Welcome to a new series here on your favorite little car corner on the net. Have you ever looked at an RV and felt that you’ve totally seen those taillights or headlights somewhere, but can’t put your finger on it? Maybe you went to a car show and there’s a low-production car or a kit car with some lights or from a more pedestrian production vehicle? This series is dedicated to all of the parts bin specials out there, rolling around with someone else’s parts.
One of my favorite things to do on a road trip or in a campground is identify where the headlights of a Class A RV came from. I’m not the only one, as there are online groups just for pointing out and identifying RV lights. Some manufacturers have moved away from robbing automaker parts bins, and instead equip their rigs with lights that look a little more bespoke. Still, there are some manufacturers that still look to the automotive industry to solve their lighting problems.
And for our inaugural Parts Bin Puzzle, we’re going to look at a Class A RV: the 2023 Newmar Essex.
Some Quick History
The founding of Newmar took place in that crazy RV time of the 1960s. In 1968, Mahlon Miller worked at an RV manufacturer with his sales manager, Marvin Newcomer. The two left their jobs to build their own campers. They set their stakes in Nappanee, Indiana, a town known for its Amish and Mennonite woodworkers. A few years later, the company produced its first product, the 1971 Kountry Aire fifth-wheel. Check out what’s towing it in this promotional image! A Ford Centurion (more on those soon)!
Back then, the Newmar Corporation says that it designed RVs based on customer input, not what the company thought was going to work best. Things would change a little in the 1980s after Newmar started building Class A motorhomes.
Newmar claims and is sometimes credited with creating the first powered slide-outs in a motorhome. Expanding a camper’s interior volume using a slide-out was already a thing for decades at the time. And today, powered slides are commonplace on all kinds of trailers and RVs. But back then, slides required RV owners to manually expand them. Miller’s Newmar developed slides that opened and closed with the touch of a button, then applied them to their fifth wheel and later Class A RVs.
Later, Newmar would decide to paint its RVs with swoopy graphics instead of using the decals that you’ll find some manufacturers use. That brings us to today, where as of 2012 the company no longer sells the fifth wheels that helped launch it. Instead, Newmar has gone all-in on Class A rigs, including later generations of its first motorhomes, the Dutch Star and Mountain Air.
In 2003, the luxury Essex diesel pusher replaced the London Aire as Newmar’s flagship RV. Later, Newmar would lean even more into luxury with the King Aire, replacing the Essex as the flagship in the lineup.
Today’s Parts Bin Puzzle
At a starting price of $1,056,120, the Essex is more expensive than your house and it certainly looks the part.
When you spend this much on an RV, you get the option to have the paint buffed to a mirror finish. And you can forget about particle boards pretending to be real wood. Newmar offers a variety of maple hardwood finishes and the RV is trimmed with cedar. And of course, you get loads of technology from flatscreens to sound systems and an induction cooktop. You even get stability control and adaptive cruise control in this massive rolling manor.
Power comes from a 14.9-liter Cummins X15 turbodiesel straight six making 605 HP and 1,950 lb-ft torque. The engine itself weighs about 3,000 pounds. But you’re not here for an engine that weighs roughly two kei cars, what about those lights?
Here’s what you get up front.
And here’s what’s out back.
Where did Newmar get these lights? I’ll give you a hint, if you combine both donor cars you don’t even hit a tenth of this million-dollar RV’s base price.
We hope you love Parts Bin Puzzle. Each week, we plan to find a different vehicle that was assembled with parts from other manufacturers. These won’t be just RVs, but any car, truck, bus, motorcycle, or maybe even a boat. And the parts could be lights, door handles, vents; anything that sticks out. After you dear readers take your guesses, click here to reveal what parts bin these companies got their parts from.
1 million dollars?!? What the hell are those made of?!? The profit margin has to be nuts on those.
Oh right, lights. Fronts are some kind of recent Corolla. Rears, no idea.
I get more Acura from those headlights but I couldn’t tell you which Acura they are from.
Sorry, Geraldine. This is Anna’s turf.
I have no grasp of the psychology or sociology of folks who buy these things. To buy a million dollar motorhome, I would think a person has a multi-million dollar home and perhaps a vacation home or two. And yet their idea of a good time is to drive a very fancy bus thousands of miles on the freeway to park it at a KOA campground and hang out.
Think NASCAR. Music touring too, but my understanding is that they are leased per tour
Mercedes, I think you and Jason mixed up your bylines.
I’ve actually been inside the Newmar factory complex a couple of times.
Very surreal feeling to be surrounded by lots full of million dollar RVs while sharing the road with hundreds of Amish workers cycling in to their jobs building them.
Rear… 2016+ Nissan Titan… but the non-XD model. But it seems they added an amber insert for the turn signal so they could use a white bulb instead of using an amber bulb.
