Analysing the findings
Survey conclusions
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 twothirds (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, 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. Pre-owned-van owners are, on average, a bit 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 pre-owned van respondents. Budget-wise, £20,000-£24,999 is the sweet spot for new-van 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 £5000-£9999 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.
Reliable caravans
Some of our most important survey questions ask owners what went wrong with their caravans. It’s no surprise that vans with few or no faults tend to have strong overall satisfaction ratings. Applying the same minimum sample size from the ‘New caravan’ and ‘Pre-owned caravan’ categories, Coachman builds 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 their topping the ‘New caravan’ category this year.
There’s clear daylight between Coachman and the rest. Of the other big brands, Bailey is next, with 17.4% of vans having no faults. Lunar is close behind, with 17.2%. 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-van owners reporting a problem-free van. The question is, are the same brands the most reliable among pre-owned tourers? Coachman again does well, but falls just under the minimum sample size. Among manufacturers making the cut, Bailey performs best, with 44.9% of owners reporting no faults. Swift Group is just behind, with 43.4%, while some 43.1% of owners report no problems with their Elddis. Lunar lags behind other big names, with 24.6% of preowned vans reported fault-free. At first glance, it seems odd that older, pre-owned tourers should develop fewer faults than new ones, but it’s a pattern we’ve seen in previous years. We suspect this is due to faults being traced and solved by the original owner. It might also be that owners of older tourers are prepared to accept some foibles as a van 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 our 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 ratings.
Conclusion
Congratulations to Coachman and Bailey on winning the ‘New caravan’ and ‘Pre-owned caravan’ categories. In fact, Bailey deserves our double congratulations for becoming the first winner of our ‘Best Caravan Manufacturer’ award, reflecting consistently strong scores across the board from both new and used caravan owners. Last year we found overall satisfaction ratings were down. This year has seen this reversed, with improved satisfaction scores for most brands in both halves of the survey. That’s an excellent trend that we hope to see continuing in 2020.
‘It seems odd that older vans should develop fewer faults than new ones, but it’s a trend that we’ve seen in previous years’