OH just discovered Lunar

[Silversurf]

1 hour ago, Kepler said:

There is no such thing as a lunar 2021 model. All lunar automotive have is a handful of 2020 demo vans which were built by lunar caravans in 2019. Lunar Automotive have never seen a single van go into production. They have no design team, no sales team, only a handful of production and office staff who currently haven't been payed anything for 2 months.

The Strand road factory is without power as the owner switched it off due to none payment of bills and are currently taking Lunar Automotive to court for none payment of rent which now amounts to a few 100 thousand pounds. Also the owners of the old Lunar site are taking Lunar Automotive to court for various things.

 

It's absolutely scandalous.

 

As you say Kepler, they are 2019 built models, registered in 2020, but advertised as 2021 models !

 

When all the hoo haa appeared a few months, was it three or so ? about ' new Lunar vans ' surfacing there was lots of interest at to what they were, did all Lunar dealers have a couple of demo's and so on.

 

It appeared that Ashington caravans were the only dealer with any, three in fact, 2 x Taurus and 1 x Alaria, and to date they are still for sale ................. wonder why 🤔

 

Grantham caravans appear to possibly have a couple of new 2019 models !

 

Other dealers appear to to be waiting for news of the new vans, as the saying goes ' no news is...........err ............no news ' .

 

Water under the bridge now but this made interesting reading at the time https://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/Lunar-Caravans/reviews?start=20

 

And for anyone new to C/T  interested in the demise of Lunar and subsequent goings on,there is a good library of posts to delve into.

[Kepler]

Lunar Automotive have remained silent since about April, you'd think they would have made some sort of public announcement by now of their plans moving forward.

Certainly despite all the goings on I have heard the new owner still believes he will be starting production again at some point, much to the bemusement of his remaining unpaid staff I might add.

To sell vans you first have to build demonstration vans to send to dealers.  Say they scale it right back to 10 models and send one of each out to say 20 dealerships, that's 200 vans they need to build at around £7,000 build cost each, just to try and get some sales. Has someone who can't pay wages or rent got the money to do that?

[Wildwood]

My feeling is that unless someone else now buys the firm or name Lunar are going to join the long list of caravan companies who have bit the dust.

[Stevan]

12 minutes ago, Wildwood said:

My feeling is that unless someone else now buys the firm or name Lunar are going to join the long list of caravan companies who have bit the dust.

I have considered that to be the most likely outcome ever since the liquidation was not followed by an almost immediate resumption of manufacturing.

[GarryandTrish]

We brought a brand new Lunar Clubman SE in 2016. By 2018, it had developed so many problems (including BIG cracks in each of the four corners of the roof) that we traded it in.

We loved the design and the layout but the  construction quality (and Lunar’s indifference to helping us getting it fixed) means that we wouldn’t go anywhere near another Lunar (no matter if there’s been a change of ownership resulting in a new name and new Company) ever again.

if anyone wants the full story then contact me.

Rant over.

[CV69]

Ive got a 25 year old Lunar Delta 560-4 HL and its still going strong.

[ian16527]

On 14/11/2020 at 16:12, Kepler said:

that's 200 vans they need to build at around £7,000 build cost each

Think it will be a little more than that, Theres not much profit in a van and a lot of labour costs.

16 hours ago, CV69 said:

Ive got a 25 year old Lunar Delta 560-4 HL and its still going strong.

Its the last few years that quality went downhill

[hp100425ev]

I thought there had been mention previously about an application in the High Court for a winding up order for Lunar Automotive.

[Kepler]

11 hours ago, ian16527 said:

Think it will be a little more than that, Theres not much profit in a van and a lot of labour costs.

Its the last few years that quality went downhill

I know 10 years back build cost was £5,500 per van so added a bit on as a guesstimate.

Even so you are looking at over a million pounds spend just to get demo vans out there.

[Silversurf]

11 hours ago, hp100425ev said:

I thought there had been mention previously about an application in the High Court for a winding up order for Lunar Automotive.

There was a petition to be heard on 24/6/20 , however a charge was created on 23/6/20 , on the court steps as you could say, the person entitled was Barclays bank and it contains fixed and floating charges and a negative pledge, in other words, from that date a mouse can't sneeze at Lunar Automotive without the banks OK.

 

It remains to be seen what happens next after the bank has finished its delving.

 

Kepler kindly posted this on Thursday.............................' Lunar Automotive were in court this week to try and gain access to the factory as they have been locked out for non payment of rent. The judge sided with the landlord and Lunar Automotive are locked out until they pay their rent.'..................................

 

Not only the bank is owed money, it appears the landlord is obviously owed money, as others may be.

 

The charge mentioned above gives the bank control of all aspects of Lunars assets and they need to give their permission before anything can be done with, or to the assets, so why Lunar would want to gain access to the building is intriguing.

 

In the charge it states that Lunar has to keep up with lease agreements, which I presume includes rent and that Lunar also has to keep everything insured.

 

I expect there will also be a clause to keep all assets, machinery stock etc in good order, but you can't go round with your oil can till you've paid your rent, catch 22 !

 

The petition was to be heard on 24/6/20  and these things don't just pop up like mushrooms one day, yet LA posted the message below only  a couple of weeks previously!

 

9 June 2020 - posted on Facebook by Lunar

 

The Lunar Automotive Team hope and trust that, during these unprecendented times of COVID-19, you and your families have been able to stay safe and healthy as best as possible

Lunar Automotive are currently working on a plan to "kick start" our production whilst prioritising the safety of our workforce and adhering to the relevant industry Government guidelines.

We will keep you updated here as to when we will recommence production.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nigelwyn]

We had a 2015 Lunar Qasar 525. Build quality was poor. Leaky roof seams and poor quality screws in the windows that soon corroded.  We took it in for damp repairs  at the end of summer 2019 to find out that Lunar had gone bust and that meant no repairs under warranty. We paid for repairs after finding some suitable interior panels that weren’t too mismatched. Then we part exchanged it for a Bailey. 
If you buy this van, make sure that there’s no damp and beware you might have problems sourcing interior or exterior panels if you need them later.