George Day Caravans & Motorhomes

I bought an Essential caravan, brand new 2025 model in August. Was told by the salesman that it was a aluminium frame turned out to be a wood frame. Went for our maiden voyage, 2 x water leaks, under the bathroom sink, inside the toilet cassette cavity. Water tanks under the caravan were not securely bolted. The toilet flushes before use. The light in the ensuite turns off and on by its self. All the laminate trims have come off, on all the doors and draws. They have tried to repair, redoing all the laminate but it is coming off again. They have told us that it will take 9 month turnaround before we have new doors and draws. We are seasoned travellers but with all these problems we are very disappointed in our new Caravan as we can’t travel as much. Just waiting for another shoe to drop on something else that will go wrong. We really are very disappointed with our purchase. We have tried to deal with Essential directly but they keep telling us we have to go through George Day.

Disappointment at George Day Caravans – Purchased my Lotus Trooper 209D from George Day Caravans and collected it June 2024. On collection it was obvious that a major issue with the Aussie Traveller door had not been fixed even though it was recorded on all the documentation. The service advisor actually wanted to argue about this issue rather than accept that it had been overlooked. He was dismissive and condescending eventually blaming the guys from sales for not bringing it to his attention earlier even though it was written in black & white on all documentation and he had 4 weeks to carry out the work before hand over. The handover experience was unpleasant because of this. This is a $170K caravan and the George Day service advisor was outright trying to deny a clear fault with the entry door? The collection of this van should have been a fun and enjoyable experience.

I live 4 hours from Perth so I could not reject the van and leave it with them to fix. During the drive home a high pitched screaming noise was coming from the van. I obviously pulled over multiple times to check wheels, brakes and bearings. Turns out it is the cooling fins on the back of the light bar. This light bar is located on the upper front of the van. As the wind blows over the fins they screech. I was pulling the van with a 200 series and could hear it with the windows up. George Day asked me to tilt the light bar to stop the noise. Tilting makes no difference at all and obviously changes the angle of the light away from where you need it. I had to tape it up completely to stop the noise. It is still taped up. George Day do not recognise it as a problem!

George Day converted all the keys to 1 Key. However several of the lock barrels come out on the key when you try to remove the key after turning. I called 1 Key directly and they were amazing to deal with. They knew exactly what was wrong and sent me the parts I needed to fix the problem myself. There’s a special cir clip that must be installed on the end of each new barrel. George Day neglected to fit them or they tried to reuse the old clips. I was lucky not to loose a lock barrel while towing my van. I actually could not lock my van during this whole time until I was able to repair the locks. No response from George Day on this.

There are other issues such as a crack in the fibre glass shower base that looks to have been patched up by George Day themselves. On bringing it to their attention I was told it is a major job to replace the shower in any caravan so they advise having a fibreglass repair done instead. I took the van off-road for our first large trip and found that a couple of the Thetford oven knobs had fallen off. On inspection I noticed 4 out of the 6 were cracked. At this point we hadn’t even used the main oven yet. I know that these vans are taken to a lot of shows where they are displayed to the public. These vans get a lot of foot traffic so I think that some of these issues are caused by rough handling. However they are still sold as a brand new caravan.

When you have a warranty concern George Day gives you a liaison person to go through. Basically they handle the customer for the service department. But they have no power and ultimately the service department dictates what happens or in a lot of peoples case - what does not happen.

I have contacted George Day service department now 4 times without response. I just want to sort out these warranty issues. It is incredible that in this day and age they can get away with this type of form.

I have since noticed a lot of other peoples reviews complaining about George Day service department or lack of. The themes are all the same with people being neglected, ignored or disrespected. More interestingly I have spoken to 2 separate caravan repair workshops about my van and they both have relayed concerns about George Day caravans and their reluctance to standby their warranty. So much so that they will not carry out warranty work on George Days behalf due to issues and drama dealing with the George Day service department.

This has been a very disappointing experience for my wife and I. We chose the Lotus Trooper for its name and build. Unfortunately George Day have upset that image. We can’t go back there ever for any reason. I would recommend that if you were considering a Lotus or any other van that George Day stock - try someone else. We came very close to purchasing a Titanium Hardcore from the agent in Rockingham and the salesman was excellent, he had a lot of time for us. We felt that because we are a family of 4 with our eldest child starting to become independent we should spend a bit less on a caravan and upgrade later. I made a mistake thinking that! I should have gone with the Titanium from the WA agent over the van we settled for from George Day. It is crazy how extremely poor after sales service can make you feel.