Ripvan, You story sounds very similar to ours. Our 2007 189FBS was at a very reputable dealership that has been in the RV business for over 30 years. The reports we received from our friends that bought from them is "they will check out your TT and stand behind what they sell." They have rigs up to the 350K mark. We looked at our FF, but decided the price was a bit more than we wanted to pay, even though it looked brand new for a 2007. We checked around other dealers, looked on eBay and waited.
Then I found this site and began reading some of the horror stories from a few and thought, "Nope, no FF for me" But then I began reading similar stories on the Jayco site, Rockwood site, Airstream site (yep. one guy asked the question, "Do all Airstream floors rot and do they leak?" and there were quite a few owners dealing with leaks and rotting floors.
After a month we went back to our dealership to see if they had taken anything else in trade and they had, but nothing that caught our eye like our FF did. I told the salesman about this website and the issues some had and he was right up front in telling us two things. 1. All brands have issues 2. With the age of our TT, those issues are usually worked out, if not the TT has had 4 or 5 owners. We are the confirmed second owner of our FF. Even with that I asked them to check over, and I mean really check over this FF and they did. From a barrage of water flowing over it looking for leaks, to crawling all over this thing, underneath and the roof. They even offered me a 30 day warranty. Well, we struck a deal and we are pleased as can be. I think we got a good deal, but more important than that, this is the TT we wanted, with the options we wanted due to there just being two of us and a small Boston Terrier, and it is what our truck can pull without any issues.
As others have said, if the same amount of people posted about the non-issues they have had, as those that do about issues that have had we would read about many more happy owners than those that are not. I've also realized that there are some people in this world that are never happy about anything and they would complain if you hung them with a brand spanking new rope.