Recent Comments

Regulators adopt new attitudes toward financing
Excellent recap of what is happening to us! by Bernie

It's Tax Day -- Let's party like we work for GSA!
I consider myself a reasonably smart human being, but no matter how much I read about this government and how f'd up it is no one seams to have the answers. Can anyone tell me what else I can do, as a hard working American who is sick to his stomach, besides vote, because that isn't enough. I know the problem, tell me the answer. My thought is it will take someone with the biggest set of balls known to mankind to clean house. Looking for some answers, and I am all ears by Joseph Bullyan

It's Tax Day -- Let's party like we work for GSA!
And we wonder why our budget is out of control?!!? OMG!!!! We are to blame though - we keep electing the same members to the most exclusive country club in the world! They are exempt from most laws, get everything paid for by the taxpayer and are set for life - while we just keep struggling to pay them for that luxury!Worse, our two presidential candidates will raise over half a BILLION Dollars to convince us to vote for them! Actually worse - we'll contribute to them and elect them!Shame on us ... by Bernie

Australia, Europe, China . . . . pick two!
It would be interesting to know what the Board members that didn't vote yes on going into China thought and are they RV mfg. or suppliers? If any of them are suppliers they must have all their products made there already! by Tony

Australia, Europe, China . . . . pick two!
As a follow-up on this discussion, there was a very interesting article in the Washington Post last week and it was reprinted in the Boston Sunday Globe this past weekend. The article is titled: "China may buy only domestic cars for official use." You can read the article at: http://b.globe.com/GTIu6A Many of the comments at the Post and Globe indicate that there is nothing wrong with a country doing this - and I agree with them. We do the same thing here in America at the federal and state ... by Bob Zagami

Australia, Europe, China . . . . pick two!
As always, Bob has done his homework and presents a great editorial. I just can't see any benefit to having anything to do with The "China" Connection. I can't think of any Industry that has actually "benefited" it's American workers by joining with China.An American purchaser of an RV has multiple choices of types, options and price already! Why add an Asian Product to that mix - that will only hurt American made products - as it always has in the past. High tech products are mass produced and ... by Bernie

Australia, Europe, China . . . . pick two!
Bob, you’re right on!

The Chinese government cannot be trusted and they abuse their people terribly. If an RV manufacture decides to “dance” with a partner in China, it will be the fire dance, and it won’t be China that gets burned!
by Barry Hughes

The Chinese even knock off websites
I don't see a major problem with it.I just type the name then hit Ctrl & Enter and it goes to the dot com.Can not see why I would even type dot com then dot cn. by Wayne

The Chinese even knock off websites
This trick happens in all countries. Not limitied to China. It's cyber siting and tech it is illegal but that doesn't stop anyone from doing it.

If you are building a "brand" you often want to buy every version of your domain. Because even if you can get all of those domains back with the law from the people sitting on them it is just safer to own them all up front if you can.

by Aaron

Australia, Europe, China . . . . pick two!
Point of clarification from Jim this morning, the China Committee vote was unanimous but the Board of Directors vote was not.

Also, the sentence in the third pargraph from the bottom should have read, "We will continue to monitor China, not to prove somebody wrong, but to honestly report the information we get on the abuses we expect to see despite the best laid plans of RVIA." by Bob Zagami

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Monday, June 29, 2009

Monaco Redux
By Chuck Marzahn @ 6:44 PM :: :: 1 Comments ::

I understand dealers are currently negotiating the terms of Monaco Dealer Contracts. I’m hit with déjà vu.

Remember when Monaco was making noises about Franchise of the Future? Remember how it was going to set the standard for customer brand loyalty and for dealer/manufacturer relationships? Then there was the news that Monaco would be paying salespeople directly for selling your units. Then we heard about the requirement to buy and place pylons and furniture, leased from Monaco and paid from FOTF funds. I have to wonder how many dealers have some spare furniture for sale now… Next was the debacle of Monaco offering product at a 40% discount to a single dealer without sharing that discount among the dealers who were supposed to be in an existing loyal relationship. Finally, bankruptcy, unpaid warranty claims and heavy losses on current inventory.

