# Autosleeper faults



## duds

Just taken delivery of a shiny new Autosleeper Broadway EK High Line.

I was disappointed at the number of faults that have already appeared during my first week of use on van costing £50k and most of which should have been dealt with by a proper and full check at either the Autosleeper factory or the supplying dealer. For me to have to keep taking the vehicle back for this and that to be properly sorted is time consuming and tiresome.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with this mark ?


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## bigbazza

If you read thro' a lot of the post's on here you will soon see a pattern on most brand's, ie lack of QA check's at the manufacturer's.


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## gizmo26

Collected our Broadway EL in March and we are delighted with it and the quality of the build.
Just one small fault when I had to adjust the contact position slightly for the central ocking on the Hab. door. Otherwise everything was spot on - unlike our previous Bessacarr which had no end of problems from day one until we sold it.

Funnily enough, we have been to Marquis at Preston today (where we bought the Broadway from) to have a browse around Riversway Leisure and to partake of the great value-for-money All Day Breakfast at Marquis' cafe. We bumped into the salesman we had dealt with and were singing the praises of the finish and quality of the A/S Broadway.
Peter


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## dodger148

Have a look at my post!! (starts at thread no: 676163 in the AS section) ref our Windsor, that wasn't all
Touch wood all seems well now. Most of rectification done at the Willersey SC, not the supplying dealer (sister co') who seemed limited in what they were able to do.


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## duds

*Broadway*

Welll it seems that manufacturers are not heeding warnings from us on the quality of fit and finsih of new vans.

My AS Broadway has leaking habitation door, bonnet decal fault which will need replacing, damage to roof lining on overcab etc. Again I awiat warranty authorisation and unconvenience to me. Part from that in only 500 miles nothing broken off yet.


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## aldercow

*AutoSleeper Dorset EL / Stratford*

Hi
I have had many problems with my new Dorset EL (Stratford). All I wanted was a van on which everything worked correctly & held together. Now some 9 months later I still have not got all problems sorted. Dealer is not much help. At new microwave & fridge did not work properly. This was fixed by a trip to AS service centre. The Truma boiler / heater has been very troublesome which I still need to get fixed. Waste tank tap fell off recently on holiday - push fit with no jubilee clips fitted. Wood trim fell off below microwave as screws do not hold in MDF type wood. Many other things I've fixed myself (using my experience gained over 29 years of motorcaravanning). Thinking of getting rid of van which will cost me a lot of money but fed up with it.


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## duds

It is good to know I am not alone in problems with new vehicle. Now Autosleepers have agreed with supplying dealer to take my Broadway back to factory to have the present faults rectified but many of these would have been avoided and thus saved money to A/S under warranty if proper inspection had been done on PDI in factory after manufacture. My dealer has ben most helpful and is taking the vehicle back to factory at their expense.
I also notice that none of the overhead lockers line up properly together. Has anyone else this problem?


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## Zozzer

Many companies see Quality Assurance and Quality Control as a financial burden and it is often the first casualty when profit margins are squeezed by an economic downturn.

A frustrated manager once said to me "Your not a Quality Engineer, your a Sales Prevention Officer"

You simply would not believe what goes on in some of the high profile fly the flag British companies when it come to quality.


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## peaky

sad to see yet another new van with numerous faults, i was thinking they were good quality vans and perhaps considering one when we want to buy a replacement, im too worried to buy anything now as they all see to come with numerous things/issues !!!


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## Zebedee

peaky said:


> sad to see yet another new van with numerous faults, i was thinking they were good quality vans and perhaps considering one when we want to buy a replacement, im too worried to buy anything now as they all see to come with numerous things/issues !!!


Hi Peaky

As with most other complex items one buys, it's the luck of the draw to some extent. :roll:

I would suggest that you read some of the complaints about all marques of van rather critically.

The owners are quite justified in their complaints of course, and the problems shouldn't happen, but in quite a high proportion of cases it's a component supplied by a third party manufacturer which has failed and caused the anguish.

If the fridge in the lovely new kitchen at home packs up one doesn't slag off the kitchen fitting company does one, so why do the same when the fridge in the motorhome goes wrong?

