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Country Coach making a comeback.


Medico

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It's too bad that more people do not know what's happening at CC today. CC is beginning building new coaches shortly. They are building an Allure prototype which the owner, Ron Lee, has purchased to work out any bugs before going into production. This will be a lower price point than the Magna. The Magna prototype will be commencing shortly with an projected price point in the $800K to $900K range. They decided on the Allure first rather than the Magna because it has a lower projected cost. This is all for informational purposes only.

 

See this post for a proposed floor plan. CC has sent promotional info to all registered CC owners. Some other info found here. And a construction update directly from Ron Lee.

 

As you can see CC is really coming back. They have had a service and parks as well as consignment business for a couple of years and are now starting the next phase of building new coaches.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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I cannot either. I was using that as a reference for my coach. mine cost $641K+ in 2006. The wholesale is around $217K today. Since I bought it used, it fell within my price range. I was looking at Tiffin Allegro Bus and Newmar Dutch Star at the time.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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I just hope Ron follows In Bobs footsteps ! CC was great, then good, then gone hope the come back works well for them, it's been a traumatic past 20 years or so and they deserve better times !

Dave W. KE5GOH

Stuck in the 70's ---

In E. Texas

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Ron seems to be taking his time to get it right. He wants to work out the bugs before going into production. It's too bad other manufacturers do not always follow this philosophy.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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I was talking to someone last month who said they were about 99% complete with the financing package. I am unaware where his info came from, but he seemed to be in the know somehow. He bought his Allure new in 2007. The article I linked was several months old so the financing has changed since then. I have been unable to yet find any independent info on financing.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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The article I linked was several months old so the financing has changed since then. I have been unable to yet find any independent info on financing.

If they don't pay you or supply some sort of rewards for your efforts in promoting them, they certainly should. :)

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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I get nothing from them for any of my opinions. These are my opinions, but I guess I voice them more than many. Unless you have actually owned and driven and lived in a high end coach such as Country Coach, you have nothing to compare them with. I have looked at many high end Tiffins, Newmars, American Coach, and such, and few of them have the fit and finish of our Magna. The American Heritage (which my neighbor owns) and the Essex and King Air are very similar. Tiffin does not quite have a coach comparable, close (Zephyr) but not the same. When someone asks about comparing different coaches they deserve to hear about better coaches as well. It just so happens I am now selling my Magna. Things have changed in our lives and we are leaving the FT lifestyle for now. This is an ideal coach for a FT couple, and it's priced VERY competitively. Just search for CC Magna on RVt or RV Trader and compare our coach with others.

 

I have not looked at Newell and Foretravel, but I would assume as good or better.

 

The reason I started this thread was that several people seem to like to take pot shots at CC because they have not made new coaches since 2010. They will be changing in the next year or so. CC has also been servicing coaches again since 2010 when Ron Lee bought the corp. back.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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Thanks for sharing. Something that many may want to remember. Please, try not to make economic assumptions about our members. I am guessing that the income level covers all ranges and levels. We also have a Supreme Court Justice that travels in an RV. I just try to enjoy the wonderful RV fellowship and try to not be judgmental!

 

Safe Travels!

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The reason I started this thread was that several people seem to like to take pot shots at CC because they have not made new coaches since 2010. They will be changing in the next year or so. CC has also been servicing coaches again since 2010 when Ron Lee bought the corp. back.

Nothing at all wrong with that and such news is always of interest to someone. Even so, I just think that your loyalty is remarkable and should be appreciated by the company. Such comments are often more valuable to a manufacturer than any kind of paid advertising. I really did mean what I said about your value to the company.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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Thank you. Unfortunately CC was not the only RV manufacturer that had problems in the past. They were hurt by the economy just as many others were. Since all they sold were higher end coaches, the economy hurt them more so than some others. The original owners, one of which was Ron Lee, sold the company back in 2008, I believe, and the new company seemed to drive it in the wrong direction, just as many others did and are doing now. Since Ron Lee bought back CC it has once again begun to show great promise. Ron is funding the first prototypes himself to allow any bugs to be worked out. I believe this is an admirable way to do things.

