Marathon vs Vantare

[rbeecher]

We have a '96 Vogue which we purchased a year ago from Featherlite/Vantare/Vogue. It is an outstanding coach with quality better than anything I have seen. It was built by the Mitchell family in Pryor, Ok when they owned Vogue before selling it to Featherlite. The Vogue can be serviced anywhere which I learned because I had no choice but to go somewhere other than Featherlite after less than acceptable work there. In short, when a business slowly pushes you away and you are forced to look elsewhere for service, you learn a lot.

In two days we will pick up a 2002 XLII Marathon at Marathon Florida. These people have done WAY MORE than they had to and bent over backwards to get this deal done. The contrast to our previous experience is, well, simply amazing, the people are first rate. We will have no concerns about handing over the Marathon to them for service and knowing it will be done right the first time which is a stark contrast to what we witnessed in Sanford.

Having said all of the above, I had a Marathon exec tell me last week that Vantare builds a good coach. There are some great deals out there and we all think we're going to keep our busses forever, but we don't and resale is going to be very important some day.

The Marathon quality is evident, and the service will be there. Vantare is going through difficult times with significant layoffs, employees leaving on their own, and rumors of them being readied for sale. Go with Marathon and don't look back.

Richard Beecher

02 Marathon XLII
96 Vogue XL 40 for sale

[phorner]

Richard, Looks like we'll be leaving Marathon sometime tomorrow, as they have pretty much completed everything we asked for on our coach.

I agree that doing business here has been an exceptional experience.

Sorry we won't be here long enough to introduce ourselves. Which one of these beauties is going to be yours?

[meandmyprs]

Thank your everyone for your input. I hope to meet you all at some point once I get through the "process" or picking and paying. Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated as well.

[rbeecher]

Paul,

I was hoping we would have a chance to meet before you hit the open road.

I did get to see your new coach when my wife and I were there, it was in one of the bays having some work done on it. The word from the service group is that it is a very, very, nice example.

Our new ride is the 02 Marathon XLII with a Pennsylvania plate on it. The exterior is described as sand with toffee marbling. Ask Joe in service or Ed in sales. Hopefully it came back from Prevost today...

Enjoy your super new bus. We'll look forward to meeting you and Janice one day.

Richard Beecher

[Ray Davis]

Richard,

I was looking on the Marathon used coaches listing, and didn't see any 2002 XL2's listed. Did you snag it before they put it online?

Ray

[rbeecher]

Ray,

We met the sales person at Marathon on a Sunday! The bus was on their website for the rest of that week only and then taken off during their weekly update. It was a reluctant consignment on the owner's part.

The interesting thing about the whole deal is that I kept rolling around in my head the last name of the coach owner thinking I recognized it. The sales person kept referring to the coach as "Mr. Shauf's" bus and never mentioned a first name. Finally, not being able to stand the suspense any longer, I asked what the owner's first name is and wouldn't you know it, he is someone we know from the sportscar racing world!

Richard

Coming soon - 02 Marathon XLII

[Ray Davis]

That sounds great. We can't wait to see a picture of it.

ray

[Rootdmd]

Bumping an old thread because I am considering purchase of an 06 Featherlight H model. Any current thoughts comparing Marathon with Featherlight? I’ve been impressed with both companies, and have found a rare bath and a half floor plan Featherlight which suits my needs and budget. I was curious as to anything to be on lookout in this particular year, and also a broader question in terms of Featherlight support in general. I don’t care so much about resale value as I do service after the sale,