Almost a CC owner - Sellers are liars

[Moho_Driver]

Pretty disappointing story. I flew down to California (from Oregon) last week to pick up a 98 CC Intrigue. Great looking coach owned by a self proclaimed car nut that owns a drag racing team and is a well respected custom home builder. He had all records and said anything that needs fixed was always taken care of. The listing described it as mechanically sound and in excellent condition. Pictures were great.

Well, not so much. After almost 10 hours of traveling (ridiculous layover in LAX) I arrived to find a coach that had a sizable crack in the fiberglass roof. Not a hairline fracture in the gel coat, a deep crack about 2mm wide and 8” long, right where the roof curves to the side. And while the coach was in decent condition for its age, it needed to be thoroughly deep cleaned and would not be what I would describe as excellent. It just amazes me. You can’t trust anyone these days.

Needless to say I was pretty sick about it. A nasty hotel room in the middle of no where, a couple flights, many hours, and several hundred dollars later; I’m back home. Licking my wounds and still shopping; just closer to home.

[2 Stroker]

Originally Posted by Moho_Driver

Pretty disappointing story. I flew down to California (from Oregon) last week to pick up a 98 CC Intrigue. Great looking coach owned by a self proclaimed car nut that owns a drag racing team and is a well respected custom home builder. He had all records and said anything that needs fixed was always taken care of. The listing described it as mechanically sound and in excellent condition. Pictures were great.

Well, not so much. After almost 10 hours of traveling (ridiculous layover in LAX) I arrived to find a coach that had a sizable crack in the fiberglass roof. Not a hairline fracture in the gel coat, a deep crack about 2mm wide and 8” long, right where the roof curves to the side. And while the coach was in decent condition for its age, it needed to be thoroughly deep cleaned and would not be what I would describe as excellent. It just amazes me. You can’t trust anyone these days.

Needless to say I was pretty sick about it. A nasty hotel room in the middle of no where, a couple flights, many hours, and several hundred dollars later; I’m back home. Licking my wounds and still shopping; just closer to home.

Smart move. Country Coach is a great coach but sometimes the owner aren't as great.
2 stroker

[Smitty77]

Understand your frustration. And yes, in some cases, I did find that some owner's do lie about their coaches, and the condition of them. Similar experience, where I took a vacation day and flew from San Diego to Texas and then a 90 min drive to see a coach. I never even went inside of it. Parked the rental car, walked to within maybe 75' of the coach. About that time the 'Gentlemen' came walking down from his house, with big smile on his face, and said 'You ready to drive this coach home?'. I said calmly explained to him he had misrepresented the condition of the coach, wasted my time and money, and turned around and walked back to the rental car. The money I saved from not staying in a hotel that night, was used to pay for a change on my return flight. Caught an early evening flight home. (That coach remained for sale, for several months...

All that being said. I also found many owners of RV's, who I believe honestly felt their coaches were in great condition, clean, and well maintained. They just had different perspectives on what that meant... Wished many a nice owner, most of the time coming off of the road the best of luck, and said their coach was not the right one for my wife and I. Remember one gent very well, he called me a few days later, and asked for some feedback on his coach. I explained the items that I felt were in need of attention, to make the coach if not in excellent condition, and least very good condition. He, and a few others, were I feel honest owner's - who due to their love of their coaches, saw them in a different light...

Keep looking, and best wishes on your hunt... Tip. Since your in Oregon, call or go in and meet Damon Rapozo out of Premier RV. He's a straight shooter, and will know of coaches coming to market, that you will never see... IMO, the creme of the crop used CC's - change ownerships without ever being advertised.

Smitty

[bizzerbiz]

You'll find what your looking for in Oregon, unless it's just C.C. you want. Then you may have to travel. I drove down to La Pine to find my Dutchstar and it couldn't have been a better situation. Be patient.

[John Jones]

I looked at many coaches. The owners always said they were clean and nice, but I realized that my clean and nice was different than many others opinion. I finally found my CC in washington after about two years of looking.

Don't get discouraged, its better to walk away than to be disappointed. I found a Leisure travel for my parents. I set up a time to FaceTime the owner and we walked around that coach for an hour. I felt good about it and we flew to Idaho and got it.

Have you seen the green intrigue in Canby? It looks very nice in the pics.

[Moho_Driver]

Originally Posted by John Jones

Have you seen the green intrigue in Canby? It looks very nice in the pics.

I did see that one, and I agree, it looks great in the pics. But, we would prefer the floor plan with the deeper slide and the kitchen on the other side.

