Date:         Thu, 8 May 1997 13:00:35 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         zakaplan@earthlink.net (ZACH)
Subject:      Re: 97 EV  camper: we are about to buy! HELP!

georgejoann@juno.com (George Jannini) wrote:

>   One caveat I have is the manufacturer, Winnebago, who once offered a
>nearly identical unit, called the LeSharo on a Pugeot chassis, in both
>gas and diesel models.  This was the Renault Dauphine of motorhomes.

The Winnebago LeSharo was based on a Renault Traffic van chassis, not
Peugeot. The 2.1l turbo diesel engine used in it also showed up in some
Jeep models back when they were owned by Renault. I recall a panel delivery
version being available for a brief period in the early 1980s.

>    Winnebago seems to be one of  those outfits that would never admit
>they might have screwed up and produced a real dog, judging from former
>LeSharo owner laments and the  weird responses  I've seen from the
>Winnebago rep who sometimes participates in the Compuserve RV Forum.  Her
>comeback to people who might have been burned by them, in lieu of an
>apology or even a bit of sympathy, is to buy a new Rialta!

I understand most of the LeSharo problems were with the Renault diesel
engines. I thought I read about a class action law suite involving about
18,000 vehicles. Many went through several engines.

Zach Kaplan