The Manufactured Housing Forums

We are gonna purchase a new double-wide as soon as possible. Started out looking at Fleetwoods. After a lot of online research decided against them due to poor quality and customer service records. Sunshine homes seem to be well-constructed but haven't really seen any of them we loved. Found a Cavalier one of their Bridgeport Series homes, that we love. But we are a little scared of Cavalier because they seem to have a lot of complaints and bad customer service record too. No manufacturer seems to really stand out as remarkeable based on our research. Does anybody have any good recomendations? Anywhere we can go for more service or complaint records?? Also would love to hear any Cavalier complaints from buyers.

Most strong dealers have good service.That is because the manufacturer values that dealer and wants to keep him happy.If the dealer represents more than one manufacturer and say out of 20 homes on his lot one or two are cavalier, his commitment to that particular home and his relationship with the manufacturer might not be as strong as say if he had more cavalier stock than
any other home.This might not seem fair but it is a fact of life.

Customer service starts with the way you are treated at the lot.Are the homes open ,clean,furnished and decorated?Are you welcome to look through the homes on your own?Is the sales office clean?Are the staff courteous, well informed, and helpful?These are all signs that indicate a strong commitment to service after the sale.

Never take for granted the importance of the role the dealer plays in your obtaining great service.

As for your question about the quality of cavalier homes, you can order your home with anything from very basic construction features to very strong construction features.The home comes standard with many options that other homes only offer as costly upgrades.

To me ,cavaliers weakness is no construction changes(moving walls,etc.),one wall paper color, three carpet colors,and very few color choices of any kind.This,however, is how they are able to put so much value in the standard features that come in all their homes.

Hope that I've been some help.

Dave,

Thanks for your helpful input! The dealer we have been working with sells only Cavalier homes. And everything seems to be in order with their professionalism, cleanliness, etc. We are all too aware (first- and secondhand) of how much can go wrong with a manufactured home purchase, as far as customer service, quality, etc. And we are trying to avoid these problems by doing as much research as possible.

As far as the cosmetics of the home, these things are not really important to us. Luckily, we love the home we saw as is. The colors and everything are perfect. That is one reason we are kind of trying to step back and look at it more objectively. We are trying not to let our love for the look of the home to cause us to possibly overlook other things that have to do with quality. This home seems to fit all of our needs, and seems to be very well-constructed. Unless we find something else in the very near future, it looks as though Cavalier it is!!

Where are you from? What is the name of your Dealership? The reason I'm asking is because there is a company that I know of that has Cavalier in the name, actually they have several names. They are very poor at customer service if they are the company that I am thinking of. I know this because we have recently purchased a home. These companies can go bankrupt and open under other names. If you would please reply.
Thanks,
Jen

You seem to know what you are talking about and I agree with you on allot of your points.