Seneca or Accolade

[Steve S]

Hello To All,
My name is Steve and I am brand new on this site. I am a retired Army Infantryman and new to the RV world. I am an owner of a Class B+ RV and want to buy a Super C. I am looking at the Entegra Accolade 37TS or the Jayco Seneca. Both very similar to me. Also, I have been searching for a site that shows prices, not what the dealers are saying it is. Something like a Consumer Reports for RV buying that shows what a vehicle is really worth and what the dealer should be willing to accept. Any help or suggestions is appreciated. Thank You!

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Steve S

. Also, I have been searching for a site that shows prices, not what the dealers are saying it is. Something like a Consumer Reports for RV buying that shows what a vehicle is really worth and what the dealer should be willing to accept. Any help or suggestions is appreciated. Thank You!

They both come out of the same factory, just have different amenities.

Pricing will vary all over, depending on dealer and area demand. I always got about 33 -35% off MSRP and other's have reported as low as 20%. With that said don't be totally lured by price. You may find an on-line dealer that will give you an outstanding price, but when you return home you may not get your local dealer to do the warranty work. RV dealers are independent and not franchised so if they didn't sell the rig they are not obligated to service it. JAYCO always preaches, "Buy Local". Something to keep in mind.

[Steve S]

Thanks for your thoughts. I really appreciate it. Gives me starting place as far as price is concerned. Do you know anyone out there in the RV world that has either one of these vehicles and if they are happy with it?

[Drv]

Originally Posted by Steve S

Hello To All,
My name is Steve and I am brand new on this site. I am a retired Army Infantryman and new to the RV world. I am an owner of a Class B+ RV and want to buy a Super C. I am looking at the Entegra Accolade 37TS or the Jayco Seneca. Both very similar to me. Also, I have been searching for a site that shows prices, not what the dealers are saying it is. Something like a Consumer Reports for RV buying that shows what a vehicle is really worth and what the dealer should be willing to accept. Any help or suggestions is appreciated. Thank You!

Hi
I own a 2020 Accolade 37TS that I signed papers on right before the "SHTF" last March. I had been researching for a few years on the Seneca and was going to buy the Seneca. The 2020 Seneca and Accolade were identical, inside and out with the exception of Paint Schemes. They are identical in the 2021 models as well with the exception of paint schemes. There is no warranty difference. You will not receive an AIR(annual inspection report) that traditionally built Entegra's receive if you buy the Accolade vs the Jayco.
When it came down to it, we liked the Accolade paint scheme better and was able to secure the best discount on that unit at aprox 36%.
Again, that price was pre Covid and the dealers were a little bit more motivated not to have dead inventory sitting as the economy tanked. Little did any of us know or think the exact opposite in the RV industry would happen and demand is though the roof!
Shoot an email asking for a quote from RVdirect.com(part of RVone which is part of RVRetailers,llc) and Rv Express(Part of Richardson RV) right next to the factory in Indiana. Those two locations should be a good temperature check as to discounts available right now as they tend to be the most aggressive on price. Service is a whole different question/concern in general!
DO lots of reading on here and other sites.
Set yourself up knowing its new and it comes with problems! I can tell you first hand that if you have issues and you want them resolved correctly and are having issues with your dealer. Don't mess around, set up your repair punch list and reach out to the factory for factory repairs. They will get it done and done right. You may still have hiccups but you wont be caught in the dealer pointing fingers at Jayco while your unit sits at the dealers lot!
Best of luck on your hunt for your new unit.

[Steve S]

Thank you for the great insight. All of this is great information and so glad I joined this site. We really like the Accolade 37TS. Still need to drive one. We tossed around the idea of a Class "A" but think a Super C will handle better in the wind and easier to drive then a Class A. So, you went directly to Jayco with your issues? Thanks again!

[Drv]

Originally Posted by Steve S

Thank you for the great insight. All of this is great information and so glad I joined this site. We really like the Accolade 37TS. Still need to drive one. We tossed around the idea of a Class "A" but think a Super C will handle better in the wind and easier to drive then a Class A. So, you went directly to Jayco with your issues? Thanks again!

