Seventh and Final.

Within the next eight months Mrs BB and self are to buy our seventh and final motorhome. We have decided on a Broadway EK TB LP and we have narrowed the dealerships we are happy to do business with down to two. Have any forum members who own this particular model got any advice for us. We've had a Romahome, a Duetto(brilliant), a Laika...aaaaaargh....  .......say no more, a Herald (good van, much underrated) and so on and our current van is an Autocruise Rhythm which we like but is too small for the journeys we have planned for our forthcoming retirement (22 months and 27days away). Any advice, recommendations, caveats would be welcomed before we part with our hard earned. Many thanks in advance.

As this is your seventh van you clearly know the score so apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs but it might be of use to others as well

I think that you have to make a balance between price and service. The cheapest deals are usually to be had with the major dealerships such as Marquis who are part of the A/S group. You may not get the after sales service as with a smaller family run dealership.

A few points to consider:

A/S are generally well built and although some people had issues with Broadways generally very good built quality. 
Most things that go wrong are the secondary sourced items such as Thetford loo etc and can be fixed with an approved repairer if the dealer agrees
It might cost a lot to get to and from the dealer for warranty issues so a local dealer is perhaps better
It depends much on the deal you can get - work from the basis of poor after sales and anything in the way of good service is a bonus. Sorry if that sounds cynical but at least you won't be disappointed.

Broadway is a great van - we loved ours and sorry to see it go but moved on to a Pilote A class (admin haven't yet ritually stripped me of my sword and epaulettes before drumming me off the forum   )

Our buy decision on the Broadway was made on the above basis and in fact Marquis Ipswich were quite good but frustratingly inefficient. The new van was from Hayes leisure and although a three hour drive away, they have a super reputation and have not disappointed at all with the minor teething troubles.

A cliche, I know but you pays yer money and takes yer choice.

Marquis frequently have pre-registered vans at a very good discount and as A/S tend to keep their value it is a really good deal. Our Broadway had 8 miles on the clock as a second owner and only lost £3K in 3 years. One reason why we afford to step up to the rather expensive Pilote

Hi there,

It will definitely help to concentrate the mind if you use the Pre-Delivery Checklist in the Factsheets section.    

Enjoy and be lucky!!   

Best regards,
 

We've had a new EK LB TB for 2 months now and have had almost a month in total away in it. We are still delighted with it and the " solid" feel that it has as well as the numerous thoughtful touches in fitting out and the more efficiently designed storage.

This however comes at the cost of the payload. We have had to do a ruthless prune of things we are used to carrying and will have to carry less fresh water than normal, possibly a nuisance in winter in Europe. We are perilously close to being overweight, especially on the back axle. The brochure figures we worked to before we bought it turned out to be incorrect.

Other than that we have very few niggles and AS are dealing with them in an efficient and brisk manner.

Q

A/S are normally fairly reasonable with payload data but there is a trend, pioneered by the Dastardly French to use the +/- 5% to advantage. Add a few extras and lo and behold, overweight. We bought our Pilote new and had it uprated to 3650 as it was free. Not enough for comfort and needed air assist plus higher load rated tyres on the back. Now 3850 and comfortable.

At least you are well aware of payloads - so many people either don't look or simply plead ignorance. We found the A/S service centre to be extremely good and we also took it there for annual hab service as well. Cheaper than Marquis and an excuse for a couple of days away

Our Broadway was one of the few with an Al-Ko chassis and was a 4 tonne van (3 litre engine as well); even loaded to the gills we had almost 400 kilos spare. As far as I know it is still for sale at Hayes Leisure - a cracking good van for someone.

I cant add much to this post other than to say good luck with your new purchase and I hope you get many thousands of enjoyable miles in her.

Would be interesting to know your choice of dealers when you do the deal.

We have a Bourton on order which I think is the same lay out as the Broadway in question. We have gone down the route of using a dealer who we trust and not the cheapest. We bought our first van on price and had issues that the "bargain discount"dealer didn't want to know about. It's a hard choice but these vans always have issues and to have someone you can call and in whom you trust is invaluable.

We bought our last 3 vans from Marquis and have bought this one from them as well. Marquis and AS are sister companies and it is clear from what we have seen that they keep in case touch. This we have found very handy as well as reassuring.Not the cheapest company perhaps but professional and honest.

Q

That should read " close " touch !

Paulmold wrote:Would be interesting to know your choice of dealers when you do the deal.

Have bought from Marquis previously, they aren't on our short list  but we will certainly pass on our experience with one of the two on the current list when the deed is done!

Quilter wrote:We've had a new EK LB TB for 2 months now and have had almost a month in total away in it. We are still delighted with it and the " solid" feel that it has as well as the numerous thoughtful touches in fitting out and the more efficiently designed storage.

This however comes at the cost of the payload. We have had to do a ruthless prune of things we are used to carrying and will have to carry less fresh water than normal, possibly a nuisance in winter in Europe. We are perilously close to being overweight, especially on the back axle. The brochure figures we worked to before we bought it turned out to be incorrect.

Other than that we have very few niggles and AS are dealing with them in an efficient and brisk manner.

