First, let me apologize for messing up the frequency of Parts Bin Puzzle. Between the Open House and getting married, my schedule had been all messed up. But I’m back and on track! Last time, we looked at the Dutton Surf and Dutton Reef, amphibious cars from the mind of UK entrepreneur Tim Dutton-Woolley. Amazingly, you can still buy Dutton’s wild amphibians today, so long as you have the right donor cars to sacrifice. We asked you to guess the donors underneath the amphibious kits, as well as what lights they have. Some of you got your guesses right on the mark. The Dutton Reef takes its interior, headlights, and powertrain from the Ford Fiesta. As for the Dutton Surf, it gets its parts from the Suzuki Jimny. But unlike the Reef, the amphibious 4×4 doesn’t get its headlights from the donor. Instead, its headlights come from the Volkswagen Golf MkIV. The story of Tiffin Motorhomes starts in 1941. Back then Alex Tiffin opened the Tiffin Supply Company. As the RV manufacturer notes, this business sold what you needed to build and furnish a home. Two decades later, Tiffin’s son, Bob, was in control of the family business. Tiffin notes that it was at this time that Bob saw a company in his town of Red Bay, Alabama that caught his eye, an RV manufacturer. The RV manufacturer, Sandpiper Travel Trailers, apparently fizzled out in 1972, and Tiffin swooped in to buy its assets. Tiffin Motorhomes was born, and its first model was the Allegro. As Family RVing Magazine writes, in 1972 the company built just two RVs in a 23,000-square-foot cotton warehouse in Red Bay, Alabama. At the time, Tiffin employed just 30 employees. But by 2005, the company had shipped its 50,000th coach. And the factory grew to 740,000-square-feet and it’s where more than 1,000 people assembled 15 units a day. Tiffin claims that it popularized the full RV basement. You know how just about every Class A motorhome today has lower storage rooms that are large enough to sleep in? Tiffin says that in 1999, it pioneered that. It also claims smaller innovations like steps welded to the RV’s frame so that they don’t feel so wobbly when you step in. Perhaps the most interesting part about Tiffin is that until the end of 2020, it was a family-run business. Tiffin survived the Oil Crisis, the post-9/11 travel slump, and even the Great Recession. But in late 2020, the Tiffin family passed the torch to Thor Industries. Today, Tiffin offers a line of RVs ranging from the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter-based Cahaba Class B to the 45-foot Zephyr Class A. Near the top of Tiffin’s current range is the Allegro Bus. It comes as short as 37 feet, 5 inches, and as long as 45 feet. Tiffin says that this RV is supposed to blend comfort and elegance with technology.
And it doesn’t appear to be totally marketing speak. The coach has adaptive cruise control, an emergency braking system, and a stability control that will try to keep the rig on the road, even during conditions that might induce a rollover. And you can even control a number of the RV’s electrical systems using an app on your phone. But it’s probably the interior of this Allegro Bus 45 OPP that got the biggest response from my colleagues.
Everything in here feels pretty nice to the touch. Getting a 45-foot coach like this means that you can get two bathrooms and a washer and dryer are optional. I could see someone actually living pretty comfortably out of this. It sure is nicer than my apartment. And check this out, you get a shower that isn’t so tiny.
But as our Jason Torchinsky pointed out, it looks like a casino in there. And, after having been to a few Casinos in Vegas and a few in the Midwest, I can’t unsee what he’s talking about. Still, it’s nice in there.
As for power, you get a choice of a Cummins L9 8.9-liter straight six turbodiesel making 450 HP and 1,250 lb-ft torque. Or, you can get a Cummins X15 14.9 liter turbodiesel straight six making 605 HP and 1,950 lb-ft torque. Of course, I know that you aren’t here for fabulously-appointed interiors or a big red diesel engine. You’re here to guess some lighting! Here are those taillights, look familiar? The headlights might be a challenge. Where do the lights of the Tiffin Allegro Bus 45 OPP come from? After you take your guesses, click here to reveal if you are right. And while I have your attention, how do you feel about huge buses like these? Sure, this is about as far as you can get from camping without checking into a hotel, but I can see the appeal in living in what’s more or less a mobile luxury home. You never need to worry about staying in one place for too long. But that doesn’t mean anything since Dodge, Chrysler or whoever typically will use a 3rd party supplier like Magna to get things like light housings. I don’t understand them. Their median owners, 70 year old retired people, can probably book 5 star hotels around the world every weekend of their remaining lives for less than the depreciation on a $1M RV, let alone the cost to fuel and maintain it. I agree, stupid expensive though.
