Hello Everyone! My name is Brad. My wife and I are new owners of a former El Monte 2018 Coachman Leprechaun 32BH rental with a little over 52,000 miles on it. I have read through most of the 116 pages of posts and first wanted to say thank you everyone who posted their ideas and thoughts on buying a former rental.
So to tell the story we have been looking at Travel Trailers for a couple of years now (had a brand and model picked out) and that search change in the past few months due to a canceled family vacation that we planned. My wife really wanted to go camping and spend time with our family (our son, mother and father in law). So we knew a travel trailer(a small ultra light) was not going to be big enough for a two week vacation.
So we looked at renting from CA or El Monte. We actually had units on hold from both. I know that we could have applied the amount of the rental towards the purchase to make sure we wanted to buy one. But the wife and in-laws who also wanted access to a RV wanted to buy one. That led us to look at the used market.
We went to look at a unit that I found on-line at a dealer in Santa Fe Springs, CA. This was a low millage(36,000) former rental same model and year as we bought. When we called and set up a time and day they told us they would call us if it sold. They didn't call and we drove the 45 min drive out to discover it sold. The sales person sent out another sales person to tell us. But we were told they had another sold unit on the way in about one hour we could look at since they were expecting another unit the year and model in a week. So we waited over a hour to be told the driver was running another 15 to 30 mins. Over another hour later we finally left with no calls or no one coming to talk to us. This dealership was busy with several people buying new Class A's. So maybe we weren't worth their time.
My wife being very frustrated with the experience had me look for another Leprechaun 32bh. I remembered we were just down the street from El Monte RV. So i made a call and made a appointment to look at a unit we were interested in. As of now since the virus they ask to make a appointment to look at a RV. So the next day we looked at 2 different units and with no pressure were able to go though the units they had. Next thing we know we were working on the starting paper work. One thing to know they will not negotiate on price they are all set regardless of mileage.
So after the starting paper work was done with deposit down we left to pick up 4 days later. This was great for us to make sure everyone was on the same page.
We went down 4 days later i went thought my checklist I found on this thread before handing over the money. Only found the DVD player wasn't working. Our sales person was very patient with us as we check things out. Fill out the remaining paperwork and handed a cashier's check over and done.
One thing to know is that if you are paying cash you have to have a cashier's check. They will take a credit card for the deposit. Also they do offer a extended warranty on the box only and a separate one for the tires if that's your thing. But we still have some of Fords warranty left and the 12 month 12,000 mile warranty from El Monte.
They also gave us a starter kit containing one roll of TP, pressure regulator, two leveling ramps, 30 amp to 15 amp converter, 10 ft sewer hose and some toilet chemicals.
What really made me comfortable buying a formal rental is knowing that rental companies for the most part keep up on the required maintenance and up keep to stay in business at least the bigger ones. Now i realize there can be a few more scratches and small blemishes from a rental but they do seem to really try to make them look the best possible once the units are for sale.
Sorry for the long post but in buying a used unit we saw both sides of customer service. I would have no problem recommending El Monte on what we experienced so far. If there is any questions, I'm sure i missed some things, I'll be happy to answer. Thanks Again to those who posted in this tread the advise really did help a lot!