My question -- what makes Navistar think all that history was wiped out with the bankruptcy? Why do they think they can offer a dealer contract that is so one-sided as to say that you can’t make changes to the facility or add another line without their approval? They want traveling customers (who didn’t buy from you) given priority over routine service work for other customers. Yet the dealer’s still haven’t been paid for work already done. They also boldly require that no other product can be displayed with any greater prominence that it displays their product.

I don’t get it. Can someone help me to understand where the thinking is? How is the new ownership doing anything to make dealers whole after being abused by the former company?

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Comments

# Art Bedard

Monday, November 16, 2009 6:47 PM

Re: Monaco Redux Chuck, Your not alone. Does Navistar think they (Monaco) was just a victim of the bad dealers who went out of trust and a failed economy? Don't you know what FOTF really stands for? By Troy on 6/29/2009 4:50 PM Re: Monaco Redux Ditto on blaming the dealers. Since they kept the leaders (Toolson and Snell) they must find someone else to blame things on. When are they going to stand up for what they did to damage a good company? By Don on 6/29/2009 5:03 PM Re: Monaco Redux Why would any dealer trust the same management team that simply changed uniforms but is still playing the same game? Maybe the dealer of future is going to be the manufacturer. If they don't want to help the dealers out, then let them try to sell their motorhomes and trailers without dealers. By Burned Once on 6/29/2009 5:23 PM Re: Monaco Redux Its insane. Any dealer that is still doing business should never sign another dealer agreement ever. GM , Chrysler and Ford and all RV compainies need to get there heads out of their you know whats. Now is the Time for dealers to stand up and set the new rules. Do not allow the RV compainies the chance to tell you how to do business. WE were the ones who were right not them. WE no how to run business not them. Stand firm everyone and do not allow any manufacture in your do unless the deal is YOUR way. By Tom on 6/29/2009 5:56 PM Re: Monaco Redux Now they want us (a long time Monaco dealer) to fill out a credit application, a credit release authorization, an addendum to obtain credit information on us and a personal guaranty promising to pay all our bills on time...HOLD ON, shouldn't it be us the dealers that require all of this from Navastar so WE can decide if we trust them? Something is ass backwards with this picture!!! By Don on 6/29/2009 6:41 PM Re: Monaco Redux Let's tell them they can place their units on our lots on consignment and if we sell them we'll send them a check. Tom said it best, it's time for a new set of rules and the dealers get to write them this time around. If nothing has changed, then why should dealers stock Monaco products again? Are we insane? By Burned Once on 6/30/2009 6:17 AM Re: Monaco Redux What about the employees they burned, too? When they closed there was no COBRA since Monaco was self-insured; additionally, medical claims were not paid for expenses incurred while employees were working and paying group insurance. We personally received a notice from insurance that a $20,000 hospital bill from 2007 is our responsibility to pay due to Monaco's bankruptcy protection. They've set themselves up for retaliation from former employees who in this economy will have no choice but to return to work for them. There will be some great product rolling off their lines.... (not). By Burned Too on 6/30/2009 7:40 AM Re: Monaco Redux How about the stockholders? Burned is a good word there. Yet the management team leading the downfall is intact at the top. Glad I didn't own stock. Someone at Navistar is drinking an old batch of kool-aid. By Frank on 6/30/2009 8:07 AM Re: Monaco Redux Considering they left the same people who ran the company into the ground in charge I wouldn't personally touch their product. By Aaron on 6/30/2009 8:33 AM Re: Monaco Redux You might be interested to know they are trying to do the same thing to the suppliers they just burned. They want the same prices for the parts but are not buying the same volume, have trippled their payment terms, doubled their insurance requirements, will not give a forecast and will not return calls to dis

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