[stonegully]

I looked at a private sale 36’ foot 1998 Magna just north of Phoenix About 4 weeks ago, for a friend. It was not listed yet but he was going to list for about 37K. I would put that in the category of being in very good shape. If it hasn’t sold you may want to look into that one He was going to list on one of the RV websites

[gpounder]

Too bad but at least your were not so invested to buy it anyway.

Remember the seller is motivated to sell it and say just about anything need to make the sale. Being honest just is not part of the process for many sellers.

Recognize anything you buy will have its issues and most of the them you will never see until long after you own it. You looking to but a 20+ year old machine so perfect is not realistic. I am keeping a list of all the things I have done to my 12 year old machine, just 7 months old to me and I am over 100 individual repair or replace things.

[Jean n Steve]

I had a similar experience and, even though it sucks, it could be worse!

And I concur with Smitty here. Get hold of Damon. We wandered in off the street and he spent more than an hour showing us inventory and talking CC history. Over a year later and he still checks on us - and we didn't buy from Premier!

Originally Posted by Smitty77

Keep looking, and best wishes on your hunt... Tip. Since your in Oregon, call or go in and meet Damon Rapozo out of Premier RV. He's a straight shooter, and will know of coaches coming to market, that you will never see... IMO, the creme of the crop used CC's - change ownerships without ever being advertised.

[B Bob]

When we looked for a used coach a few years back I had to do a LOT of work to find what I wanted. I checked all the sales methods like eBay, RVT, RVtrader, and so on to see if the coach was listed in various places to check how motivated the seller was. I looked at both private party, consignment dealers, and regular dealers. My wife and I made a number of trips to see coaches. And some were not great trips. Some were funny. (I still remember the one American Tradition we looked at parked in the backyard of the nice lady who's husband passed away and she wanted to sell it. Really nice coach, but they had several cats. The were cat claw holes by the many hundreds on every surface, leather sofa, chair, and other places I have forgotten all over the interior. We did not buy that one.).

After many dozens of hours and several trips to see coaches we decided on the coach we own now. I flew to pick it up. Spent the night in the consignment dealers. Went through every system in the rig. Wrote down many issues I needed fixed before giving any money. Gave dealer my list. Flew home. Flew back a couple of weeks later to see if all stuff done. Not all done. Made seller get repair guy out to finish issues. Spent several days waiting for that to happen. And so on. And I insisted on the best extended warranty I could find at the sellers expense.

We still have that coach.

Since you are in Oregon it should be easy to find the CC you want. Drive to Junction City and look around at the sellers there and insist on a good one. Likely you will get it. Maybe not a bargain though. A clue on the condition of the coach you went to LA to see though might be that it needed "deep cleaning" when you looked at it. Machines that a seller shows you not cleaned up for sale usually means he did not take care of fixing the things you could not see either.

By the way. After all my work at getting a coach that was in good condition I still had a whole bunch of issues the first 2-3 years. I was very glad I got the extended warranty. The insurance company spent about twice what it cost.

Not sorry I got a Country Coach.

[Mainecoons]

Originally Posted by Moho_Driver

I did see that one, and I agree, it looks great in the pics. But, we would prefer the floor plan with the deeper slide and the kitchen on the other side.

We thought we did too until we saw this slide configuration with the bedroom slide combo. The shallower kitchen slide is longer and there is plenty of room to leave the leaf in the dining table. Our previous CC had the great room slide.

Before you rule it out, go look at one with this slide. Really much better than expected and there seem to be more of them around.

[Jubilee 45]

Sounds like the start of a great adventure. Chin up.

[HJLowell]

I got skunked twice.
Both used 8 to 10 year old pictures in their advertising.

From when they bought the coach's used.
And well maintained it looked like at the time.

Neither had been maintained properly since.
Fortunately I didn't buy them sight unseen.

One lady had a very sad tale.
Her husband died 8 years before.
His son, a addict, lived in it since his death.
She wanted 60,000 plus.
I told her that she would be lucky if she got a salvage yard to haul if off.

And a year latter they did.
For $500.

I explained that what she did was false advertising.
I think she was desperate.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by Jean n Steve

I had a similar experience and, even though it sucks, it could be worse!

And I concur with Smitty here. Get hold of Damon. We wandered in off the street and he spent more than an hour showing us inventory and talking CC history. Over a year later and he still checks on us - and we didn't buy from Premier!

First became acquainted with Damon back when he was selling Newmars. Premier and Damon are straight shooters and we bought our present Magna from them. Would buy from them again too.