Lotus rescues $100,000 caravan victims

Lotus Caravans has come to the rescue of two of the unfortunate victims of the recent collapse of a Brisbane caravan dealer.

The Melbourne manufacturer said that Brisbane couple, Ron and Julie Gray feared they had lost their $100,000 payment on a new off-road caravan after the former Queensland Lotus dealer Brisbane RVs hit financial troubles before delivery could take place.

According to Lotus, the “rogue Brisbane caravan dealer” failed to deliver the Lotus Trooper caravan ordered by the Grays, despite assurances that they would receive their new van.

“We were so excited about the delivery, but it started to get to be a worry when every two weeks we’d call to find out when we could pick it up and the dealer said, nah mate, it’s not ready yet, call back next week,” Ron said.

“We received a phone call from Dave Martin from Lotus Caravans to say the van hadn’t even started because no money had been received.  We had paid over $100,000 for our van. We’d even been to visit the dealer and they continued to tell us the van would be delivered in two weeks,” he said.

Lotus said it then decided to build the caravan for the distraught couple anyway, with the support of various suppliers including Dometic, Laminex, Anton Mouldings, Designer Form, Worthington Industries, Redarc, G&S Chassis, Ranger RV Supplies, Primal Alloy Wheels, and Halifax Vogel Group.

The new Lotus Trooper off-road caravan was handed over to the grateful couple at a special presentation at Lotus’ Melbourne dealer, Freestyle RVs, last week, with Julie describing the generosity as “magnificent”.

“To think that we have people in our world like this, it’s amazing. We need more people like this, more caravan people like this and people like (Lotus Caravans' owner) George and all of you suppliers. thank you so much,” she said.

Like many Lotus caravans sold, the Trooper was jam-packed with goodies including a Dometic compressor fridge, Thetford oven, leather lounge, Redarc 200Ah lithium battery system including 2000W invertor and 680W solar power, and 17in Primal alloy wheels shod with BF Goodrich AT tyres.

The relieved couple plan to head off soon in their ‘lucky’ Lotus van.

“We’re off to Moama for a few days, then a few days in NSW, after that we go home and pick up our little baby doggies and they’ll come travelling too," Julie said. "Overall we’ll have three weeks of travelling in our new baby."

Related reading: Brisbane RVs back in business