No doubt (?) both M/H builder and dealer give the item a quick check during PDI (I repeat "?" :? ) but it seems a bit unfair to me when either of them gets it in the neck because, for example, they have been supplied with a crappy, useless fridge which packs up after a fortnight's use! 8O

Just my opinion. 

Dave


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## peaky

I agree its probably a lottery, buy new and get probs buy second hand and get a van someones p/x because of so many faults!!! I worry because i was thinking of buying in uk and bringing the van "home". I cannot afford the time or money to keep trooping across europe to address problems !!! I know they can happen anytime anywhere but im worried !!! perhaps i could spent 6 months trialing a new van in uk b4 i take her home lol !!!


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## neilbes

peaky said:


> I agree its probably a lottery, buy new and get probs buy second hand and get a van someones p/x because of so many faults!!! I worry because i was thinking of buying in uk and bringing the van "home". I cannot afford the time or money to keep trooping across europe to address problems !!! I know they can happen anytime anywhere but im worried !!! perhaps i could spent 6 months trialing a new van in uk b4 i take her home lol !!!


I would do a good couple of weeks shake down test if I was you.

I had niggles with my new van but all were silly niggles.

I have the same thing at work, A multi million pound printing machine built in Germany, tested all ok in Germany.

put in a box and shaken for a few hours Shipped to uk and loads of components fail.

Same with motorhomes, assemble coponents. test all ok,

deliver motorhome to customer who then shakes it about for a few hours, things fail..


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## duds

Let me make clear my A/S Broadway problems are not of shake loose type or relate to fridges, equipment etc. 

No mine is a faulty bonnet decal that should have been checked at factory and also a faulty interior roof lining that was marked and damaged in manufacture. Also a water leaking habitation door as when I hose it I get lots of water running down inside.

If only manufacturers would remember what happened to British Leyland and Austin Rover and so many other companies who failed on quality reputation. It must cost them so much to deal with warranty work anyway.

I always buy new to get the full long warranty assurance.

The old maxim you reap what you sow always applies in life !


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## duds

O and I must encourage folk to buy from a local, to where they live, franchised dealer so when warranty problems arise less time and distance to travel.


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## Spannerman007

I hope Duds has better luck with his Auto-Sleeper than I did with mine. After eighteen months I gave up the unequal struggle of stopping it shaking itself to bits. The final straw was finding a crack in the roof. I actually covered more miles taking it to be repaired than I did using it for pleasure. I feel very sad as it was a beautifully appointed motorhome and very comfortable. I had planned to change the rear suspension to an airbag system as I felt that the suspension was to harsh.


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## duds

since I last posted I have travelled 500 miles in it. Yes several bits of plastic fittings have broken as a result. The list will no doubt get longer but the factory will have it back next week


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## teamsaga

Hi duds
I bought a new autosleeper, worse thing I have ever bought, if you buy a £10 item from argos and it gives trouble you can take it back and get a new one or your money back.
Buy £40.000 motorhome, when it falls to bits you can spend a year chasing around from dealer to factory and back to dealer, trying to get it put into a useable condition.
I had non stop problems with mine, some I could fix, some the dealer could fix, some went back to the factory who fixed some and created a few more. I was plagued with gel coat cracks (long ones which came back) and water leaks requiring removal of whole body panels. I wont list them all it is too depressing.
Eventually I decided that it was not worth the stress and sold it at a substantial loss.


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## duds

what model A/S did you buy?
My last motorhome was an Autocruise made before Swift took over the company and I had no end of problems with it as well. 
What make do you have now and is it less trouble and why ?


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## teamsaga

Hi duds
I had a 2008 autosleeper sigma el which became the broadway I believe. I have bought 2008 bessacarr with 4000 miles on it, hoping that some of the new bbuild problems will have been fixed.
The sigma appeared to have been built by a couple of guys in their garden shed, a lot of the components and trims had been modified and cut to fit. A typical example was the vertical trims behind the front seats between the cab and the habitation part.
One side had the complete trim, the other side there was not enough space for it so it had been cut down to match the gap.
The battery charger only had one screw in, instead of the four it was designed to have ( I know because it fell off the wall)
The autosleeper factory appears to be victorian in appearance and working methods.
By comparison the swift factory is high tec. and while the product is not perfect everything appears to be assembled to a plan


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## duds

Interesting Phil. I had several Swift products and all fell short on quality of durable fit and finish but great on design. The Autosleeper seems to use better quality parts. I will see what the factory does. Others on here have praised the A/S product from their experience.


