Behind the numbers

Best Caravan Manufacturer

This is perhaps the toughest prize to win. To be named Best Caravan Manufacturer takes a consistently high performance across the new and pre-owned categories.

That means several years of building well-made, reliable and satisfying caravans. What makes it even more difficult is that we set a higher minimum sample size for this award, to make sure the results are as rigorous as possible.

Coachman takes the top spot, with a superb rating of 89.6%. That easily exceeds the standard for a

Gold Award. Second place for New Caravans and first place for Pre-owned Caravans makes Coachman the brand to beat if you want a rewarding, reliable tourer of any age.

Swift takes second spot and a Gold Award, scoring 85.5%. That’s one place higher than in 2020.

Dropping back a place from 2020, Bailey earns a Silver Award, with 83.8%. Elddis/erwin Hymer Group UK isn’t far behind, on 81.6%.

Other makes may score well across both categories, but don’t have enough completed surveys to feature in the headline results.

The survey in detail

So, those are our winners. What else does the survey reveal to us about caravanners and their buying habits as we now look forward to 2022?

Well, the first thing to note is that most of our respondents bought a new caravan. That applies to 61% this year, a small drop from 62.3% in 2020. As simple maths will tell you, this means that 39% of you bought a pre-owned tourer.

This continues a trend that we’ve seen for several years, with a steady increase in the proportion of pre-owned vans. Perhaps this suggests a careful attitude to big spending in such uncertain times.

That’s not to say everyone is cutting back. The average price of a new tourer was £24,395, up from £23,113 in 2020.

Some 12.7% of respondents spent £30,000 or more on their new caravan.

Among pre-owned buyers, the average spend was £13,632, up from £11,911. That probably reflects how scarce stock levels have pushed up used prices.

The £10,000-£19,999 price bracket accounted for 60.9% of pre-owned purchases.

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence of new, younger buyers taking up caravanning. However, they don’t seem to be filling in our survey, as the age profile continues to be mature.

This year, the average age of new caravan buyers is a fraction under 62, whereas for used buyers it’s just over 60. Those ages are up slightly on 2020.

Younger caravanners, this indicates, continue to be rather under-represented. Just 4.8% of new caravan buyers in our survey are aged under 45, near identical to 2020’s percentage. Only 7.7% of those buying pre-owned fit this age bracket, compared with 12% last year.

Unsurprisingly, those age stats translate into a high number of older couples with no children in their household.

Some 84.6% of those survey respondents buying a new van reported no children in their household, and 80.4% of people buying pre-owned. Both these figures are increases on 2020.

Other results from our survey indicate that motor movers continue to be a popular choice among both new and pre-owned caravan owners.

Some 89.1% of respondents with a new caravan have one, and 84.2% of pre-owned van owners – this remains broadly in line with previous years.

‘Coachman takes the top spot, with a superb rating of 89.6%: second place for New Caravans and first for Pre-owned Caravans makes it the brand to beat’

What goes wrong

We all know that there’s more to being a satisfying caravan to own than reliability – but a low number of faults goes a long way towards making owning a tourer more enjoyable.

Nobody wants their caravan in the workshop being repaired when it could be out on tour.

As we’ve found in previous years, buying a new caravan is not a guaranteed route to reliability. Some 16.4% of new caravan owners in our survey described their van’s reliability as ‘poor’, compared with 4.5% of used caravan buyers.

We asked owners how many times they returned to a dealer to have a fault fixed, outside regular servicing. Of new owners, 7.6% went back five times or more. Just 1.1% of used buyers had this much trouble.

As in previous years, our findings strongly suggest the first owner often has to snag a series of faults, leaving second and third owners to enjoy fewer problems once those original wrinkles have been ironed out.

Some 60.4% of used van buyers have never taken their tourer back for anything other than routine servicing, compared with 34.3% of new van buyers.

The most common complaint for owners of new caravans is poor interior fit and finish. Some 41.4% of respondents listed this as a fault with their caravan, which is identical to the percentage in 2020.

Either those who are buying pre-owned vans have different expectations, or any issues have been sorted out by the previous owners, because just 11.9% make the same complaint.

If there’s one aspect of living with a pre-owned caravan that’s more troublesome than the new equivalent, it’s water ingress.

Some 15% of pre-owned van owners list this as a fault, and 12.2% of new van owners. It’s the most common bugbear for those with a used caravan.

Conclusion

We’ve seen some exceptionally strong performances from the best in the industry this year. Among manufacturers, the top performers have improved their scores in both the new and the pre-owned categories.

Congratulations to Adria and Coachman, setting the standard for other caravan makers to aim for. Adria leads the way with new caravans, while Coachman is the most highly rated brand among pre-owned van buyers.

Thanks to consistently glowing reviews across both categories, Coachman takes the overall prize for 2022 as Best Caravan Manufacturer.

Britain’s top caravan dealers reach a level of customer service to be proud of, with Salop Leisure leading the way for new caravans, and Peter Roberts in Huddersfield taking the top spot for used tourers.

There are many dealerships rivalling these two for customer service, but it can’t be denied that there’s a wide variety of scores, and some dealers have much work to do to get close to the best in the business.

Let’s not end on a negative, though. Shop for the right caravan from one of the top dealers, and our survey shows you can look forward to years of enjoyable, reliable touring.

‘We’ve seen some exceptionally strong performances from the best in the industry this year. Among manufacturers, the top performers have improved their scores in both categories’