Q

Have to admit that payload has been high on our list of 'concerns'. Like you Quilter we have already run through the 'must haves' and the 'nice to haves'. If you've got your current figures to hand we would appreciate them, it's not going to change our choice but it might help us decide what extras to fit. We are trying to work out the figure left after addition of the Premium and Winter Packs, can't find it in any brochure or on the mine of info that is this site. (Mrs BB has informed me that I need to shed some kgs!)    

Dutto wrote:Hi there,

It will definitely help to concentrate the mind if you use the Pre-Delivery Checklist in the Factsheets section.    

Enjoy and be lucky!!   

Best regards,
 

Many thanks for the tip Dutto and thanks for the good wishes 

Claytaa wrote:We have a Bourton on order which I think is the same lay out as the Broadway in question. We have gone down the route of using a dealer who we trust and not the cheapest. We bought our first van on price and had issues that the "bargain discount"dealer didn't want to know about. It's a hard choice but these vans always have issues and to have someone you can call and in whom you trust is invaluable.

Can't agree more Claytaa, both dealers on our short list are small companies, one is much closer than the other and we have already bought a van off them and were more than pleased with all the service we have had with them, however they have only recently been welcomed back into the Autosleepers fold and have appear to have less clout than the opposition. My recent experience of all types of corporate bodies in UK suggests that the larger the body the worse the customer service.(with one or two notable exceptions.)

DuxDeluxe wrote:As this is your seventh van you clearly know the score so apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs but it might be of use to others as well

I think that you have to make a balance between price and service. The cheapest deals are usually to be had with the major dealerships such as Marquis who are part of the A/S group. You may not get the after sales service as with a smaller family run dealership.

A few points to consider:

A/S are generally well built and although some people had issues with Broadways generally very good built quality. 
Most things that go wrong are the secondary sourced items such as Thetford loo etc and can be fixed with an approved repairer if the dealer agrees
It might cost a lot to get to and from the dealer for warranty issues so a local dealer is perhaps better
It depends much on the deal you can get - work from the basis of poor after sales and anything in the way of good service is a bonus. Sorry if that sounds cynical but at least you won't be disappointed.

Broadway is a great van - we loved ours and sorry to see it go but moved on to a Pilote A class (admin haven't yet ritually stripped me of my sword and epaulettes before drumming me off the forum   )

Our buy decision on the Broadway was made on the above basis and in fact Marquis Ipswich were quite good but frustratingly inefficient. The new van was from Hayes leisure and although a three hour drive away, they have a super reputation and have not disappointed at all with the minor teething troubles.

A cliche, I know but you pays yer money and takes yer choice.

Marquis frequently have pre-registered vans at a very good discount and as A/S tend to keep their value it is a really good deal. Our Broadway had 8 miles on the clock as a second owner and only lost £3K in 3 years. One reason why we afford to step up to the rather expensive Pilote

Many thanks for both informative posts Dux, you will see from my other posts that we are decided on one of two dealerships. We wouldn't consider anything over 3500Kgs despite both our licenses covering driving over 3500. We've recently seen how punitive are the tolls on 'Heavy Goods' in Scandinavia and it's going to get more punitive in our view. With 70 just round the corner (at least for me) who knows what legislation to limit us oldies   reckless driving is round the corner.

I strongly agree re 3500kg max. When we bought our Lancashire in 2012 we insisted on 2011 body shell. The 2012 body lacked both the wet locker and the internal lockers over the csb, replacing them with an extra roof light. We would not manage without either. Both were restored for 2014 and with the gas tank you should win a lot of extra space in the o/s bed lockers. However the new overcab lockers are smaller than in 2011 shells. We keep duvet and 4 pillows plus TV and laptop in our front top locker and the one over the driver's right ear holds 6 bath towels, 3 hand towels, 4 washing up towels, 3 duvet covers, 3 bottom sheets and face flannels - all bedding and towels for a month away!
The EK was supposed to be plated at 3300kg - we insisted on 3500kg. If we had been able to get a 2011 body Broadway EK LB TP with a Euro V engine we would hsve bought that. We liked the Bourton but would not justify the extrs £10k above the Lancashire.  But the extra 2 x 2ft on lockers would have been really good.

inspiredron wrote:I strongly agree re 3500kg max. When we bought our Lancashire in 2012 we insisted on 2011 body shell. The 2012 body lacked both the wet locker and the internal lockers over the csb, replacing them with an extra roof light. We would not manage without either. Both were restored for 2014 and with the gas tank you should win a lot of extra space in the o/s bed lockers. However the new overcab lockers are smaller than in 2011 shells. We keep duvet and 4 pillows plus TV and laptop in our front top locker and the one over the driver's right ear holds 6 bath towels, 3 hand towels, 4 washing up towels, 3 duvet covers, 3 bottom sheets and face flannels - all bedding and towels for a month away!
The EK was supposed to be plated at 3300kg - we insisted on 3500kg. If we had been able to get a 2011 body Broadway EK LB TP with a Euro V engine we would hsve bought that. We liked the Bourton but would not justify the extrs £10k above the Lancashire.  But the extra 2 x 2ft on lockers would have been really good.