 

Also, as I have said, the new CCs will be well out of my reach financially. With some changes in our circumstances we are selling our wonderful Magna. It has been an ideal coach for FT RVing. Someone will gain a great coach.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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CC is still in business and doing quite well. That's the point. Most of us can't afford new CCs let alone Foretravels. They are even higher than CC. Many have not a clue that CC has a booming service, parts and consignment business in Junction City and will be building new coaches there by some time next year.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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Medico, I agree on the affordability. We made the choice long ago that we prefer older high end coaches over newer lower end units.

 

We are still happy for now in our 1994 Bluebird. We may change coaches in 2-5 years, and would look for a well maintained pre-owned high end coach at that point. If I was buying today, I'd be looking at coach years 2001 to 2006. We are somewhat unusual in that we do not want 4 slides and do not want a 42 or 45 foot coach. 36' to 40 foot fits our needs and usage.

 

Since we are close to Nacogdoches right now, we will likely take a day trip to check out the Foretravel factory and all the used high end coaches in the area. We have never checked out a Foretravel in person, but have been in Country Coaches. Motorhomes Of Texas in Nac seems to always have high end used coaches.

 

Are parts still widely available for year 2002-2008 Country Coaches? Body panels especially concern me in case of a accident on the roadways. Many drivers seem very inattentive out there.

 

Thanks for the updates on CC - I was not aware they were still alive and well.

Dan - SKP club member

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Yes, Country Coach has a booming rebuild business. They can do complete slide rebuilds or accident damage repairs. I have seen pictures replacing the entire roof, coach side panels, front or rear caps, etc. Since they built the original coach they are very good at the repairs as well. They most likely still have all the blueprints for the original coach since when Ron bought back CC he bought all the intellectual property as well as the physical property. They do have a large parts inventory. In some cases old parts are replaced with newer designs. For example the original heat exchangers were no longer available but a replacement was actually quieter than the originals.

 

Since CC builds the Dynomax chassis they can also do major work on the entire coach. I would assume any high end manufacturer can do this with their coaches.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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My personal opinion on the new coach is that he should have started small. There is a large number of people driving 40-45 footers that want to downsize because of age, etc.but they still want the quality. If you look at the 32-33 footer built by CC, every one that hits the market is gone in short order. Todays market just isn't there for high volume sales of $800K coaches

 

II have a friend that told the Howards that he would pay list price for a 36 foot Magna but he was laughed at and told that CC didn't make enough money off of the short coaches. Well DUH! So he went out and got a Foretravel and CC lost money. The insistance on building nothing but the Veranda as a last ditch effort didn't help the bottom line either.

 

Parts, even body panels are easy to come by. Any body shop can reconstruct a panel no problem. I feel that we have better parts availability now than when the factory was in full swing. The good techs went out and started their own companies and provide excellent service. I think they saw the writing on the wall and collected a data base of parts providers.

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We just bought a 2009 Magna, drive it 2,600 miles and the engine blew up to the tune of $29,000 although Cummins is paying $10,000 of it as a "good will" payment. The Magna is a beautiful rig and, until the engine went was a joy to drive. Never short of power with it's ISX 650, but we found it short of interior and exterior storage compared to the 41' 2002 Dutch Star we traded in. Hope to get it back next week and start packing it again.

There are a number of stories about the ISX engines blowing up, usually the 650 HP version and almost always broken valves in #6 and 5. Cummins has know of the problem for a while and opened an investigation which resulted in new head abd valves.

This was the second blow up on our Magna, first was at 19,032 and involved #6 & 5 and a new turbo, 1,000 miles later it required another new turbo and now at 45,154 it's done it again. New liners in 4, 5, & 6, new rods, new pistons, bearings etc and a third turbo.

Not totally happy with Cummins although $10,000 off is nothing to sneeze at. But it's a known problem and, if you're out of warranty you're on your own although we did get lucky. Had we known the full history on this engine we'd have passed although once the engine is back together and we' settled in I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

2009 45' Country Coach Magna 630 Cummins ISX 650/1950

Charter Good Sam Lifetime Member, FMCA f47302s, SKP 118205
RV'ing since 1957, NRA Benefactor Life & Golden Eagle

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Boy I'm glad my Country Coach has a Cat C13 engine!!! Never a hiccup with this engine. Unfortunately there is not much of a choice any more since Cat has gotten out of the over the road engine business. I believe the new CCs will have the Cummins power plants. Perhaps they will look at the Volvo, but that runs somewhere around $50K I hear.

