Mocoondo wrote:
KristinU wrote:
Schooner wrote:
One of the rental companies claims to have sold 120,000 former rentals and if there were problems specific to them, it would be showing up.
Very true. Lots of opinions out there on "I'd never buy a previous rental" but few owners, which I believe is why IAMICHABOD started this thread.
10 pages long and I don't recall reading any posts saying they were hosed and wished they hadn't bought one. I'm sure they're out there, but unhappy owners are out there with brand spanking new units as well.
You will generally find that most of the people who talk negatively about retired rental units have never owned one and therefore have no clue about what they speak of.
You will rarely hear someone say, 'I bought this ex-rental unit and really got screwed. I'll never do that again.....'
All very true. Let me first say I am not affiliated with Cruise America in any way. I am just a working American who wanted a newer RV for the summer trips for my family. I put 2000 miles a YEAR on the RV, pulling a boat or a Jeep. We have had ZERO problems. We love that it is only a few years old and thus looks and drives like new still. Ours has 150,000 miles on it. I will not say what we paid but we did talk them down from their already LOW price and considering it was near $60,000 when new I feel we got the best dollar value anywhere. Whenever I hear of someone (a friend of mine included) saying they would never buy a used rental I now feel like they are pretty ignorant and do NOT know what they are talking about. There are dealerships in my area that sell the exact same RV's, but with less miles, for TENS OF THOUSANDS more, and they are pre-owned as well! Even if I were to have to replace the 1)engine, 2)transmission, 3)rear axle, as well as rebuild the frontend (latter of which had just been done on mine including ball joints), I would still be THOUSANDS of dollars ahead of the guy who spent 30 grand or more on his same unit. BUT, the chances of all that happening are slim to none. You see, by the time I am done with this RV, I will have put maybe 20000 miles on it. E series chassis routinely go to 300000 miles without issue. I will have a whopping 170000 miles on it when it is time to get rid of it. I will ask a few thousand dollars and go buy another Cruise America RV. The same guy who spent $35000 on the same unit will have maybe 60000 miles his, and it will be just as rotted as mine. Only I am out a fraction of what he is. Am I worried about the miles? Not in the least. Cruise America will not sell complete junk (if they have a unit like this they just sell it for scrap or part it out). They sell decent to very nice units that all come with warranties. Those of us buying these 5 year old units, and that only use them as "recreation" vehicles and not full-timing, are probably the smartest purchasers out there. That said, if my only purchase was for an RV so I could live and travel in it FULLTIME, I would buy new. After all, it IS your home and starting out with something half used up is not smart. However, if you put so few miles a year on a motor vehicle that mother nature will take its toll before mechanical wear and tear ever will, then used Cruise America units are THEE best value, period. Of course, that is the opinion of someone who finally bought one after buying used RV's off of Craigslist for years. ;) I know there will always be those out there that would not pay one red cent for a used rental ANYTHING. That is fine with me, it keeps costs down!