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## foll-de-roll

Hi


Something seems to have changed in the Autosleeper company during the period from 2000.


I have had three A/Ss all from early/mid 90s and I must say they have all been of excellent quality and finish.

My present Executive is 15 years old, and the furniture is still very acceptable.

It saddens me when I read about a company which has produced such good quality products in the past, has now (it seems) dropped its standards.


Maybe just a sign of the times    

Andy


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## keith_c

Just to redress the balance here, and at the risk of tempting fate, we collected our first MH in January, a Broadway 4 berth EK, and since then we have had 12 outings with it and covered just over 2,500 miles. So far the only problem has been that a light fitting died on the first time out and that was replaced by Autosleepers (I fitted it) with no real difficulty. 

We also had a minor problem with the thetford toilet flush water supply but that seems to have fixed itself all on its own.

I realise it's a lottery and we seem to have been lucky but they are not all bad.


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## locovan

foll-de-roll said:


> Hi
> 
> Something seems to have changed in the Autosleeper company during the period from 2000.
> 
> I have had three A/Ss all from early/mid 90s and I must say they have all been of excellent quality and finish.
> 
> My present Executive is 15 years old, and the furniture is still very acceptable.
> 
> It saddens me when I read about a company which has produced such good quality products in the past, has now (it seems) dropped its standards.
> 
> Maybe just a sign of the times
> 
> Andy


Andy like you we have an older Autosleeper 52' Clubman and the quality is brilliant. The build and everything in her is so solid with everything working we just love her.
Everywhere we go people want to come in and look at our tardis.
So reading this topic saddens us.
It would seem that they have dropped the Monocoque body which is such an outstanding feature.


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## Patchworkqueen

I also would like to redress the balance as it seems to me that many people are quick to criticise and complain but slower to give credit where credit is due.

We are on our 3rd AS motorhome and all have been very well built and reliable. We have a Broadway EK and the build quality is excellent. We have also owned a Clubman and Trident and therefore in a position to compare.

Yes there have been minor faults but one thing you can be sure of with AS is that these faults will be put right ASAP.
We always return to AS for warranty work and combine this with a visit to the very good Broadway campsite so even though the factory is a 200 mile round trip it is still very worth while.
The staff at the factory and service centre are always very helpful.

Chris


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## shedbrewer

*AutoSleepers faults,*

Hi all, I have to go along with 'follderoll', we also have a 15 y/o A/S, a Clubman and we love it to bits. Build quality back in those days was excellent and I would prefer a ''vintage'' one like ours to the MDF and plastic of newer M/Hs,,,,,,Jack & Patty, Cornwall


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## teamsaga

Hi folks,
I was not quick to criticise autosleeper, my first autosleeper built in
2003 a nuevo was a brilliant little van. I had it 2 years(should have kept it) nothing went wrong with it nothing fell off.
It was the new 2008 van that eventually killed my respect for the company.


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## foll-de-roll

Hi


I think the detereoration in the quality of many of th Caravan and Motorhome Marques, seemed to coincide with the rise in the popularity of the pastime. Resulting, in many of the companies renowned for their quality, neglecting their QC, in order to meet the demand of the rise in Sales.


Only a thought :roll: :roll: 

Andy


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## Cricky

My wife and I purchased a new Autosleeper Windsor in June 2007. After first weekend away we found wrinkling and bumps in the bathroom wall and ceiling linings. Problem was initially attributed to water ingress around roof vent. Wrinkles and bumps were removed and new sealant applied. It has been back to the factory once/year for 3 years and each time wrinkles around window and roof vent are smoothed out but reappear within 2 to 3 months. The bathroom shower has never been used because of fears about exacerbating the wrinkling of the lining. The factory seems incapable of premananetly solving this problem, which is poor given their claim to be a manufacturer defined by quality and 50 years in the making ( quote Autosleepers advert)