 

What floor plan do you have? Our Rembrandt has plenty of storage both inside and out.

GS Lifetime #822128658, FMCA #F431170

 

2012 Airstream Mercedes Interstate Extended Class B

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We just bought a 2009 Magna, drive it 2,600 miles and the engine blew up to the tune of $29,000 although Cummins is paying $10,000 of it as a "good will" payment. The Magna is a beautiful rig and, until the engine went was a joy to drive. Never short of power with it's ISX 650, but we found it short of interior and exterior storage compared to the 41' 2002 Dutch Star we traded in. Hope to get it back next week and start packing it again.

There are a number of stories about the ISX engines blowing up, usually the 650 HP version and almost always broken valves in #6 and 5. Cummins has know of the problem for a while and opened an investigation which resulted in new head abd valves.

This was the second blow up on our Magna, first was at 19,032 and involved #6 & 5 and a new turbo, 1,000 miles later it required another new turbo and now at 45,154 it's done it again. New liners in 4, 5, & 6, new rods, new pistons, bearings etc and a third turbo.

Not totally happy with Cummins although $10,000 off is nothing to sneeze at. But it's a known problem and, if you're out of warranty you're on your own although we did get lucky. Had we known the full history on this engine we'd have passed although once the engine is back together and we' settled in I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

 

 

 

This is a good reason for an ESP on a used coach. You just never know. Hard to save up $29K for this kind of problem.

Fulltiming since 2010

2000 Dutch Star

2009 Saturn Vue

Myrtle Beach, SC

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Medico has been a real CC Owner Team Player! Well known on many boards, and always willing to provide input to fellow CC owners.

 

We visited the CC site last August, and were glad to see them working their way back into production mode. One key item, in regards to major repairs capability that Medico did not mention, is they also have all of the old molds. So this greatly reduces the costs of major fiberglass repairs, not having to custom fabricate.

 

In addition to CC, many of the former top tech's are available to provide their expertise at Bob Lee's repair business Oregon Motor Coach. They work on other coaches besides CC - but CC is their bread butter. So between the restarted factory, OMC, and others - CC owner have many options for competent repairs.

 

As a CC owner, with the two steps below model Allure (We felt the Intrigue was the sweet spot of the CC line up, based upon our personal choices and likes. The Intrigue was the lowest model CC where you could get the BIG CAT, and that was my desire, an Intrigue with CAT. However, as their are two of us in this couple:)! The DW's desire for a large galley had to be factored. The Allure High Cascade model of 2003-2004, has the largest non slide galley I've ever found in a coach. Ours is 40', and even 45' coaches did not have as much counter and cabinet space as this High Cascade model. Wanted of the reasons we wanted a non kitchen slide, was lack of plumbing moving around, but more so for the extra 5-6" of upper cabinet space. (We added more shelves up towards the top of a few cabinets, 6" below the cabinet tops, and store many items that are used infrequently in what is usually wasted air space.) Our Allure High Cascade larger galley was offset some by having the ISL midsize block engine. It's a good engine, and since all of the coaches we were looking at were pre heavy smog changes, this CAPS era engine had been around for quite sometime. It gets the job done, but I admit I would have preferred a ISM 1st (not available in the CC line of that era), BIG CAT 2nd... As the 'total coach' is more then just engine, compromises were required:)!

 

Very glad to CC coming back, as I agree with Medico that many owners feel orphan coaches are to be avoided. Will it help improve the value of older CC's, perhaps.

 

Go CC.

 

Best to all,

Smitty

Be safe, have fun,

Smitty

04 CC Allure "RooII" - Our "E" ride for life!

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  • 4 weeks later...

The wife and I are currently at CC, and we brought our new to us 99 Intrigue 32 foot no slide to have the 200 dollar complete check over done to it...........now we are leaving in a 40 foot 2001 magna. We decid d we needed more room before we got here, and looked at a ton of different coaches in the area.......none compared to our CC. We even looked several new pushers,and didn't like the feel of the newer stuff(felt to much like a prefab mobile home). I guess we just like the older stuff.

 

Also the new coach is coming along great they are working on it everyday, and I think he is planning on taking it to the bike rally in Sturgis later this year if all the outside vendor parts make it in time

John Jackson

www.NotStockPhotography.com

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