50% less from what you paid

tsetsaf wrote:
Bought our last fifth wheel for 1/3 the purchase price of new (it was 3 years old). 4 years later we resold that rig for $1k more than we bought it. Never buy a new RV.

Roger that! Bought my rig 9-months old with 5K miles on it from the original owner that took a 25% bath on buying it new. You gotta really love buying new to dispose of up to 50% of the rig's cost inside of 3-years.

ct78barnes wrote:
Thanks for all the help I just wonder if some one would buy a stick and brick house for 100,000 and know when they are buying it that in 4 years it would only be worth 50,000 dollars. Would they still buy it . I knew it would go down in what it was worth and we ordered it and are not going to sell it any time soon. It was just a shock and awe moment. The internet sites say it should go for a low of 69,000 and a high of 89,000 for full body paint . I guess the dealer want to make a killing on people that are forced to sell it at any cost which is sad. I wonder how many little old ladys when there husband dies and have to sell and these dealers take them to the cleaners.

One way to find these little old ladies with rigs is to monitor the monthly FMCA Final Trip obits, then look up the coach year model through their FMCA number, and go from there.

Bought our last fifth wheel for 1/3 the purchase price of new (it was 3 years old). 4 years later we resold that rig for $1k more than we bought it. Never buy a new RV.

I was on the phone with this salesman for about 4 min.I told him up front that I found a DP for sale by the owner. I wanted to know if he could give me a ballpark price to ask for it . Its not like I tied him up for hrs.

hanko wrote:
I didnt buy my motorhome for an investement. I really dont care nor do I worry about what its going to be worth in one,two, three years. If I was, I would have taken the money and put it into somthing else

No we can't and all some of us can do, is to lessen the burden somewhat. Just glad that many do buy new, otherwise they're wouldn't be so many nice used ones to choose from and would certainly affect the depreciation and purchase cost, as well.

hanko wrote:
I didnt buy my motorhome for an investement. I really dont care nor do I worry about what its going to be worth in one,two, three years. If I was, I would have taken the money and put it into somthing else

taxes, lawn, utilities, insurance, etc was costing us $12,000 per year for our stick house.

Do we lose more on the MH - YES

Guess which brings more smiles?:B

I didnt buy my motorhome for an investement. I really dont care nor do I worry about what its going to be worth in one,two, three years. If I was, I would have taken the money and put it into somthing else

We sold our 10 year motorhome within a month on consignment (we named the price) and it sold for 1/2 of what we paid for it.

Trading it in with a dealer = zilch.

ct78barnes wrote:
Just for fun I called a big dealer and ask him to give me what he would give for my 4 year old Winnebago Sightseer . It was 1/2 of what I payed for it. Does it ever stop going down or level off.

Yeah, once it's down to a few thousand dollars and is still in prime condition. I does level off some after the initial newness shock and the best way to ease some of this pain is to buy used in the first place, thereby lessening the depreciation per mile and the largest single expense with ownership.
Story short, forget about fuel costs or MPG and even repair costs over time. I mean if one was to be concerned about fuel cost and consumption or anything else, they would just stay overnight in a Walmart for lessening the overall cost.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

dewey02 wrote:

ct78barnes wrote:
Just for fun I called a big dealer and ask him to give me what he would give for my 4 year old Winnebago Sightseer . It was 1/2 of what I payed for it. Does it ever stop going down or level off.

Well, maybe "just for fun" the dealer gave you a lowball offer.
Or maybe he has to make money to cover for all the wasted time he spends giving responses to bogus, non-serious inquiries about the value of someone's RV when they have no intention of doing a deal. You wasted his time and you are the one complaining?

Maybe it was just fun for you, it was non-productive work for the dealer.

Best post in this thread!!. On top of that, how can any dealer give a quote on a rig they aren't even looking at. They have two choices. 1) Give a safe quote, leaving them with a little bit of wiggle room should the rig is not be exactly as described. Trouble is, you get a situation like the first poster where they are upset with the value given. They of course don't come in to trade or sell the rig to the dealer and the dealer does indeed just waste time and money. 2) give a high quote and nit-pick the every detail about the rig when the guy brings it in to drive the actual price down to what it is worth. This might bring the customer into the dealership, giving the dealer at least a puncher's chance at making a deal. But almost always people take offense with someone telling them all the little things wrong with their RV and it just turns into bad blood and a waste of time.
Most of us would not waste the time of other businesses. We wouldn't have construction companies come out and give us estimates on remodeling jobs we have no intention of undertaking. Just like the "boy who cried Wolf", enough people waste the dealer's time with nonsense like this, you will end up with a dealer who assumes every such call is a waste of time.
And finally, is there anyone, anywhere, who didn't know that RVs depreciate about as fast as a punctured balloon?

I recently sold my MH and dealer offered 90+% below nada low retail sight unseen. Thought it was an honest wholesale offer as the deal on the new MH was 28.5% off MSRP.

Dealer did not waste his time made me want to trade my MH

My MH had various minor scars from trees attacking it etc. I thought the dealer would lower his offer a couple thousand when he saw the trade but went ahead anyway as we wanted the new MH. Dealer complained about this and that but in the end it was like $650 and the trade was lowered to 89.9% below NADA low retail.

Dealers can be honest and helpful or waste their time and your time with bogus numbers and not make sales.

How they make these offers sight unseen is beyond me.