Comments on: Hurricane FEMA

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:38:06 +0000

Just doing a simple bit of math on behalf of FEMA (since they probably don’t have the common sense to do it themselves):

FEMA spokesperson Debra Wing claims they are auctioning units at a controlled 300 units/ month, nationwide.

If just 70,000 of those units come back to the auctions, that would take them TWENTY (20) YEARS to liquidate just the KATRINA units (allowing time off for Federal holidays)!!

I think FEMA (as an arm of the Federal government) should disperse these units to states in the regions that will have a high likelihood to use them for emergency relief (i.e. the Gulf Coast to Florida [Hurricanes]…Texas through the upper Midwest [Tornado country]…California [Shake-N-Bake country]…Al Gore’s Carbon-Credit-Land [Just in case the Republicans win the next election]).

The local and State governments could surely house and refurbish these trailers on an on-going basis for their intended use, Emergency Relief, without burdening the market with inferior product!!

What do you think?

By: Jim Palma

Jim Palma — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:52:24 +0000

Thanks for the mention Wayne. To clarify a point, we are a border town Texas dealer but we are only 42 miles from Hope, Arkansas.

By: Ed Andrysiak

Ed Andrysiak — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:50:02 +0000

Well just maybe there will be some good come of this unloading. I’ll give you an example of what could happen here. I wanted a golf cart to run around our horse farm…a beater. I looked for and bought a beater real cheap and was thrilled. I used it just long enough to learn that I liked it’s utility around the place and didn’t understand why I didn’t have one sooner. Cheap was cheap and it was broke down more often than running…but it did get me to buy. I blew it off for peanuts as it cost more to fix than it was worth.I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT A NEW ONE! Be patient that Fema “crap” may turn to gold sooner than you think.

By: Bob Zagami

Bob Zagami — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 14:29:06 +0000

This is clearly and “industry” problem and it makes a lot more sense for the “industry” to find a “solution” before the unsuspecting consumer finds the “problem” and if they do, you have one less long term customer that will never come back to RVing and will spread such negative venom about our industry that it will takes years for corrective action to take hold. There is far too much industry silence on this topic. The longer we wait to address it, the more customers we lose.

By: Wayne Post

Wayne Post — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:47:04 +0000

I asked earlier if FEMA was selling units to RV Dealers. Thanks to Jim Palma, an Arkansas dealer, I found out. GSA Auctions lists the campers on their website and gives just enough information to get greenhorns to bid on them. They show 3 photographs including the left side of the trailer, so you don’t know it doesn’t have an awning. They list the size as 32 feet and give you access to NADA’s “retail” values. When you look up a 32′ size you come up with a high value. When in fact its a 27′ or 28′ “Lite” model. Many of these ‘05 & ‘06 units with damage and no mattresses and no LP tanks are bid higher than what I pay for new ‘07 entry level product with no damage, nothing missing, and a guarantee.
IF anyone gets a bargain, it will be a miracle.

By: Ohly Callies

Ohly Callies — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 00:02:47 +0000

I thinki that Bob Zagmi, March 13,2007, 6:24 pm, has the best idea. Educate the buying public as to the buying dangers of units not built to code or with warranty. When I was still in the RV business, we run into this situation more than once and we turned out to be the bad guy because we had to charge for repairs and had to deal with substarded units.

By: pat lassiter

pat lassiter — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:28:13 +0000

guess i’ll have a crack at this myself ,i’ve been in the rv busniess for 35 yrs the thing that gripes my but the most ,is the way the factorys got away with building crap to start with ,i don’t mean fly by nite guys either, i would think any builder in the u.s.a. should be proud of
what they put together … if anyone should take back these unit’s it should be them …. or maybe they were building disposable units ,that are here today rotted tommorrow

By: Bob Zagami

Bob Zagami — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:21:01 +0000

A single dealer sold $100 million dollars worth of trailers to FEMA ?????

By: Sheri

Sheri — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 12:50:06 +0000

Maybe everyone should look to the dealer that sold over $100 million worth of trailers to FEMA and see if he wants any of them back…….. I am sure that his new service facility would be happy to service all of the units he sold, since he was in the inner circle to begin with, we need to look to Tom Stinnet for some advice.

By: Bob Zagami

Bob Zagami — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:24:04 +0000

This is where RVDA and RVIA must step up to the plate and tell this story in the national media. They should take out full page ads in major newspapers and buy television time (or use some of the Go RVing slots) to explain to unsuspecting buyers the pitfalls of what appears to be a bargain courtesy of FEMA. FEMA is a joke! As a country we should all be embarrassed at their actions and urge our Congressman and Senators to abolish this bad idea and make it go away.

RVDA and RVIA must get involved here. These units were not built to RVIA standards and should not be called RVs. As many other contributors on this thread have noted, these units will require a lot of work and buyers must understand that. I would suggest that all manufacturers and dealers urge our industry associations to come to the aid of an unsuspecting public and avoid a major public relations blunder for the RV industry when these thousands of people think this IS the RV industry and start blaming everyone but themselves and FEMA for this national disgrace.