Hands down in my opinion the Super C 's on Freightliner S2/M2 (Jayco, Dynamax, Renegade) will handle better IMO. I/we looked at the Tiffin RED 37BA and it was a really nice rig. Drove fine, but still kind of wallowed like your Great Uncles Caddy in the late 70's to early 80's. Don't get me wrong, it was heads and shoulders above my parent's 2014 Precept on the short light ford chassis but still "floaty". My unit tracks like a big pickup truck down the road and fatigue is almost none existent after a long 6-7hrs day. The engine noise from a Super C will be more noticeable especially if ambient temp is in high 90's forcing the secondary cooling fan to kick on once and while. Im ok with the trade off of having steel and engine out in front of me and my family vs glass and preying im higher then what im about to hit!

The Seneca/Accolade checked all the box's for us, handling, ride, and value for the dollar. The tiffin or even equivalent Berkshire would have been another 30-35k

Honestly, if this is your big RV purchase do try and drive a Diesel pusher and a Super C, what I and others deem as fact and important to us may not be reality for you.

I knew going into buying our unit that it would have issues, almost all new RV's do. We did a pre purchase walk through and had a punch list for dealer to correct before pick up. It was all written down and they were supposed to fix it all before we picked it up. They did not, which was not a surprise to me. They were known for having the best price, service was not necessarily in their vocabulary. I knew this and accepted it knowing anything significant could and would be handled by Jayco. I would not have accepted unit if it had mechanical chassis issues, non-functional or malfunctioning major system issues (think hvac, slide, plumbing etc..)
So yes it is going to Jayco/Entegra for items on my punch list. Nothing to crazy but things that I cant or wont fix on a new unit. That is one of the benefits of the 2 year warranty. You actually get a season to truly shake it down and get your punch list in order!

[DonkeyFluffer]

Welcome, I'm also in the negotiating back and forth stage on an Entegra Accolade 37L. As others said, it is identical to the Jayco Seneca.

The images below are about 10 days old. They are from RVOne (RVDirect). The first 3 are the unit I "built" on their site, the last one is their emailed quote back to me. About 33% off MSRP.

So far, they've beat General RV, Lazydays, and are neck and neck with MHSRV in Texas. My dilemma is ordering from either RVOne or MHSRV gives me a dealer hundreds, or over 1300, miles away. There's a General RV an hour from me here in Virginia. Is the $9k difference worth the peace of mind for warranty and service work? Is that even important? This will be my 5th RV (4th motorhome, 3rd brand new) in 18 years and I've simply always fixed things myself but also never had anything major break during the warranty period. I figure my luck is about over and I'll need warranty work.

So I ponder...

P.S. I'm retired Army too. Cavalry Scout, then a SWAT cop, then overseas contractor and stateside firearms. Fully retiring and going full-time next year. Cannot wait.

[Steve S]

Again thanks for the good information. I appreciate you taking time to assist me.

[Steve S]

Nice resume. Good luck with the retirement and thanks for all the great information. If you do not mind what were the first 4 RVs (Class A, C, etc)?

[Drv]

You might try emailing Matts rv reviews he works for General Rv's to see if he can get closer to the other two locations.
PS RV One and MHSRV are owned by the same "mothership" RV Retailers, llc but i am not familiar with how they operate. i.e. independently to each other or are they told to not compete?

[Steve S]

Drv, I tried getting in touch with him via phone and text. He never responded. I guess all his fame makes him too busy for little guys like me. HA! I really do not understand why he did not return either message. Oh well. Move on.

[Drv]

Originally Posted by Steve S

Drv, I tried getting in touch with him via phone and text. He never responded. I guess all his fame makes him too busy for little guys like me. HA! I really do not understand why he did not return either message. Oh well. Move on.

HA, I guess so. I have never dealt with him, but I've seen him talk about getting better deals then "normal" General RV Deals so I thought why not!