Inspiredron, many thanks for the useful facts re the overcab. We also liked the Bourton but the Finance Director decided it was above our budget  .

To order a Bourton was a big decision with regard to the extra £ however the Mercedes build and the 7 speed auto gearbox made me grit my teeth and go for it. We are big fans of auto and there is more chance of she who must be obeyed driving than with a manual box. I really hope it's the right call. Any other views re auto v manual?

Clataa.   My van is an AS GL Clubman Automatic it took me a while to find a nice auto but it was well worth the effort our family car is also an Auto and has been for the last six years or so.I am a fan of the auto box along with cruise control it makes driving effortless for those who love there manual boxs good luck to them but for me it is automatic every time.

Bertie Bassett wrote:
Have to admit that payload has been high on our list of 'concerns'. Like you Quilter we have already run through the 'must haves' and the 'nice to haves'. If you've got your current figures to hand we would appreciate them, it's not going to change our choice but it might help us decide what extras to fit. We are trying to work out the figure left after addition of the Premium and Winter Packs, can't find it in any brochure or on the mine of info that is this site. (Mrs BB has informed me that I need to shed some kgs!)    

 When we bought ours in May the current brochure showed 374 kg user payload and the AS website showed 471 kg.  We were assured that the website was the correct figure so based our purchase on that.  I asked for clarification however and was told, by AS, that the brochure had been wrongly printed and the MIRO was 3080 kg and the Max User Payload was therefore 420 kg.

The Premium Pack, as quoted by AS is 36 kg and we have been told that the Winter Pack is 6 kg. This gives a figure of 378 kg final user payload. We also had a bike rack fitted so this brings that figure down.

We removed the rear steadies ( 10 kg the pair) and have not missed them.  As we had to remove everything from the old van to the dining room at home we took the opportunity to weigh absolutely everything that went back in the new van. We then took it to a weighbridge, with all the gas, the two of us, empty waste, clean water reading 75 % full ( though we have since found out that we cannot trust this gauge)  fuel full. We had not got our two bikes on that trip. They are 36 kg.  We don't carry a BBQ, have light aluminium chairs, Kindles not books and are really quite spare in what we carry.

The weighbridge figures were:

Rear axle 1920 kg
Front axle 1500 kg
Weight 3420 kg

We don't want to upgrade- our age and the possibility that it involves new tyres- so we are being very careful !

Q

We have also removed all the ( heavy) bolster and scatter cushions ( we have our pillows in cushion covers so don't need them ) the small, but heavy side table ( we have a small folding table which is useful both inside and out and is lighter), the crystal goblets ( which weigh twice as much as our bog standard Paris wine glasses ) and the heavy Melamine crockery set.  Every little helps- ?!

Q

We picked our Broadway EB up on March the 1st, Drove it to Benidorm and had 6 weeks holiday there, found a few faults which did not stop us enjoying our motorhome. On return we were messed about with dealer for 3 weeks and nothing done. So we took it to Auto Sleepers and they fixed all the faults to our satisfaction in 6 hours. We have now done over 4,000 miles in our Broadway and hoping for many more. Its our 5th motorhome in 9 years and our 3rd new one.

John.

Quilter wrote:We have also removed all the ( heavy) bolster and scatter cushions ( we have our pillows in cushion covers so don't need them ) the small, but heavy side table ( we have a small folding table which is useful both inside and out and is lighter), the crystal goblets ( which weigh twice as much as our bog standard Paris wine glasses ) and the heavy Melamine crockery set.  Every little helps- ?!

Q

Many thanks for the two excellent posts Quilter, that info was exactly what we needed and helps us to plan in detail re bike rack and bikes versus folding bikes that we believe we could store internally (the dimensions of the packed bikes do fit the underseat storage....just). Would also follow your advice re the rear steadies and the 'goblets' etc. 
What a great site this is with so many informed and friendly AS fans, thanks to you all.
I tried to click the Thanks tab on your first post Quilter but for some reason it won't obey my mouse!
In answer to Claytaa and the Auto box. I drive autos at work and I have read so many thoroughly positive reviews about the Mercedes 7 speed auto that allowing Mrs BB to redirect me to a Broadway from a Bourton almost caused  a 'tears before bedtime moment'. However when I'd collected Ted from the corner and placed him back in the cot I realised that she is the financial director for a reason............and I am a bear of little brain and no financial acumen!  

artheytrate wrote:We picked our Broadway EB up on March the 1st, Drove it to Benidorm and had 6 weeks holiday there, found a few faults which did not stop us enjoying our motorhome. On return we were messed about with dealer for 3 weeks and nothing done. So we took it to Auto Sleepers and they fixed all the faults to our satisfaction in 6 hours. We have now done over 4,000 miles in our Broadway and hoping for many more. Its our 5th motorhome in 9 years and our 3rd new one.

John.

Good to hear about your satisfaction with the van and the positive experience at Auto Sleepers, was it difficult to arrange? I'm thinking about dealer resistance more than difficulty of getting an appointment at AS.

We never had any issues in getting things done at A/S. Dealers don't get a fantastic hourly rate for warranty work so they might actually be happy.