In other respects the vehicle is fine and the transit base is excellent

If anyone has experienced the same problem with bathroom or other surface finishes, I will be most interested especially if there is a solution.



duds said:


> Just taken delivery of a shiny new Autosleeper Broadway EK High Line.
> 
> I was disappointed at the number of faults that have already appeared during my first week of use on van costing £50k and most of which should have been dealt with by a proper and full check at either the Autosleeper factory or the supplying dealer. For me to have to keep taking the vehicle back for this and that to be properly sorted is time consuming and tiresome.
> 
> Has anyone else had a similar experience with this mark ?


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## dodger148

It shouldn't be the luck of the draw Dave.

These were not cheap vans. We and other Windsor owners had bathroom leaks, all be it not from the roof. Every Windsor I have come across has had an unacceptable number of build problems and faults.
I have to say that Geoff Scott (prior to him taking over A-S) got the factory to sort most of our initial problems out, but it shouldn't have needed the most senior man on site to have to do this.

The Wilton seems to run a close second, from owners that I have met.

IMO A-S are trying to build too many models, this is their problem and the ones that they don't make many of suffer, vans like the Nuevo they get used to building as they are being built in greater numbers.


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## duds

I HAVE CEILING LINING COMING OFF MY 4 MONTHY OLD BROADWAY AND ALSO THE CHROME STRIPS ON THE LOCKER DOORS ARE UPSTUCK. tHESE HAVE BEEN FIXED ONCE BUT REOCCUR. DEALER SAYS THEY WILL HAHPEN WITH USE AS VAN FLEXES IN USE !!

DO GERMAN AND FRENCH MAKES HAVE THESE SAME PROBLEMS TO BRISTISH VANS?

I AM DISMAYED


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## walaby

Sadly I also purchased an Autosleeper MH

I took delivery of a 9month old Nuevo ES and have never had a trouble free holiday in it yet. The faults range from pull out bed supports coming apart, waste tap falling off, over charging of habitation battery, water heater earth fault and various others. The latest is the failure of the entry light operation form the key fob.

Although I took it back to Marquis for these faults I ended up having to fix some of them myself because the repairs carried out by the dealer were unsatisfactory.

I chose an Autosleeper because I believed they were the best quality available in the UK. After talking to a one of the technicians carrying out repairs I understand that since they were taken over by Marquis along with various others, the quality of build has dropped off the scale.

I think it is incredible what Motor Home buyers have to put up with.
Imagine spending 55K on a BMW car or similar and then having to put up with things falling off, not working etc. 

Needless to say I will not be buying another Autosleeper MH


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## rosalan

I find this thread so very sad, for although satisfied customers generally keep quiet, which upsets the balance of fair reporting, Each of these dissatisfied customer complaints nails down the lid on the coffin of exchange value.
Mine is a 2002 model Palermo, with no faults (shhhh), any that had arrisen were presumably rectified by my supplier, which included major items like hubcaps, a cracked sidelamp and a torn fly screen. After a years driving a cupboard catch died and an electric vent needed dust blowing off as did my grill. My supplier told me that Motorhomes equipment was not substantial like domestic equipment and the future may be paved with little niggles and I accept that. 8O 
I feel so lucky that my van is older, I really do not want to earn the reputation of poor quality build. I recall what happened to KonTiki for a period when the reputation of 'Leaky KonTiki' got around.
Alan


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## ToffeApple

I have to say that my 25year old lady is, apart from the odd nick & chip, and the odd "bruise" on her body, still in excellant condition so Autosleeper were doing something right back in the day!

I am revising my plan on replacing her next year - think I'll stick as she is still going strong!

Chris & Tilly.

:twisted:


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## duxdeluxe

My new Broadway gets a "shakedown" (pun intended) trip as soon as I get back from this business trip on 26th. I am slighty concerned about what I read in this thread but only time will tell.


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## joedenise

Why don't people take the vans back and refuse to have it repaired and insist on a new one? We did this on a £20K caravan, along with a solicitor's letter of refusal and eventually got a new van (due to a waterfall in the bathroom when it rained!).

Joe


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