We reveal the manufacturers and dealers that have won your approval
Welcome to the Owner Satisfaction Awards 2023! If you’re buying a new or pre-owned caravan over the next year or so, these pages make essential reading. Not only will you learn which vans are the most satisfying to own, you’ll also discover the best dealers to buy from.
Any survey benefits from a substantial sample size – the more responses, the more statistically robust the results. So we’re delighted to have 4735 completed surveys this year, an increase from 3449 in 2022.
With so many owners giving their views, warts and all, in so much detail, we’re confident you can rely on our findings.
Thanks go to every one of you who completed the survey. Whether you’re a reader of Practical Caravan, a member of our Awards partners, The Camping and Caravanning Club, or both, we really appreciate the time taken to complete the survey. With so much detail about every aspect of buying, owning and enjoying a tourer, filling out the survey is not the work of a moment. Each response is an extremely thorough picture of that person’s experience of their van and supplying dealership.
When you have almost 5000 of those responses, ranging from hugely enthusiastic to very critical, it’s possible to build a very detailed picture of how all the big players in the market perform, and the levels of customer service that you can expect.
New and pre-owned
As in previous years, the survey results are divided into two categories: new and pre-owned caravans. Some manufacturers (and dealers) perform better in one half of the survey than the other.
What we’re really looking for, however, are brands that take good care of both new and pre-owned caravan buyers. That’s why, as well as awards for new and pre-owned tourers, there’s an overall award for the van maker with the best scores across the board.
Your van is only part of the ownership experience. The dealer will steer you in the direction of the best model for you and deal with any problems, so we rate dealers, too. Again, there are separate awards for new and pre-owned caravan dealerships.
All of the winners set exceptionally high standards, but it’s not just the first-place finishers who deserve praise. Caravan makers and dealers with an overall score of over 80% earn a Gold Award. A Silver Award goes to those scoring 70% or more.
We’ve tweaked the scoring this year, with ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘acceptable’, ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ taking the place of ‘good’, ‘acceptable’ and ‘poor’ ratings. This