And I think the headlights are the pre-facelift 11th gen Corolla headlights.
This will be fun, but I will be terrible at it, at least for identifying such parts from vehicles newer than 1980 or so. I think the last model-year-specific parts change I paid attention to was when Mustang taillights resumed a modicum of verticality in 1996. That turned into a popular swap for the ’94s and ’95s.
Yah, me too. Fun idea, hopefully some 60’s Lotuses, Iso’s etc. so I can play 😀
It’s good that you take up the “torch” of wondering about automotive lighting, while Jason’s travelling the globe to drive cool electric VW busses.
I was literally just thinking this would be an amazing series here the other day! Should last a LONG while.
IIRC Centurion actually did the crew cab conversions for Ford- Was riding around southern Michigan one saturday in the mid 90s and happened across Centurion’s factory, and besides the F series pickups converted to 3 row SUVs there were some assembled crew cabs with the crew cab exclusive body panels still in primer. Took a closer look and they even had stickers with Ford parts numbers on them.
BTW, this is SOP in the auto industry- a lot of low volume models get subbed out to small suppliers to build or modify. For example, Despite being owned by Traton/VW, International is assembling medium trucks for GM and supplier Detroit Chassis assembles stripped van and.RV chassis for Ford…
Correct, specifically for the F-150 through 1996. Back then Ford didn’t offer an F-150 crew cab, so Centurion basically plopped the F-250/350 crew cab body on a 1/2 ton frame with a short bed.
But to be clear they were sold through Ford dealers but weren’t marketed as a factory offering (unlike, say, a convertible built by American Sunroof Corp, which is what you’re alluding to in your 2nd paragraph). It was badged as Centurion right on the front doors, just like you could buy conversion vans modified and branded by 3rd party coachbuilders or Saleen modified Mustangs from a Ford dealer.
As mentioned below I tried to get my dad to buy one from our local Ford dealer back in ’95 but my dad bought a used ’88 F-150 instead.
Also, if you write an article about Centurion, please make sure you clarify that Centurion was the name of the coachbuilder, not a Ford model name. I can’t count how many times in FB car groups that people see a 4-door Bronco or one of those half van things and incorrectly call it a “Ford Centurion.” Centurion also did 1/2 ton crew cab pickup conversions before the OEMs offered them. Back in ’95 I unsuccessfully tried to convince my dad to buy a Centurion converted crew cab F-150.
So “Ford Bronco/F350 Centurion” would be correct no? I’m sure Mercedes will do the Centurions the justice they deserve.
(inserts picture of 4 door “bronco” here)
Sure, although Centurion wasn’t the only company that did 4 door Bronco conversions. Another misconception I see online.
I think we’re going to have a very very very special guest take you guys on a grand adventure regarding Centurions. Hold tight, because it should be coming soon! 🙂
I’ve always been a geek for automotive lighting (hi Torch!) and identifying the original source of lights on motorhomes has been a game I’ve played ever since I was a kid. There are a few Facebook groups dedicated to this, so apparently I’m not alone.
Tailights: 2016-21 Nissan Titan
Headlights: 2014-16 Toyota Corolla
Got the taillights right, had the right idea with the headlights but was thinking Honda instead of Toyota
This “Parts Bin Puzzle” was great. Please make this a weekly thing!
I’m not great at these but it’s always fun guessing! Would love to see more of these.
rear light is a Nissan Titan
The headlights are from the 2014 Toyota Corolla
I was thinking a RAV-4, but you could be right.
In thinking the headlights are also Ford. One of the sedans.
Will the Ford Centurion info come in the form of hiring teamtestbot? If so, I’m very hyped.
Question I’ve always had: if you want to dip into the parts bin for your specialty car/truck/RV/spacecraft, whom do you contact?
The automaker or the supplier? And what do you generally have to do to get the green light?
Ford’s not going to allow you to make knock-off Mustangs, but there are cars that use fairly recognizable Mustang assemblies, so clearly Ford can be okay with at least some plans.
I wonder the same thing. Like, how did UPS end up with a buttload of Olds Alero headlights for their trucks? Is there an OEM Offerup for leftover lightning components or something?
Magna is a one of the biggest, if not THE biggest auto parts supplier. So calling them up would be a good start… specifically their exterior lighting division:
https://www.magna.com/products/power-vision/lighting
Fun game! I thought I had the taillights down but the answer was quite surprising!
Taillights are not from an F-150, but from a Nissan Titan. Not sure on the headlights, but they look Subaru-ish to me.
Tails are definitely an F-150, heads I’m less sure on but I’m still going with 2018ish Corolla, it’s the closest I can think of but I think I’m still wrong.
Tail lights look like a late model F150
Headlights, not sure. Maybe the new Acura Integra
Great idea for a series! Guess-the-RV-lights is my favorite road trip game.