer will have something that is their entry level coach. As described above, my entry level coach is different than some other maker's entry level.

What I really want some day is an entry-level Marathon Coach!

[et2]

Whatever fits your price point. Less bling, lower cost. More bling, higher cost. Generally a gasser class A could be considered entry level.

[-Gramps-]

There is no such thing as entry level Class A, not anymore. Now if wheels were optional you might find that one to be an "entry level" class A.

[Effy]

azdryheat wrote:
It's easy for me to tell the entry-level Class A gassers - how much noise the engine makes going down the road. Tiffin Allegro Open Road is much quieter and rides better than Thor, Fleetwood, and Winnebago. I figure that if a builder took the time and $$$ to make a rig quieter then it must be a better built coach. Haven't driven the Newmar's yet.

This is simply not true and echos only your narrow expereince. I've driven a lot of coaches and have had 2 of almost the exact same model. Our current is much quieter than our old one and frankly a lot quieter than some other high end coaches friends I have ridden in. I just read a post the other day about how much noise they get out of their new DP. It's really a case by case basis and no way you can say one brand rides quieter than another, it's the same chassis. Tiffin can make one coach that rides quietly and 30 mins later make one that sounds like a broken chain saw.

[Effy]

Just like Every auto manufacturer, RV companies have "tiers" of models. As an example; the Chevy Spark is probably the companies cheapest offering and could hardly be compared to a tricked out Corvette. In this case the Spark would be Chevy's entry level car. So for Class A Motorhomes, companies offer their cheapest model as their base offering to get your foot in the door of a Class A RV. It's their entry level model, and the pricing and amenities go up from there. So, as a baseline, all manufacturers offer an entry level coach. (Thor Ace, Winnie Vista, Newmar Bay star sport, etc). Rv manufacturers use gas chassis for their entry line, maybe a few models of gas coaches going up the line, and then you hit higher end DP models. But each brand also has an entry level DP model as well. Just like they have cheap and expensive Class C's, and TT's and 5ers.

Entry level in this sense is their cheapest, most basic model of a particular RV type.

Now don't confuse this with quality, because they can be very different.

Since almost all manufacturers use the same chassis, same fridge, same ac etc etc, it's pretty hard to say one entry level RV is of superior quality than another. People will tell you that's the case, but I say it's splitting hairs and I've been in enough RV's to say it's more like jaded thinking. Compare a Chevy Spark to a Ford focus for example. Sure there are nuances which is how you make a decision, but I've always snickered at folks who think one brand's entry level coach quality is far superior to another. Frankly they're all very poor quality when it comes down to it. Each brand tries to get theirs slapped together and off the line onto the sales lot as fast as they can. I think you get more bling the further up the food chain you go, but I am not real convinced that more money gets you better quality either. It's the same assembly line with the same folks building $500k coaches as $80k ones. Do some companies do a little better job at the "how"? Sure. But not much. You have to sift through comments on brand loyality to arrive at truly critical and unbiased opinions. They're all cheap no matter what you spend.