[Richard]

These are the results of an informal poll of Newell owners with one year of more of ownership under their belts. It is not scientific, nor does it encompass every aspect of owning a used Newell. It was intended to provide a small measure of the aggregate opinions of real life expectations when it comes to owning and maintaing a used Newell. I am not a pollster, not statistician, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn last night. At the time of this summary, there were 44 responders to the poll. I typed up the summary so that the first year owners who did not participate and prospective owners could view the results. 

The first question was relative to the amount of work one expected to do on the coach as opposed to the reality. It's not quantifiable in terms of hours or dollars. The question is more about expectation. 

4% said they worked on the Newell less than expected
48 % said about what they expected
27% said more than they expected
7 % said a lot more than they expected

The second question is more quantifiable, as it defines actual cost of maintenance and upkeep

3 % spend less than 5K annually
43% spend 5 to 10K annually
20% spend 10 to 15K annually
3 % spend above 15 K annually

The third question asked if the owners had issues obtaining coach work performed outside of Miami, OK

36% said no problem finding a shop they were happy with
11% said they had mixed results
11% said they had poor results
4% had a horror story
40% said they do their own work

The fourth question was targeted to confirm or dispel some current "youtube" wisdom on Newell ownership

46% said that a Newell required less long term care due to it's original build quality
33% said that a Newell requires about the same level of maintenance I would expect from another motorhome of the same age
21% said a Newell requires more repair and maintenance because of it's complexity and redundant systems. 

The fifith question was which of these characteristics make for a happy Newell owner. This was multiple choice. You might also infer that the low percentage answers give some insight into an unhappy owner. 

20% said sees ownership as a hobby
20% said sees problems as an opportunity to learn
17% said the owner has owned boats, planes, or old cars
16% said the owner was technically employed
9 % said the owner wants a high quality low problem ownership experience
9% said wants to buy the last RV first Has had a dream of hitting the road, and now is the time to buy an RV and do it
5% said sees the coach as another toy
4 % said the Newell was to fulfill a dream of retiring, living fulltime, and hitting the road right away
1% said wants to full time immediately
0 % said sees RV problems as a headache

And the last question was probably redundant, but the question was to describe an unhappy owner. And I concede that my use of double negative meanings in conjunction with the algorithm that the poll uses to tally and average votes only leads to gibberish in the results. My bad, and I am sorry about phrasing the responses the way I did. Live and Learn, therefore I am not posting the results. Call me a conspririsist if you will .


Thank you to those that responded. I hope that a bit of this info will help prospective buyers make informed decisions in their purchase process. 

Feel free to add any commentary you think might be helpful to those considering a Newell purchase.

[BusNit]

Crap, Now I might as well sell! In my limited time of ownership, I plan to do most of the work myself, my expectations are this is a "toy" and as such I expect 5-15k a year in upkeep and cosmetics, reliability I would put it as average since it is a machine and it will break new or old.

Thanks for the poll. The results matched as I expected it from all the research I did before buying one. I think with any RV, Bus, Coach or however one wants to call it, there is an expectation of a certain failure rate, maintenance cost and of course let downs on things that should not have failed such as a cabinet door or light falling out of its place. We have a good mix of people here who do their own work and those that depend on a shop. I depend on some shop work and myself. Most if it is due to what is my time worth and should I tackle this project or earn more money and pay someone else.

[360]

Great job on the poll Richard and thanks a bunch to the 44 who completed the survey.

[Dustun]

Nice poll Richard. I appreciate the insights as we continue to search for our Newell.