Community Forums

egrabor · 09-01-2010, 04:12 PM

We are in the process of buying a 2002 Country Coach Magna-two slides, Diesel, with 80000 miles. Sounds like a lot of miles to us. What is your take on buying an older coach with this Mileage? Would there be any problem with parts being available. We are just retiring- will be snowbirds. We are between this Country Coach and a 2004 Newmar dutchstar with 4 slides and 25,000 miles- same price. Any thoughts would be appreciated. We need to make a decision like, immediatly. HELP!!!
Thank you for any advice or your thoughts. Egrabor

B Bob · 09-01-2010, 07:56 PM

The Country Coach full line and the Dutch Star were both on our short list a year ago when we were looking for a used coach. We bought a 2002 Affinity which is quite similar to the one you are considering. Ours had 85000 at the time. It is 42' with a tag. We bought it for a lot under the wholesale blue book. Ours has a semi custom south west style interior we just loved. So we bought it. Part of that was I just could not pass up the deal and also that of the motor homes we drove CCoach was the stand out. We also looked at coaches with more than the two we have on our Affinity. But there are slides and there are slides. The way our coach is layed out with the closets and drawers all on the back wall it just opened up the bedroom so much more. We did not want a coach with a passenger side front slide. I like the spacial way our coach front room is with the slide out. It is very comfortable for my wife and I. It would not be improved by a front passenger side slide. And the huge benefit you get by not having passenger side slides is easy access to the basement. This is a big deal. We get into our basements several times a day. Big doors and not having to bend over is a big advantage.

We also liked Dutch Stars. We did not find any that we liked as much as the Affinity. There is absolutely no question though that a Magna is a much more substantial motor home than a Dutch Star. That is no denigration of a Dutch Star as they are great motor homes. But the Magna would have cost likely twice as much new. What you get is much higher grade stuff. Better chassis. Way thicker exterior and interior walls. Our coach interior walls sound like home walls when you knock on them. Dutch Stars do not.

Our coach had a lot of road miles and little house use. The previous owners were former-rich and used it to go to NASCAR races. They ate out. We have had to fix up a bunch of stuff. I got a very good extended warranty with the coach. You will have to do that weather you buy the Magna or the DS.

Be sure you are getting a good deal on any motor home purchase. Do not stop looking until you know what you should be paying and then make sure you pay less than FMValue.

We have had zero issues getting our coach fixed. CC is closed but there is no parts problems.

rhilgeman · 09-02-2010, 07:34 AM

I owned a 2002 Magna, had it for 6 years, and finally sold it in 2007. My coach had almost 80,000 on it when I traded it in. The engine was solid as a rock, used no oil, and would probably be good for another 500,000 miles. Mine happened to be a cat C12 engine. I have a close friend who also bought a 2002 Magna with the same engine. He still owns his today and has close to 150,000 miles on his engine. His entire drive train (engine/xmission/etc) is all working just as they did when he bought the coach new. In my opinion, the 2002 Magna was probably one of the best coaches made by Country Coach for the price. I would have it today had it not been for a major problem with the slide out. In 2002, Country Coach experimented with a few Magna's on using all electric slide outs. Unfortunately, I had one of the few. In my case, the main structural support for the kitchen slide severed. No one knew how to repair it. Unfortunately, Country Coach had just stopped repairing older coaches and were only handling warranty problems.

If I were looking to buy a 2002 at this time, I would ask if the slide out was electric or hydraulic. That is probably only because I had such a bad time with mine. Most people will tell you (even the slide out manufacturer of parts, HWH) that Country Coach did not make any electric slide outs on the Magna. They did. Interestingly enough, even all the documentation that came with my coach when I bought it, said that it was a hydraulic slide out system. By the way, my coach number was 6128 and I believe Country Coach only made around 10 with electic slide outs.

All in all, the 2002 Magna was by far the best coach I have ever owned. As I said earlier, I would still have it today had it not been for all the major problems I had with my slide out system.

Hope this is helpful. If I can answer any further questions, I will be happy to try.

Rob