Country Coach May be Closing

[gmcbuffalo]

Several years ago I had my aging sattelite dish worked on by Carriers and sons and they were in Eugene Oregon. Just up the road from them was the CC bus conversion build facilities, so I always assumed that the Engene CC center was for Bus conversons and the Junction City center was for plastic coaches. Is this not so amymore? If so that seems like the center to call or go to instead of the JC center.
GregM

[LarryB]

Greg, the Bus converson center is now Oregon Motorcoach, Bob lee's new company. The Bus works has been moved to some where near the main factory in Junction City, I'm told.

[LarryB]

Carol & Will, I have read stories like your's on the CC owners group. Seems the Howard Boys adopted a 'tick off the customer' policy a little over a year ago.
In my mind the Howards have been in over their heads since they took over CC.

[jack14r]

Another web site said that when they purchased CC that they took on 13 million in debt,I bet that the small manufacturers in this country without debt have a much greater chance of survival.During this environment new product development like the Veranda might be too costly and a detriment to the company

[Petervs]

The article said they assumed $13 million in debt but bought the company for $38 million additional. You can bet that when investors bought the company they financed the major portion of that as well.

I would not be surprised if the total debt load was $40-45 MILLION. The intent is, of course, for cash flow from operations to pay the monthly interest on the debt, grow the company for a few years, and then sell it again for a higher price, at which point the outstanding debt is repaid.

This leaves bit one unsolvable problem....if sales slump, cash flow dries up, and you have no option but to go into default. And at that point nobody else will finance you either.

Let;s see, $40 million at 6% per year is $200,000 INTEREST PAYMENTS PER MONTH, you can use up working capital pretty quick at that rate.

[garyde]

About 10 years ago, when I went to my first FMCA Rally, I walked thru the Country Coach Exhibition area and was very impressed with their Coach. compared to all the other manufactures , this company seemed to have it together. What a precipitous slide since those strong sales years. The Company was sold for all the wrong reasons, and then repurchased at way too high a price in hindsight. It would be a sad day if Country Coach went away.

[Coloradobus]

Hey Gary,
At that 10 years ago time, Bob Lee was at the CC helm and that is why you were so impressed with the display. Having owned 2 Country Coaches, the quality, the facotry personel and helpfullness, and support is why we bought the Affinity and later the XL after having a dreadful experience with a plastic Airstream box on the freightliner chassis.
It seems to us that perhaps Oregon Motorcoach Company may become the new "Country Coach" by another name. Bob Lee to the rescue,.
We have always wondered why the Howards were put in charge of Country Coach, since their past rv business dealings went down in flames.
During a diinner at the 2003 Las Vegas Circus Circus winter rally where we were participants, Jay Howard made some very durrogatory comments about NON CC brand motorhomes of which we were one with our Marathon XLII. The crowd groaned at what was said.
An aledged policy of irritating the customer dates way back.

[garyde]

As of this year, I still maintain my Country Coach membership because I enjoyed their Rallies. They always seemed to welcome anyone and everyone regardless of the Coach one owned at the time. This was a strength of theirs. It does seem odd the traditions and the culture has been dilluted or discarded by the people at the helm.

[Tully]

I guess the real question is what this will actually mean to all the Country Coach owners. Does anyone really know?

I know Joe C. did a ton of work on my "camper" as he calls it. He knows a lot on operations of the bus. I doubt I could or would ever driven to Junction City anyhow for service.

Heck, I faxed a question and photo to the service department at Country Coach. I go a return phone call exactly three weeks latter. This fax was sent to them back in June. I had almost forgot about the issue till one day I got a call. Waiting three weeks for a reply is almost as bad as having to wait 4-6 weeks for the junk you buy from those tv commercials.

So, at the end of the day- what does this mean if they do go under? I hope they do not. I guess the value of Country Coach products could drop even further in value (than most rv's) are now?

Iam happy with my bus. I like the build quality. I have someone like Joe C. who can help me with a majority of the problems along with the great help form this forum.

I would be more concerned if this forum no longer existed more so than Country Coach at this point.



Tully Lee Garrett

[Coloradobus]

LIke Tully, we have gone to Country Coach Rallies as an "S.O.B" (some other brand) Marathon. Having 2 past coaches that were CC's. we have many friends. It is very nice, that they accept any brand of coach in to participate.