There are no El Monte's near me either and I went to CA to look at what they had. I was a bit skeptical of their renovations and the fact that when I asked for the service history they told me they did not have that. The unit I was looking at had 120,000 miles on it in just 4 years. With Ford and Chevy now calling for major service at 100,000 miles I felt like I would have to do all that as soon as I bought. I also worried that since these guys dont do insurance claims for minor damage and repair inhouse, without the service history you have no way of knowing if a wall or roof was damaged. That may not be a problem but my car was never the same after I hit a deer and they had to repair allot of sheet metal and trim.
El Monte seems to have many units with fewer miles, again I did not get to look at theirs but kept thinking that would be a good thing. One of my concerns was if I decided to sell or upgrade after 30,000 miles or so how hard would selling a unit with 150,000 miles vs 110,000 miles be. Both are fairly high and many younger people are use to cars lasting 200,000 but I am still a throw back to the age when you got rid of a car with more that 60,000 because thats when many problems started. I keep telling myself that newer vehicles last longer but I cant get that rid of that uncomfortable feeling.
Anyway El Monte says they provide service records from day 1 so you have some reassurance and they give you a 1 year warranty.
By the way I ended up buying new because the price difference on the unit I wanted was not that great but larger RV's would have been substantially more.
