istakes are part and parcel to doing business. Anything made by humans is bound to have a hiccup on occasion — and RV manufacturing is more labor-intensive than most any other product made for travel. When you get down to it, they almost have to be — can you imagine trying to design robotic arms capable of negotiating the myriad walls and products being built into an RV in order to install just one portion of it? And more to the point: can you imagine how much the typical RV would cost if manufacturers had to implement such expensive systems?
That said, when RV recalls are announced they tend to assume a larger-than-life impact, courtesy of social media. Now, I’m not a cheerleader for the RV industry. The huge growth in the RV lifestyle propelled by the COVID pandemic caught the industry unaware and manufacturers started having to play “catch up” by bringing in a lot of new employees, adding shifts and even adding new facilities. Obviously, new hires can and will make mistakes. However, it’s mildly infuriating to read of potential new buyers being warned off from “COVID builds” (specifically, 2020-2022 models). Yes, these online groups are filled with hundreds of stories — some of them cringe-worthy — detailing problems owners encountered while trying to enjoy their new rigs. However, those numbers have to be seen in perspective: during this same time period, the industry built and sold about a million RVs. Naturally, this part of the storyline is usually overlooked.
The really interesting part, though, is when someone invariably chimes in some variation of “Why can’t they make RVs as bulletproof as automobiles?”
Good question — so I looked into it. You know what I found? Based upon the number of recalls issued by the U.S. National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA), RVs aren’t built as well as a lot of cars and trucks — they might be built better.
No, I haven’t been hitting the Jack Daniels bottle again. Instead, I tracked down recent NHTSA recalls and, well, I was astounded. While most recalls issued for the week of June 9-16, for example, were fairly minor — from 12,490 Porsche Taycans to 1,534 GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado pickups — I was taken aback by Ford’s numbers. The Big Blue Oval issued five recalls — covering 3,058,274 vehicles.
Kinda makes those RV recalls pale in comparison, doesn’t it?
According to a dated (2014) study by Automotive News, the total number of vehicles involved in recalls per year generally ranges from 15 million to 20 million. No, the automotive industry doesn’t build that much annually — but as vehicles age, some components fail, and parts related in any way to maintaining vehicle safety aren’t normally limited to the same sort of date exclusions used to determine warranty coverage. Consider, for example, the Firestone tires debacle of 2000, when 27.4 million tires used on Fords were recalled. Or 1981, when Ford issued a “manufacturer’s notice” to address 21 million vehicles made between 1976 and 1980 — every car manufactured by the company in those years — that could accidentally slip from Park to Reverse. Or 2009- 2010, when Toyota recalled 12.1 million vehicles possibly susceptible to “unintended acceleration.” Want more? General Motors recalled 30 million vehicles in 2014 due to a faulty ignition switch. And more than 40 million vehicles across multiple brands have been recalled in recent years due to potential problems with the Takata airbags installed in them.
As illustrated above, recalls aren’t a new problem. But they are expensive. According to November 2017 article by Tire Review, Ford disclosed more than $1.3 billion in charges for recalls between September 2016 and November 2017. Numbers are similar today.
As that Automotive News study noted, “The widespread nature of recalls…underscores the fact that cars and trucks are highly complex machines.”
Yes, they are — but imagine the number of recalls the auto industry might be faced with if their vehicles were to include everything from a microwave and furnace to an oven, stovetop, refrigerator, bed, awning, slideouts and more.
And, of course, related to this are warranty claims. Again, social media tends to run hot with complaints about RV warranty issues — but, again, it’s not an uncommon problem among vehicle manufacturers. In fact, Freep.com (the online presence of the Detroit Free Press) reported recently that Eric Arnum, editor of Warranty Week — a newsletter for warranty-management professionals — told the publication that Ford claimed the ignominious title of being No. 1 in the U.S. for warranty payouts in 2021. Not just automakers, but out of all U.S. companies. And it has stiff competition. For example, warrantyweek.com took a look at warranty claims totals for just three companies — General Motors, Ford and Tesla — from 2016 through 2021, broken down quarterly. Claims ranged from $1.4 billion to more than $2 billion. Per quarter. Overlooking the drop-offs and (relatively huge) run-ups created by the pandemic, Ford and GM warranty claim rates averaged about 3% of sales.
This sort of information about the RV industry can be hard to come by, since it’s usually only released by publicly traded companies and only a handful of those exist within the RV industry. However, warrantyweek.com did look at some public firms in the RV arena. By the end of the 2021 calendar year, Thor Industries’ claim rate was 1.9%, followed by Winnebago Industries (1.7%) and REV Group (1.3%). Those aren’t bad numbers, folks. In fact, the auto industry would kill to have them.
Is there a point to all this? Just one: keep things in perspective — especially if and when you turn to social media for “advice.” It’s there — but it’s not always correct or posted in any sort of context.
By the way: As I prepared to write this, I caught a glimpse of a headline that came up in my news feed: “Hyundai, Kia recall over 280K vehicles due to fire risk, urge owners to park outside.” Imagine how quickly RV-centric social media sites would explode if that headline instead cautioned RV owners to park their rig away from anything that might burn down along with it.
Like I said, keep things in perspective.