2004 Monaco Knight Value

[Mike Myers]

I'm looking for the value of a 2004 Monaco Knight, 38', 4 slides, 10k miles,
330 hp Cummings, always stored indoors, Has all options except side camera's, Has 4 seat dinnette in lieu of table and chairs. One owner which is a friend. Has one or more 100 gal tank for boondocking, Located in Calif.
My friend is asking $95,000. What do you think its worth and what should
I watch out for if anything?

Thank you
Mike

[dlovitt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Myers I'm looking for the value of a 2004 Monaco Knight, 38', 4 slides, 10k miles, 330 hp Cummings, always stored indoors, Has all options except side camera's, Has 4 seat dinnette in lieu of table and chairs. One owner which is a friend. Has one or more 100 gal tank for boondocking, Located in Calif. My friend is asking $95,000. What do you think its worth and what should I watch out for if anything? Thank you Mike

Check NADA values-seems a little high. May need tires soon; not because of wear but age (rot). 10K miles may seem good but not necessarily so. Stuff that doesn't get used tends to get sticky. Make sure everything that is supposed to move does move freely.

[deaton]

Mike - Welcome to the IRV2 forum!

My last coach was a 2006 Monaco Knight. When I traded it in last December, it had 16,000 miles. Had all the same features you describe, with two sat dishes, and the side cameras as well. I had also upgraded the rear view to color.

Anyway, here's the link....

Monaco Knight 40PLQ New Braunfels Texas | 2006 Diesel Pusher, Evergreen RV Center - Evergreen RV Center

They are asking $129, which is less than they gave me in trade, and I'm pretty sure anyone could buy it for $115.

Now the biggest difference I can recall between the 2004 and my old coach was that the 2004 was built on the 4 bag chasis. The problem with that was that the trailing arms on that chasis were too weak to carry the load and many of them have cracked, causing severe problems for the owners. There are solutions to this problem, but the fix is NOT cheap. So if your friend has not installed the replacement "heavy-duty" trailing arms, You will need to deal with that expense. There are numerous threads on this forum that can aquaint you with the problem. This issue was resolved when Monaco went to the eight bag Roadmaster chasis which is what is on the 2006 Knight.

[JDT]

I think your friend will have a hard time selling at that price, especially if the buyer needs financing. The NADA low retail is $62,620 and the average retail is a little over $75K. I certainly am not an expert but from reading what others are saying low retail without options is a good target price, maybe even less. If mine were for sale I would certainly want top dollar but under the circumstances of our current economy not sure I would get it. That is why mine will be in my garage for a while.

For what he is asking for the 04 you could probably buy an 05 Knight or HR Ambassador which will have the RR8R chassis. In 05 Monaco changed the Knight and Ambassador to that chassis plus some other upgrades. You would avoid the trailing arms issue with the RR8R.

[Mike Myers]

Thank you for the response. I'll remember that they upgraded the frame in 05. In looking at all the for sale ads I'm unable to find any asking prices the reflect the
NADA prices. The NADA numbers are way lower. The 04 Knights are for sale for up to 125k. Have you seen used rigs priced at the NADA values?
Thanks Mike

[deaton]

Mike -

There is an outfit over in Houston called PPL that is one of the largest resellers of RV's in the county. They only do consignment and at any time, they have at least a hundred class A's on their lot. All are used and all are for sale on consignment.

What makes this site a valuable tool for someone like yourself is that you can go there and see the recent history of what used coaches are actually selling for in the marketplace. That's the only number that matters. What are they SELLING for. Everything else is theory or wishful thinking.

Go to Used RVs, Motorhomes, and Consigned sales - PPL Motor Homes

And I concur with JDT, your friend is a bit optimistic for a 2004 at $95k.

[JDT]

Another website to check is crankyape.com. It is a selling site for repo units. You have to bid on them and you take your chances on condition but they are good at describing anything wrong. A friend bought a low mileage 2004 HR Endeavor 40PDQ last year for about $70K. It only had 20K miles and was exactly what they described, in very good condition.

Also, check E-bay.

[JDT]

Just had another thought. Check dimartinirv.com. They are in California; not sure where you are. They keep a wide selection of used diesels and their prices seem to be realistic compared to others. Tim DiMartini also has a good reputation with those who have bought from him. When we bought our coach in 05 I had a price from him that was the best I could find. I was more than willing to travel the 1800 miles to get it. When we found one only 80 miles away that was exactly what we wanted they were unwilling to deal until I showed them DiMartini's price. They matched it.

A high asking price means nothing. If you make an offer close to what it is actually worth in today's market you might be surprised. The problem with many coaches for sale, especially private ones, is the owner may owe more than it is worth.