[Rustynuts]

Others have pretty much covered most of the things, you wont be disappointed by the way a Super C drives, much better than a Class A and much more relaxing. Picking a dealer depends a lot on how handy you are and willing to do minor repairs yourself. Our closest dealer that carried Senecas was 2 hours away but they would not deal so we bout out of CA, about an 8 hour drive. I have repaired/improved most things myself....but I have trust issues too as I want it done right. We did have a couple of major things like A/C unit go bad but I just worked through the A/C manufacturer for the warranty work and had it done by a local independent repair shop. Any other issues I didnt want to tackle our local Jayco dealer that just sells trailers were more than happy to do the work.....it just come down to how good your local dealer is to work with.


One thing to be aware of starting this year is there are actually 2 models now, the Base Seneca and the Seneca Pretige and Base Accolade and the Accolade XL. The Prestige and XL are about 28K more on MSRP so make sure when price shopping that you are comparing the same models if one dealer seems much higher.



Best thing to do is start reading the Super C forum page by page and you will pretty much know what you are getting into many of the issues are common and can be read about here. After reading the threads on this forum, I knew way more than the dealers knew about them.

[Steve S]

Thanks for the advise. All the people and information I am getting from this forum have been tremendous. I truly appreciate all the help from you and all the previous people who responded to my request for information. This is a great site. I will take all the past, current and any future information and use it.

[Crossingover]

Sellers market for sure right now; same for housing. The B+/C market is booming and the standard 30 - 35% off MSRP deals are hard to find for popular units and layouts. I'd be concerned with further degradation in quality as the factories struggle with demand. Will be this way until the COVID buyers realize the camping life is not for them (e.g., camping spots are not keeping pace with demand) and dump their units.

[Steve S]

Totally agree with the sellers market. We talked about waiting until COVID has passed and there will be a ton of nice used RVs out there. We live in Tampa and the real estate market is booming. I am in no rush. We have a B+ right now so its not like we are desperate. Thanks!

[Johnynorthland]

Originally Posted by Steve S

Hello To All,
My name is Steve and I am brand new on this site. I am a retired Army Infantryman and new to the RV world. I am an owner of a Class B+ RV and want to buy a Super C. I am looking at the Entegra Accolade 37TS or the Jayco Seneca. Both very similar to me. Also, I have been searching for a site that shows prices, not what the dealers are saying it is. Something like a Consumer Reports for RV buying that shows what a vehicle is really worth and what the dealer should be willing to accept. Any help or suggestions is appreciated. Thank You!

Whichever you decide consider hiring an RV inspector. I know it sounds silly because it’s new but the way things have been fabricated during this pandemic is not business as usual, but even before then the assembly issues were still prevalent!

Good luck, let us know!

PS.. we are going to a Super C in 2 years, I’ll be revisiting with some of the same questions!

[Steve S]

Thanks. I thought about an inspector when I bought my B+ but did not and thank god I did not need one. My Class B+ is in excellent condition. Just not big enough for us.

[Crossingover]

Based on my experience, you’ll need access to a dealer’s ‘Black Book’ for an estimate of what a bank will loan out for the unit. A dealer will use that figure as a staring point on what to offer on your unit. You can do NADA and other appraisal sites to get an idea of the range of private party and dealer retail values to expect. But if you’re trading or selling outright at a dealer, forget the NADA values. The loan value will be much lower, steeply so for older units.

Dealers now don’t want the hassle of a trade, as evidenced by my recent inquiry on a new 2021 Jayco Melbourne at NorthTrail RV in Ft. Myers FL. The advertised price was $126K, well below the MSRP OF $167K. When I mentioned a possible trade, I was told that the $126K price was a straight cash deal price only. If I wanted a trade deal, the MSRP would be the starting figure. Seller’s market for sure right now, so if you can resist the urge to jump to another rig, it would probably make good sense to wait for the post-COVID RV crash to occur. B+ pricing/availability in particular is insane at the moment.

[Steve S]

Hey Rick and Laura,

Thanks for your advise. I am thinking new at this point because nothing is available used that I want. And, I am getting a great trade in offer on my Class B+. Like you mentioned they are at a premium. If I wait until COVID is over, I might not get as great of an offer on my trade.