efelker

GV:

What a great idea -- dealers help fund the website. How many times have I read on this site "... just put a down payment on my new 2619, 2033, etc."? On the "Alrighty Then" thread, Happytrails spoke of the importance of word of mouth advertising. (Bill the Bogwon will have to forgive me if I take his claim to wordiness in what follows).

What I've observed on this site goes way beyond word of mouth. I've studied marketing psychology and what strikes me about the folks on this site is that they have become "cult-like" (and that's not a criticism). The closest product analogy I can think of is VW Beetles. We bought them. We loved them, even though they were under-powered and we had to drive with one hand in the winter because our other hand was scraping ice off the INSIDE of the windows. We tinkered with them, constantly -- I was out there in the driveway with my continuity light adjusting the points and timing it every two weeks (best tuned car I ever owned, & I'm still buying VWs). We changed the oil every 1000 miles. We tinkered with them, and bought them doodads from JC WHitney. It ceased being transportation, and became part of our persona.

Same thing going on here. If you guys and gals aren't camping in it, it's open in the driveway and you are tinkering. One of my checklists took all the suggested improvements on this site and compiled them -- there's over a hundred of them. Advice to newbies just considering a TM are filled with a passion way beyond just that of a customer happy with a product. The fact that this site exists without any support from the TM company or its dealers clearly indicates the passion. I've been on the Open Roads Forum and I've read posting from "mainstream RVers" complaining about TMers singing the TM apostolic praise. How many people drive half way across the country to buy their TM? Look at KLSD above -- driving from Phoenix to Custom in CA to buy one. What other product in the US do you see that happening with? Remember the old Camel cigarette ads -- "I'd walk a mile for a camel."

TM and its dealers have a great thing going here, and I hope they appreciate it. We haven't bought ours yet (this spring). I had been looking for quite a while. Had completely decided on a Sunline. Absolutely superb quality. Visited the factory. Began negotiating with a dealer in PA near the factory in Dallas PA. Got the price down to $15000 with all the options.

Then my wife saw the TM on the HGTV show this spring while she was visiting our daughter in Tampa. She called me and told me to check it out. I went to the TM site, and my impression was "Interesting, but not compelling." I was still sold on the Sunline, even though we'd have to buy a new tow vehicle. Then one night I found you folks while surfing, and after reading about "the product" from the viewpoint of the owners, you slowly but incidiously changed me. So when TM and the dealer I buy it from makes their profit off me this spring, they both need to thank you all, because this site influenced me to spend what will be about $24000 for something I was going to get for $15000, and would have been perfectly contented with that decision.

Long way to get to the end of this, but I'm one story in the naked city. But what I've seen on this site is my story has many replications, and everytime this story is told, the cash register rings in Lake City TN and at one of its dealers.

Ed