At first glance, the 2018 Newmar New Aire 3341 and 2017 Tiffin Allego Breeze 32BR are direct competitors, both being small, class A diesel motorhomes in the 33 foot range. But a quick look at the price convinces me otherwise. A well optioned Breeze retails for around $240,000 while the New Aire clocks in around $380,000 (and approaches $400,000 if fully loaded)! Wow, almost 400K for a 33 ft motorhome. That could be a hard sell. For the same price you could get a 40 ft Newmar Dutch Star or a 44 ft Entegra Insignia. I think Newmar is recognizing a desire by RVers to downsize, which I think is smart. However most RVers expect a downsize price to go along with their downsize motorhome.

2018 Newmar New Aire

The New Aire is a bit of an odd beast, having high end features from the Mountain Aire (a 45’ RV in the 550K range) but in a 33 ft chassis. I would like to know who Newmar considers its competitors to be. Or maybe they figure they’re creating an entirely new market. I guess we’ll know the answer in a few years. The Breeze makes much more sense, being a small RV with a small price. Tiffin dealers rarely have a Breeze in stock, which speaks volumes about their desirableness.

2017 Tiffin Allegro Breeze

The biggest difference between the New Aire and the Allego Breeze is the chassis. Tiffin manufactures their own chassis, using lightweight axles and a 5.0 liter Cummins diesel engine with 560 lb-ft torque. The upside is lighter weight (GVWR is only 29,000 lbs) and better fuel economy. The downside is a lower hitch rating (only 4500 pounds) and lower cargo carrying capacity (unspecified, but likely in the 3000 pound range). Newmar uses a Freightliner chassis with a 6.7 liter Cummins diesel engine with 800 lb-ft torque, netting a 10,000 hitch rating, a GVWR of 38,600 lbs, and 7500 cargo carrying capacity. It would be difficult to full time in an Allego Breeze without exceeding the GVWR or the GCWR.

Dimensionally they are fairly similar, with the Breeze being 4” shorter in length, 7” shorter in height and 6” shorter in width (95” vs. 101”). Having maneuvered a much larger RV into places it was not really meant to go, I don’t see the Breeze having much advantage in fitting into camp sites. I’m guessing Tiffin chopped off a few inches from the width to appeal to first time motorhome drivers, at the expense of less space. In 5+ years of driving a 101” wide RV, I’ve never felt constrained by being too wide, let alone wished for something 6” narrower. Now the shorter height would be nice. You can do all the fancy maneuvering you want, but if you’re too tall, you’re too tall.

In terms of features there is really no comparison, which again make me think Newmar doesn’t consider the Breeze to be a competitor. The New Aire has heated floors, an all digital dash, power cord and hose reels, power cargo trays, 3 AC units, is all electric, a washer & dryer, a dishwasher, Silverleaf control panels, wifi extender, etc. The Breeze has none of that. But of course it costs $140,000 less! That’s a lot of diesel and camping fees.

So is the extra price of the New Aire worth it over the Allego Breeze? I guess it depends on how you plan to use it and what vehicle you plan to flat tow. If you use it a month at a time and have a light flat tow car (Mini Cooper, Subaru Crosstrek, etc) I think the Breeze is the perfect choice. But if you plan to load it up for full timing and/or tow something heavy like a Jeep (our 2012 Jeep Wrangler weighs 4950), you may need to pony up for the New Aire.

Note: As of this writing (6/24/17), Tiffin has not released details about the 2018 Allego Breeze. I will update this page if the specs are substantially different.