What month of the year does NADA lower the value of your RV?

[macmember]

We are considering purchasing an RV again. I know that the last RV we purchased, lost "value" in the NADA book, in a certain month. Is it January 1?

[Grandpere]

If I remember my time from working at a library correctly, the new NADA books come out in October, to coincide with the release of the new model year of domestic vehicles.

[TweetThisRV]

NADA Guides come out 3 times per year - Jan, April, Sept - they use a mathematical formula drop the value of RVs.

For more information NADA Recreation Vehicle Appraisal Guide | NADAguides

[Sagamore]

How long are you planning on keeping your RV? If it's a extended period of time, why worry? It's a motorized vehicle, and they all lose value.

[Bondad]

Back in the dark ages NADA published a book every month that typically showed lower values than the previous month. My guess is it's a least monthly now but have never actually tested it...

[Bamaman]

NADA stands for National Automobile Dealer Association, and that means their recources are slanted toward cars and light trucks.

Does it make you feel good that the person setting those prices doesn't know a Class A from a popup, and have probably never even seen a camper?

No wonder the NADA RV Guide is basically a work of fiction. They come up with a base value of a RV, and then depreciate it a set percentage per month.

I would feel better if they did an in depth study of resale prices and auction prices when RV's are sold. But there is not the information available on RV's.

On automobiles, the NADA can monitor a set of auto auctions operating every week, and proper resale values are easily established from the industry information.

(I carried a NADA Auto Guide in my pocket for well over 20 years.)

[macmember]

We buy and keep the RV for about 6 months, enjoy our trip. Come home and sell it, then buy again in about 2 years, for another trip. No reason to suffer the depreciation, warranty policy, license, etc, if we are not using it for about 2 years.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by macmember

We buy and keep the RV for about 6 months, enjoy our trip. Come home and sell it, then buy again in about 2 years, for another trip. No reason to suffer the depreciation, warranty policy, license, etc, if we are not using it for about 2 years.

How have you come out financially doing this as opposed to continuing ownership ? Just curious.....

[dvmweb]

Right after you sign on the dotted line!


2013 FleetWood Expedition 38B

[dons2346]

NADA sux. They start wit a new price and start depreciation right away. Never figure in the cost of inflation or model desirability.

If I was selling my coach and someone came to me with "well NADA says......" they can forget dealing with me.

[mojoracing]

The car business has gone to using a "live" system". We use web sites such as manheim which gives us minute by minute updates on what cars and trucks are going through all the nationwide auctions at. There are other programs we use that combine auctions with black book, nada, as well as retail pricing and sale info from all dealers and private parties nationwide. Even uses car fax. Much more accurate than ever before. As a dealer, we never even cracked open the nada book. Pretty much useless info.

[HHIDan]

Originally Posted by mojoracing

The car business has gone to using a "live" system". We use web sites such as manheim which gives us minute by minute updates on what cars and trucks are going through all the nationwide auctions at. There are other programs we use that combine auctions with black book, nada, as well as retail pricing and sale info from all dealers and private parties nationwide. Even uses car fax. Much more accurate than ever before. As a dealer, we never even cracked open the nada book. Pretty much useless info.

It's easy and swell NADA can do this with cars as so many cars are sold through auctions. RV's don't sell that way and NADA claims they use local data from dealers, hard to believe as there is usually a trade involved. As they say, it's just a guide... If you use the online version I suspect prices can (and probably do) be adjusted daily. They usually do have the right MSRP...

[bamaboy473]

Originally Posted by HHIDan

It's easy and swell NADA can do this with cars as so many cars are sold through auctions. RV's don't sell that way and NADA claims they use local data from dealers, hard to believe as there is usually a trade involved. As they say, it's just a guide... If you use the online version I suspect prices can (and probably do) be adjusted daily. They usually do have the right MSRP...

IMO, there are too many variables for RVs and MHs that don't apply to cars/trucks:
* The very LOW number of a particular brand/model bought or sold in a given period,
* private sales that don't ever make it to NADA,
* RV/MH dealers that don't bother reporting their sales,
* trades that fake the actual selling prices
* Foreclosure sales depress prices a Lot, due to the low number of similar units sold

[Gary RVRoamer]

Values are based on model years anyway - each one gets older when the new model year becomes available. And a "new" one becomes a year old as soon as the first title is issued.

The printed (subscription) version of the RV Guide comes out 3x per year (Jan, May, Sept) and represents the previously available market data at that time. The September issue is closest to the typical RV model year changeover.

There was a mention above of the calculated depreciation percentage methodology, but that applies strictly to the free online version. The subscription version has at least some sales report data behind it, but not every RV year/make/model gets sold and reported regularly, so I suspect they still do some calculated adjustments to update models that don't have current data.

By the way, there really are wholesale auctions for used RVs, but they aren't as widespread as car auctions, nor is the sales volume anywhere near as high. Georgia-Caroline RV Auction is one such.
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