We recently bought a mid 2000s DP and I can tell you the process we went through. We were coming from a 37 ft 05 Newmar gasser, so we already had a good feel for Newmar from that era. Our Newmar gasser had 3 slides, living, kitchen and bedroom. Having the kitchen slide really opened up the kitchen/living area and the kitchen countertop area really spoiled us, so we knew we would not settle for a non-kitchen slide coach.
Things we were looking for in a mid 2000s DP were, $90-100K, 40-45 ft, 350-450 HP, 3-4 slides, big kitchen, 2 couches, 2 bathroom sinks with a separate room for the toilet, side radiator and preferably a tag axle, but a lack of a tag was not a deal breaker.
In looking at the Tiffins, the Phaetons of that era did not have side radiators, so that limited us to searching for an Alegro Bus. A friend of ours had previously owned the 2005 Newmar gasser that we bought from him. He went on to buy an 07 Tiffin FRED. He loved the added torque, but in comparing the Newmar that he owned to the Tiffin, he said the Newmar was a more solid and well-built rig, even though it was a gasser. He also said Newmar support for their older rigs was very good. He went on to tell me that he was very dissatisfied with Tiffin support. He said, “if your rig is older than 10 years, you are dead to Tiffin.” YMMV, but this was his experience.
We also briefly considered other manufacturers, as I had heard good things about Beaver, Foretravel, Country Coach, etc, but I could not find a coach that clicked all of our boxes that was within our budget that had the floorplan that we wanted.
I would assume other manufacturers offer this as well, but you can do a google search on any year of Newmar and see all of the features and floor plans.
So, after a lot of research, we zeroed in on an 06-07 Newmar Dutchstar 4023, 4320. 4307 or an 05-06 Newmar Mountain Aire 4032, 4304 or 4307. We really liked the idea of a bath and a half but couldn’t find a model in our price range. We really liked the 07-08 Mountain Aires, but they were $150k or more and we just didn’t feel comfortable go up to that price point.
We test drove an 05 Mountain Aire 4032 and it clicked all of our must haves, even though the kitchen was a little smaller than our 37 ft Newmar gasser, but it was obvious that it had not been well maintained and spent a lot of it’s life outside in the elements.
We then test drove an 05 Newmar 4304, which is the bigger brother of the 4032. The extra 2.5 feet yielded a tag axle, bigger kitchen with the washer/dryer in the kitchen (freeing up space in the bedroom), bigger bathroom, etc. It had been very well maintained, was in very good condition, and we had a good feeling about the seller. We bought it and are loving it.
Another bonus of buying a Mountain Aire of this era is that the YouTubers, The RV Geeks, have an 05 Mountain Aire 4304 and they have dozens and dozens, if not hundreds or videos showing how they maintain/fix things or even make upgrades. It has been very beneficial in the short time of our ownership.
https://library.rvusa.com/brochure/2005madpbrochure.pdf