Community Forums

plasma800 · 01-21-2014, 08:22 PM

There's not hardly a single class a person I talk to that doesn't say this phrase...

"I'm on my 6th rv"

And I also see around here too, the same.

So my question is, how in the world do people trade around so much without losing your behonkess on the trades $$ wise???

SeeTheUSA · 01-21-2014, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plasma800

So my question is, how in the world do people trade around so much without losing your behonkess on the trades $$ wise???

My personal opinion . . . get used to the idea of losing your behonkess if you want to trade. Pretty much the "price of admission."

gmullen · 01-21-2014, 08:38 PM

Never seen a safe on a coffin.

nforus · 01-21-2014, 09:09 PM

It's not my line, but someone on here once said that you should buy your 3rd RV first. We're on number 5 and it actually should have been #2. It was fun driving all those new units in between, but WOW!! the Kids are going to inherit a lot less. That's probably ok though, because they really enjoyed all the trips in those earlier coaches as they grew up. Not everything in life has a $ sign on it

Scarab0088 · 01-21-2014, 09:37 PM

I'll be honest...when we decided to move from our beautiful top of the line TravelTrailer (bought new in 2007) to a Class A just over 1 year later...we lost well over 20% in depreciation.

It was going to be almost 40% if we had used the TT as a trade-in. That was TOO MUCH for us to accept, so we did a private sale. That is MUCH MORE WORK but worth it to us.

BTW...our Class A is our RV #4. The folks that say buy your last RV first are unrealistic. We started with a pop-top (and had a tent before that). Our current Class A was only a distant dream at that time (9 years ago). You can only take it one day at a time. Nobody makes money on their RV.

Safe travels

vanbuskirk · 01-21-2014, 09:39 PM

Actually we have always made out very well. First of all we always buy gently used and let the original owners take the depreciation hit. Secondly when we trade them or sell them privately they are in the same or better condition then when we purchased them. FYI...we are on our 4th.

Crasher · 01-21-2014, 09:40 PM

It all depends on where you are financially. Most of us who trade for new often are retired, and have worked hard for 40-50 years and accumulated enough assets to do it without financial pain. As was already mentioned, if we don't spend and enjoy what we have worked hard for, the family will get it when we are gone. Personally, I want them to have the same satisfaction we gained all those years by making their own fortunes .

Medico · 01-22-2014, 05:17 AM

We also bought our 3rd or 4th MH first. Since we bought a used (pretty gently) high end coach, we had almost $50K equity (over wholesale, more than that over retail) when we bought it. If you search around enough these great deals are available. Perhaps not on lower end or entry coaches, but on the higher end coaches. It just depends on your budget and how much time you will be in your coach. We are FT so we wanted as much as we could afford to make payments on. Since we no longer have house payments, we could afford a little more.

You will have to look around, and find something in your budget range that will work for you in your situation. We were middle income people all our lives, but saved hard through our work 401Ks and feel comfortable now. Our kids will end up with whatever they can sell the coach for plus a little extra from our accounts. I also believe they can make their own fortunes (They have to because ours is far from a fortune).

wildmandmc · 01-22-2014, 05:49 AM

im on my 1st class a rv, got it for 15K under book. so soon i be trading it in, hopefully it should ease some pain, i guess its all on where u buy it from, time of yr you buy (if its rv season where u live, hold off). prior to purchase, check rv book value, an then go onlline an see what they are selling for. compare, then u can have rough idea on how much pain you will endure in future. i researched/looked for over 5 months prior to this purchase

Fiesta48 · 01-22-2014, 07:07 AM

Bought a used low end class A first. Lost $15k after 2 1/2 years. But paid $10k too much for our '11 Bounder. Had everything we wanted, was local, they fixed what was bad. Going FT in it, wouldn't have in older A.

PyrateSilly · 01-22-2014, 08:01 AM

We started looking at toy haulers and then realized that our truck would not haul it so we looked at changing trucks and the price of all stuff. Then we looked at some other classes. Then we stopped and had a long conversation about what we are buying it for. Decided that we would sell the house since Thom's job at the time had him traveling 90% - 95% of the time and with an RV I could just go with him almost all the time. So then it was do we want gas or diesel. Thom decided on diesel. We looked at lots around where we were at and decided to take a vacation trip over to Texas and PPL Motorhomes. On the way we stopped in Flagstaff, AZ for the nite and happened to look in some publications and seen a couple of ones we might be interested. Took an extra day there and saw 2. One happened to be this one. The owners were getting out of RVing because of health reasons and wanted to sell. We got this one for less then low NADA. High end class A DP that even now we could sell and either break even or make a little bit on, all depending on how and when we sell it. Now that we have lived in it for almost 2 years there are very few things we would have looked for different. So now it's do we change a few things in here or upgrade. We looked at the cost of the changes and decided to do an upgrade. Since we can do that without losing money I think we are coming out ahead so far.

glarnold · 01-22-2014, 08:17 AM

Just my experience(s):

Talking about the $60k and under range. You can figure on losing a minimum of $10k when you trade or sell. Every time. One week or three years. And you can figure on another $4k to $5k for each year after the third.

If it's a higher range to begin with, the loss is more.

G L Arnold

griztim76 · 01-22-2014, 08:36 AM

Just my experience, but I try to buy high quality used Class A Diesel Pushers.
The goal for us has been to pay about 25 cents on the dollar of the new delivery price. So, if the high line retailed for $400K and at 10 years old is $100k then someone else lost paid $30K per year for the privilege of owning new. The depreciation will not end there, but will certainly be affordable to enjoy the use of the motorhome. We just did this scenario and purchased a 2 owner 40' with only 52K miles.
It is not our first coach, by any means, and probably not the last. I don't see the advantage in new as the problems are yet to be solved in them.

Very happy here...it is all just an adventure to enjoy.

**pasdad1** · 01-22-2014, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildmandmc

im on my 1st class a rv, got it for 15K under book. so soon i be trading it in.......... i researched/looked for over 5 months prior to this purchase

Just curious..... If you researched for 5 months to find this deal ......why are you "soon I be trading it in" ?

Are you that unhappy with your current unit?