The Great Trailer Trade-in Trip
I suppose the best question would be “why were we doing this, anyway?”. I mean, we loved our ’91 34’ Excella Classic. Had great adventures in her. Why were we trading her? But, since there is no understanding kids and their toys, that question will go largely unanswered. We did think a little shorter and a wider body would be great (to accommodate yours truly who gets wider with the years).
We found Bella (1999 31’ Airstream Classic Excella 1000) on the website of Can-Am RV in March. She did everything we wanted (little shorter/little wider) and looked in amazing condition. Reached out to their salespeople and, before you knew it, we had a deal. Looked into possibility of them delivering but, in the end, the cost just seemed too high. So, we planned a trip to Ontario. Great thing we did cause that had good results.
Plan was to tow our trade-in to Ontario (1 week); 2-3 days at Can-Am to effect trade; 2 weeks at my sister’s; and tow Bella home (2 weeks). Left BC June 19 and had a wonderful trip to Ontario. Love the experience of us 2, riding in our comfortable truck, listening to CBC on satellite, pulling our wonderful vacation home, stopping in great places. Great trip.
After stopping a sister’s place for a few days we arrived at Can-Am on July 2. Our “delivery date”. Only frustration in our whole experience was trailer wasn’t ready. Actually, a good thing. See, we’d ordered some extras (solar panels, Michelin tire upgrade, etc.). As they got into those, they found themselves saying “Oh, let’s fix/upgrade this at the same time”. For example, they were putting on the new tires and Andy Thomson (Can-Am co-owner with his brother Kirk) decided it would be better with new aluminum rims. They were checking the propane tanks and found they’d soon need to be re-certified. So, they sent them out to be done. The list goes on and on. During our walk through I spotted the propane leak detector wasn’t lit up. They put in a new one. Remember this is an old used trailer sold as is and where is. They did all these upgrades at their cost. They wanted nothing to be less than perfect. The attention to detail and commitment to quality was a great experience for us. They even re-jigged our hitch so that it met their high standards.
Soon after we arrived on July 2 we were introduced to Jim Watterworth. He was to provide us with our walk through (when the rig was ready) and show us how everything worked. In truth he was our personal tour guide, service manager/advisor, and friend. Every little question or idea we came up with, Jim got an answer or forwarded a request to the right people. Each thing got done, none got lost once Jim knew about it. Eventually Andy arranged the old and new to be parked door to door to move our stuff. Jim even put himself inside Bella (new) so that we could pass our boxes of “stuff” across to him making the move so much smoother.
We stayed overnight at Can-Am (hook-ups provided) so we could make sure everything worked. The morning of July 3 we finished our “tour” of Bella with Jim. Then there were some further minor changes made to things we found. Sadly, due to bureaucratic things with insurance and travel permits we had to head back to BC right away so no 2 weeks with sister.
We’re writing this because dealing with Can-Am was such a wonderful experience. They provided excellent service, added many extras just because they thought that the right thing to do, and every person we encountered was friendly and helpful. Andy Thomson was “hands-on” through every step, personally taking part in so much of the front-line work.
We have purchased many things over many years and have had great experiences. This one ranks right at the top. We certainly recommend Can-Am RV in London, Ontario as living up to everything you’d expect when buying the best trailer available – Airstream.
Janet Soucy & Paul Wheeler
Surrey, BC
Airstream Club #4223
The End
