THE BIG DASH: Why we went Chinese

I was incredibly fortunate to cover the last brilliantly creative period of the Australian automotive industry before it was killed off.

The VT and VE Holden Commodores, the Ford BA Falcon and Territory, Toyota’s attempt to crack the V6 sedan market with Aurion, Mitsubishi’s fight for survival with all-wheel drive Magnas and the 380.

Incredible, inspiring, people. Peter Hanenberger, Geoff Polites, Tom Phillips, John Conomos, Mike Simcoe, Tony Hyde, Trevor Worthington, Russell Christophers and so, so many, many more.

It was the last brightest burst of energy from a dying sun. From those incredibly creative three dimensional days the industry has been reduced to one dimensional spin dominated by marketers.

It’s still interesting to cover, but what we’ve lost helps keep a new trim level for some imported shitbox or other in perspective.

What’s the point of this long-winded intro? This respect for what a local manufacturing and design industry can do made me determined to buy Australian when we started out on what turned into a long and involved expedition to become grey nomads.

Jane and I knew our budget, so we knew we were looking second-hand but hopefully not too old. Seventeen to 18 foot, single axle and semi off-road.

So yep, sitting in our driveway now is a 19 foot, dual axle, on-road, brand new Chinese made caravan!

Jeepers, I feel like that character in the Fast Show who was sent out for a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and some carrots and came back with non-alcoholic beer, Ratsak and a flier for a meeting of the Nationalist Socialist Brotherhood.

How did we manage to miss the target so spectacularly?

Well, it’s much the same story as what’s going on in the Aussie car industry right now, where the Chinese car brands are able to generate demand simply on the basis of being able to provide more for less.

The difference between the car and the caravan industry is there are still local manufacturers and they are undoubtedly feeling the pain.

Because what’s happening is the Chinese brands are moving steadily upmarket and inexorably taking market share.

We came to understand that when we spent some pretty intense days in Melbourne caravan hotspots, primarily Campbellfeld and Pakenham. We're talking MDC, Lotus, Atlas, Crusader, Avan, High Country, JB, New Age, Traveller, Viscount, Hilltop, and so many more.

Out of them all I have to admit I had an emotional desire to buy the 2024 Atlas we found discounting its way into old age at the back of one caravan yard. Small independent Melbourne maker, obviously crafted with love. But why was it not sold, what was it missing? Head ruled heart.

As we made our way from caravan company showroom to showroom, representatives of the locally-built brands would rubbish Chinese build quality.

Then when we told them our budget many admitted they really didn’t have anything that specced up competitively against what the Chinese were offering.

In our case, we settled on an MDC. The acronym stands for Market Direct Campers, which indicates how it started out 20 years ago. MDC is actually an Australian company and got established importing Chinese camper trailers.

You know the things that arrive on site and go-flip-flop-flap and there’s a tent on wheels standing there with about six screaming kids circling it on bicycles. Great memories.

It’s steadily got more ambitious, expanding into off-road caravans and then the on-road Forte SR series.

The way it works is MDC in Australia designs its caravans locally, but the galvanized steel chassis, aluminium frame and composite body are formed and assembled in a factory in China.

They are then shipped in a container to a factory in Brisbane where the electrics, gas, hoses and appliances are all installed. That container explains why Chinese 'vans are narrower than local one.

But clearly that initial assembly in China is where a heap of the savings are made.

How much? Well the recommended retail price for the van we zeroed in on was $64,990 plus on-road costs (which in the case of a caravan is a few hundred bucks).

Included in the deal is full off-grid electrics including a lithium battery and inverter (nothing too powerful, consider it a starter kit), gas appliances including water heating, stove and oven, separate toilet and shower (yes, some 'vans put them in the same cubicle, can get crowded), a small washing machine and a lighter duty version of the independent semi-trailing arm suspension used by MDC XT off-road vans.

It even had the island bed and L-shaped lounge layout we were looking for.

Not that it had everything. No TV, no gas bottles standard and the powered annexe was about half the width of a normal one. No options or customisation either. What you see is what you get. That’s another way the price is so achievable.

Aussie vans in this price range - and thousands more expensive - came with leaf springs and beam axles, no inverters and old-school AGM batteries.

We tried hard to find the Aussie van that got closest to the MDC’s spec and price and in Pakenham we thought we’d found it. A near-new 17ft 4in Design RV Odyssey V1 semi off-roader that was on special for about $72,000.

But no inverter, and that was going to cost another $3500. Despite the best efforts of the very positive sales person Catherine (no shitcanning of Chinese 'vans, just high quality information, follow-up and a real desire to do a deal), that scratched that.

We did the list of pluses and minuses over the weekend; we did the spreadsheet to compares features; we joined various forums to ask real people their view of the vans they had bought...

The overwhelming verdict on the MDC was positive.

So the decision was made. Excited, we rang Matt the salesman at MDC Monday morning 9am to tell him he had a sale.

The response: “Sorry that was sold on Saturday.”

Oh dear!

To be continued...