RAM, I may be way off base with this assessment but there appear to be 2 main categories of people that go through this process. And It's probably more pronounced with GXV since they approach it from a "customization" perspective more than say EC or ER generally do.
Some people seem to front-load the process and build in every trinket, bauble, feature and customization right out of the gate. As part of the planning process - they include every option under the sun and leave no stone unturned. Or rather- they want to "move in" to their rig like they would a house and never turn a wrench or make an adjustment themselves through the life of their truck.
Others (and my wife and I fall into this category) seem to focus hard on getting the real basics - the deal killers - just right and the other things can be added, adapted or included later on once you have some experience under your belt on how you use it, your habits, etc. That does mean that we had a certain amount of "building" to do once we got our truck. Honestly, building isn't the right word but its more than moving your pots and pans in but less than truly constructing anything. I just can't think of a better term for it.
In this regard, GXV earns
high praise (Rene really) for her experience and her willingness to say "hey, I know you think you want X - but here's why you might consider a diff option - or here's a alternative that you might consider" That experience and understanding was hugely beneficial. But to our own credit that also means that she is dealing with people who know EXACTLY how they want to use their vehicle and the things that are important to them. Having spent hundreds if not thousands of nights in our SMB taught us exactly what we want and don't want.
Where I suspect this whole model falls down are in the cases where people know they want a truck - maybe they like the pictures, their friends have one, they saw an instagram account once.....whatever the situation - but they have NO experience whatsoever with living/traveling in a camper or even have any idea what they actually want to use the truck for. They just know it's cool, they want one and they assumed that GXV is going to magically know how they are supposed to build it to use it in every scenario possible. That is a recipe for disaster I have to assume. That combined with the likelihood that such people expect it to be JUST like home with virtually unlimited hot water, unlimited electricity and all the audio/video conveniences of home means people are going to be disappointed and it has NOTHING to do with the capability of the builder or the vehicle.
So I often wonder what percentage of "bad press" these builders get is based on unrealistic expectations and how much of it is shoddy workmanship, etc. I can say with great certainty that our SMB was an absolute POS from a construction perspective. Of that I am quite clear because I had to become a SMB mechanic and what I saw was disturbing. I can also report that GXV is LIGHT years ahead of that in terms of build quality and workmanship. Does that mean everything was perfect? Nope. But then I will refer back to our motto of really trying to keep it basic which offers less opportunity for us to put GXV over their skis trying to do something for us they aren't well prepared for. Although we have had some issues that I wish they had paid closer attention to I can tell you that the number of things on our truck that I marvel at the fine workmanship far outnumber the opposite of that. Everyone has their own experiences, but that is our take on it.
I guess this was a really long winded way of saying you should spend as much time - if not more - really assessing what you want to use your vehicle for than you do kicking the tires of various builders. If you do that, your choice of manufacturer will almost become obvious and what you end up with is likely to be exactly what you want.
We don't regret for an instant and it was the most expensive thing we have ever bought in our life.....
