Car manufacturers tend to stay out of the RV market. They’ll happily provide cutaways, powertrains, and chassis to the RV industry, but will largely stay out of building motorhomes themselves. But what if automakers dared to explore? What automaker would make a great RV?
In decades past, America’s automakers loved to build vehicles that weren’t cars. Each of the Big Three used to build semi-tractors and other non-cars. General Motors used to dominate at building locomotives and buses, while Chrysler famously built air raid sirens. All of the Big Three used to flirt with aviation, with the most famous example being the Ford Tri-Motor. Yet, America’s automotive might hasn’t often flirted with RVs.
If you’re a reader of this website, you’re almost certainly about to mention the iconic GMC MotorHome (the ‘H’ was capitalized in advertising). This is an excellent example of what Detroit could do with RVs. The MotorHome of the 1970s was decades ahead of its time as a coach that was built to last, easy to drive, insanely comfortable, and low-slung for an RV. The GMC MotorHome is so legendary that instead of spending $500,000 on a brand-new Class A motorhome, some people spend that money updating old GMC MotorHomes into the modern day. The GMC MotorHome was such a great and aerodynamic coach, that when someone wanted to break the motorhome land speed record, they modified a GMC!
Honestly, the GMC MotorHome was probably the apex of motorhomes, period, which is amazing because it wasn’t built by an RV company. Sadly, GM’s peers didn’t build anything close to the MotorHome. Sure, Ford once slapped its brand onto a fiberglass truck camper called the American Road, but this wasn’t an in-house build. Instead, Ford partnered with Starcraft RV to bring it to market.
The most famous Dodge RV is the Dodge Motor Home, but this wasn’t the work of Dodge’s team. Instead, it was Dodge’s name slapped on a creation by RV pioneer Raymond C. Frank.
Even when Toyota was slinging motorhomes in America, its coach bodies were designed and built by someone else. That makes the GMC MotorHome unique. GMC didn’t just slap its name on someone else’s work, but saw the RV industry and used its brilliant in-house team to do better.
So, that makes me think. If a car manufacturer were to get into making RVs again, which manufacturers would make great ones? General Motors is an obvious pick here – the General could just make a 21st-century version of the MotorHome. But let’s get more creative here.
I’d be interested in seeing a motorhome from Dodge or SRT. I’m not talking about farming out the body to someone else, either, but totally in-house. Knowing the brand’s current image, this coach would probably be all blacked-out or purple with racetrack-style taillights, halo headlights, a front splitter, and at least Hellcat power. But the cool thing is that since Ram is in bed with Cummins, boom, the 6.7 Cummins is right within reach.
I’m not sure what kind of interior a Dodge Hellcat motorhome would have, but I would imagine it would be black with red accents, maybe some red lighting, and of course, Hellcat logos all over the place. In true Dodge fashion, the motorhome would be surprisingly affordable for what you get and the motorhome would ride on an old platform like the medium-duty truck platform that Dodge sold in Mexico. Okay, I’m only joking about that last one.
Would a Hellcat motorhome be silly? Absolutely! But I love it when RV manufacturers don’t take themselves super seriously and build something fun. Alright, so now I turn it to you: What car manufacturer would make a great RV?
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