Why we don't publish a blacklist. In the last three years alone, several well-known Australian manufacturers entered administration, at least one was relaunched under new ownership with the same name, and others quietly rebadged. A name that was safe last year can be a shell this year - and vice versa. Naming names would make this page wrong within months. Teaching the checks keeps it right.
1. Check the company, not the brand (5 minutes)
- ASIC search the actual entity. The brand on the van and the Pty Ltd behind it are different things. Search the company name at connectonline.asic.gov.au - look for external administration notices, recent entity changes, or a brand whose "manufacturer" registered eight months ago.
- Ask who owns the brand today. If the answer involves a relaunch, your warranty is with the NEW entity - the old company's obligations usually died with it. Get the warranty issuer's exact company name in writing.
- Search "[brand] administration", "[brand] liquidation", "[brand] closed". Two minutes on Google catches most recent collapses. Industry press (GoRV, Caravan World, caravancampingsales news) reports these within days.
2. Read the warranty like a lender would (3 minutes)
- Structural vs general. "10-year warranty" often means 10 years on the chassis weld and 12 months on everything that actually breaks. Get the split in writing. Our warranty comparison shows how the majors differ.
- Who performs warranty work? A brand with one factory and no service agents means every claim is a tow back to Melbourne. Ask for the service-agent list for your state before you sign.
- Transferability. A warranty that dies with the first owner quietly kills resale value.
3. Weigh the transparency signals (2 minutes)
How a manufacturer publishes data tells you how they'll behave when something goes wrong:
- Published tare, ATM and ball weights - brands that publish full weights are making a verifiable claim; brands that publish nothing are asking for trust upfront. (We mark every unpublished figure honestly across our catalogue - the gaps are informative.)
- Published pricing. "POA everywhere" isn't automatically a red flag - some quality build-to-order makers price on spec - but combined with no published weights and no service network, the pattern matters.
- Compliance plate matches the brochure. At inspection, compare the plate's ATM/tare to what you were told. A mismatch is not a paperwork quirk; it's the brand telling you who they are.
4. Check the build reality (5 minutes, at the van)
- Underneath first. Chassis welds, wiring looms zip-tied vs conduited, plumbing runs, hot-dip galvanising vs paint. Ten minutes under a van tells you more than an hour inside it.
- Ask what's theirs and what's rebadged. Plenty of "manufacturers" assemble imported shells. Not automatically bad - but if the salesperson claims Australian-built, the frame, chassis and cabinetry should have local suppliers they can name.
- Owner groups beat reviews. Facebook owner groups for the brand are where real defect patterns surface (water ingress, chassis cracking, warranty ghosting). Search the group for "warranty" and read the tone.
5. The five-minute red-flag checklist
- Company entity registered recently while the "brand" claims decades of heritage
- Warranty issuer ≠ manufacturer, or issuer entity can't be named
- No service agents outside the factory's home city
- Deposit demanded before a written, itemised spec sheet
- Compliance plate figures differ from quoted figures
- Recent administration/relaunch the salesperson doesn't volunteer
- Pressure to sign at a show "before the discount expires"
None of these alone is fatal. Two or more together - walk. There are 180+ current ranges on this site; you are never short of alternatives.