Motorhomes during this economic crisis

[JohnBoyToo]

Every week it seems I get an email from MHSRV.com right down the road with 40% or more off something


2021's are hitting the floors, so the leftover 2019's and 20's should be good buys


And they're hiring, so you can go to work for them and find the cheapest price

[mb36912]

Originally Posted by AJMike

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...er/2356628001/

Newmar RVs are already listed on the Winnebago website as one of their products so I assume the deal is done.

The Winnebago acquisition of Newmar was completed back in November, 2019.

[mromberg1]

Originally Posted by asuperheat

I'm sure there are deals to be had right now and probably in the near future. Just like any other time there will be dealers that are more aggressive than others in there pricing and you may have to travel for a deal. Someone posted recently they were getting 40 percent off MSRP on a Bounder. That's a good deal and still probably hard to find.

Weather or not some go under will depend on what happens with the economy moving forward and how long it takes us to recover from this. The longer things are shut down the harder it will be to get the economy back to a point that people are comfortable and able to buy RV's.

Yep....that was me....picking up Friday! Funny thing though....is that we had to go to Tucson to get the deal. Some of the other dealerships in Southern Californian wouldn't touch the price. Some outright laughed at me when I told them the price so it's hard to say what motivates some dealers while not another. I'd say 30-40% off MSRP is the range.

[TriMoot]

Yes, we are looking now for a newer rig and to be honest hoping we can find a really good deal...but I certainly wouldn't want to take advantage of a private individual. But a dealership?....eh...yeah..think I'm okay with that. (Hope that doesn't make me a bad guy!) It's just that this is our retirement plan and our current rig doesn't have any slides, so we're looking for one with slides and a floor plan that probably doesn't exist:

King Bed, Dinette Bed, Bed in fold out couch, (those are all so that our kids/grand-kids can visit), side radiator, (and the rest I think we can modify) TV on a pop-up behind couch....probably a few more I'm forgetting...but yeah, that king bed is pretty much a show stopper.

Go to RV Trader, put in Class A used and you see 10,759 units. Put in the key word of "King Bed" and it drops to 1,835, put in our price range of $30K to $50K and it drops to 68, put in fuel type of diesel you get 7....SEVEN! Yeah...might need to 'adjust' our "needs"....sigh.

[Tha_Rooster]

Originally Posted by asuperheat

Timing on that was good for Newmar I guess, not so much for Winnebago.

I believe Winnebago bought Chris Craft boats a few years back.

[95f5334j]

Drove past an RV dealer rental place yesterday. There had to be more than 300 units parked there. I'm sure more than a few million $$ worth of idle inventory, waiting for the European tourists. Depending on how long this lock down continues, there might be a lot of discounted RVs on the market if dealers and rental companies don't have cash flow to cover their debts. But then again, the trend I've seen with bankruptcy trustees is to buy the inventory for pennies on the dollar and then liquidate at MSRP and higher prices. People are easily fooled by creative advertising......

[Fishpcb]

We have been shopping for a Class A since first of the year. What amazes me is when you talk to a sells person and they don't seem to care if you buy or not. We finally found a guy that returns phone calls and wants to sell something. He is working hard to make a deal. So far on the same coach, he is over $50k less than the one we found at Lazy Day's. As far as the RV dealers being busy, Lazy Day's is so busy you have to spend all day to see just a couple of coaches . Maybe in a couple of months things will start to slow down but my sales guy said the phone don't stop ringing and people are putting deposits down over the phone before even seeing the unit.

[NCC-1701A]

Originally Posted by Fishpcb

my sales guy said the phone don't stop ringing and people are putting deposits down over the phone before even seeing the unit.

If I were trying to pressure someone into making a quick decision, that's exactly what I'd say too! Not that a used RV salesman would ever stretch the truth a bit!

Clearly the new market is down as RV Manufacturers were laying off and closing down lines even before the Covid-19 lockdowns were going into place. If they had orders, they'd be producing.

But it does seem that used units are selling. While I'm not in the market, I just enjoy frequently looking at a few dealer websites just to watch what's happening. On used units, I've seen a lot of pricing being significantly reduced (a lot of them offered below NADA low values, which probably haven't been updated yet for the value drops that are happening) and then being marked as pending sale or sold within a fairly short time. So it appears that people that have cash or can get credit are snatching up what look to be good deals at this time.

[AJMike]

There has been an affect on service work as well. It is much easier to get in to get service work done and service prices seem to have decreased for some shops.

This stay-at-home request (here in Arizona it is not exactly a lockdown and not exactly an order) also seems to have made a difference in getting service work done. Previously it was normally very, very difficult to get service work done at our local RV dealer - you had to make an appointment weeks in advance and then when you finally brought your RV in it sat in the lot for another 2 or 3 or 4 days before they worked on it. Now I have gotten emails telling me that the service area is open and we can just come in for work.

Even more surprising I have also received emails telling me that the dealer's mechanics will do on-site service work - they will come to where you are and do simple services. I guess it shows how much their service work has decreased during this time.

I have also noticed that the prices for Lithium battery upgrades has also declined. Battle Born lowered their prices by $50/ battery and I have gotten offers for them at a $100/battery discount as well.