By Marilyn Odendahl, Truth Staff
modendahl@etruth.com
SOUTH BEND -- Healthy attendance at recent RV retail shows around the country has reassured the recreational vehicle industry its products are still popular with consumers.
However, the reluctance among financial institutions to lend continues to impair the industry's ability to put more consumers into those motorhomes and towables.
In response, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association has shifted resources and focused more of its efforts on lobbying and influencing legislation to try to thaw the credit markets.
"It's one thing if you said consumers don't like the product where you as a manufacturer can get at it, can fix it, can design it," explained Richard Coon, president of RVIA. "It's another thing to say what do you do with the financial markets where you have little or no control. That feels worse. I'm not in control of my destiny at all. That is really aggravating."
Coon and members of the RVIA staff presented a one day seminar Wednesday at the Century Center for RV manufacturers. The primary topic was how the U.S. Treasury programs and the economic stimulus package coming out of Washington will impact the industry.
Through the Association's efforts, the RV industry has been included in both the Term Asset-back securities Loan Facility -- or TALF -- and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Both provisions contain language that could still hamper the credit market's willingness to make RV loans but the association remains hopeful it can get some the restrictions eased.
"We have an avenue to make things work," Coon said. "It's not a home run yet but I can tell you this, if we weren't in it, we would be nowhere, we wouldn't have another avenue."
The news that credit may flow back into the RV markets comes at a time when many manufacturers are worried about their futures. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings by RV giants Fleetwood Enterprises and Monaco Coach has other manufacturers concerned they could find themselves in the same situation if sales do not start keeping up with the cost of doing business, Coon said.
Wholesale shipments of RVs dropped nearly 33 percent in 2008. In his most current forecast for 2009, Richard Curtin, director of Consumer Surveys at the University of Michigan, is predicting the industry will fall another 45 percent, shipping only 130,100 units. This compares to the 237,000 RVs that were shipped in 2008 and the 353,400 units shipped in 2007.
Coon said what happens to RV manufacturers and dealers as a result of this retreat depends on how long the downturn lasts.
"If the industry drops and stays there for a couple of three years, then this industry is going to have to size down significantly," he said, noting not all the companies will be able to survive a prolonged contraction. "If it's a one-year hiatus and business starts to pick up and grow again, then I think we have a chance of getting back to business as usual."