Community Forums

Fred1609 · 11-14-2012, 10:38 AM

If you bought a vacation home, thats where you will vacation....until you decide to sell it. We bought a new 5er because we intended to keep it for a long time and I found out that there wasn't a huge difference in price from slightly used (couple of years old). I liked the option of an extended warranty as well. If I had to do it all over again, I would likely do the same, buy new.

Chuck 1935 · 11-14-2012, 11:11 AM

I allways buy used. Furthermore I want one with some miles on it so that I know that everything is working and has been exercised. I also buy an extended warranty just in case. If you buy a 5 year old MH with 3,000 miles on it you will probably spend a bunch of time and money trying to get everything to work.
This is just MY opnion but it has served me very well and saved me thousands of dollars.

WheelingIt · 11-14-2012, 11:52 AM

Honestly I don't think you'll find anyone who's bought new & regretted it, simply because the folks who buy new are the ones who wanted & could afford a new rig in the first place! Nothing wrong w/ that...it's just a statement of fact.

We bought used (if you can call 5,000 miles used), because that's what we wanted & could afford. Gave us a deeply discounted rig with most of the stuff already broken in. Just our preference....

TGR · 11-14-2012, 12:30 PM

I bought mine new about 18 months ago. Would I do it again - Yes. Family time is worth every penny. Is it a depreciating asset ? I suspect it is if I were to sell it. Since I don't plan to sell it for quite some time, this is a non issue for me. My goal is to use it for the next 10 plus years.

There are pros and cons to every decision. Get all the information you can, and make YOUR decision.

Crabby Mike · 11-15-2012, 02:10 PM

If I had it to do over again, I'd be tempted to buy lightly used, just so someone else would have gone through the aggravation of fixing the inevitable initial problems.

That said, we felt like we got the best of both worlds -- "new" at a "used" price. Our coach had sat on a dealer's lot for over a year, during which it was taken to a number of shows, accumulating a few thousand miles (beyond the few hundred it got coming from the factory). We got it for about 36% off MSRP, and we see similar coaches, used, selling for close to what we paid, two years later. Since the coach had never been titled before we bought it, we received the full warranty from our purchase date, as first owner. No regrets here.

Though the market has come back some since we bought ours, there are still many bargains to be had, both new and used. And shopping is half the fun!

1ciderdog · 11-15-2012, 05:33 PM

Personally, I think it really depends on your own resources and willingness to spend $$. Out of six or so RV's we did buy one brand new one - didn't particularly regret that but do feel we have gotten more bang for the buck by buying used. Just my dos centavos.

RickO · 11-15-2012, 05:44 PM

I certainly don't have great regrets about buying new. I knew what I was getting in to and could afford it. But, I wouldn't do it again knowing what I know now.

Rick

Hikerdogs · 11-16-2012, 03:10 PM

The only 2 days you care about what your RV is worth is the day you buy it and have to lay out a pile of cash, and the day you sell it. All the time in between you can enjoy what you have without any thought as to it's monitary value.

We bought ours several years ago, and at the time thought we paid a fair price for it. Fast forward nearly 12 years and it's given us great memories, access to places we would never have been able to go, priceless adventures, and over 100,000 miles of dependable service.

Traps90 · 11-17-2012, 09:35 PM

Well for us we just ordered a new one, cause in order to get what we wanted that was the only way, looked at some used and a lot of new ones too, but for us it was all about livability, and floorplan. Since we plan on living in it for 10 years.

No right or wrong answer to this, if we we're only going to use it for a couple of months of the year we would have stayed with a 5'er or definitely bought used.

10 years from now I guarantee, I'm not gonna worry about the depreciation, cause hopefully I'll have this big old

on my face and a tone of great memories

Hipshot · 11-18-2012, 07:24 AM

I allways buy new everything, but the MH I bought used. I was looking at new coaches when I ran accross the Bounder, it is exactly what we were looking at. Original owner bought it and parked in covered storage and never used it. Cost me 40% of new well under book,could not pass it up. When I am ready for another coach I will look at new. But if I run accross a one time good deal like this one I will grab it.

Luckiest Dreamer · 11-18-2012, 10:11 AM

THe first MH I bought was 2 model years old and had been used by the dealer for 4000 miles and the first owner another 4000. (one long vacation trip) Thought I was getting a bargain! The problem that I had was not little use but little maintaince, The factory warranty was ignored and all the problems that surface during that first 12 month period fell on my shoulders(maybe I should say in my wallet) Calling the factory for help was ignored and when I was able to talk with someone the info was met with answers like, that info is propriority and not available to end users. I quickly replaced it with a new one with a factory warranty and with a brand that seemed to care about their product after the sale. We now have 1 year and 12,000 miles behind us. I don't regret buying new at all! I do wish i still had the money in the market working for me! That is if there is a working market out there.
Counting on the first owners to take care of maintaince properly and to take the deprecation hit may work, it may not. Knowing who did it and how well it was done is worth something. THe best thing I got from buying used was not to buy that brand again!

fredaevans · 11-18-2012, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hikerdogs

The only 2 days you care about what your RV is worth is the day you buy it and have to lay out a pile of cash, and the day you sell it. All the time in between you can enjoy what you have without any thought as to it's monitary value.

We bought ours several years ago, and at the time thought we paid a fair price for it. Fast forward nearly 12 years and it's given us great memories, access to places we would never have been able to go, priceless adventures, and over 100,000 miles of dependable service.

So true! HD's nailed it. Fair and simple. But USE IT! 'In storrage' is not a good thing to hear.

Mr. M · 11-18-2012, 09:22 PM

Some very different viewpoints here. Definitely very different opinions from that of my financial adviser! A lot to consider. It does remove some of my hesitance of buying a new diesel pusher.

goldviper · 11-18-2012, 10:13 PM

this is our first ever RV. We tried to buy a used one, had to many problems. Decided to go new. Do not look back. Had ours for three weeks now. New has all of the hightech stuff (I'm a GEEK) and love it. I have not even thought about depreciation until I read this thread and in 10 minutes I will forget I thought about it 10 minutes ago. Short term memory has it's advantages......What were we talking about?????