First Time Buyer...Updated 03/06/2006

I really appreciated your views on buying a motor home. We have an interesting dilemna. I wonder if most people who read this know about Newells. They are a top of the line custom made coach, and the new or late models are way above our means. We have the chance to buy a much older Newell (from an individual that we trust) that has been very well maintained and has had a lot of the equipment replaced or rebuilt over the years. It is of course a diesel and has a very large gas tank and lots of storage space, washer/dryer, and many other things that expensive newer coaches have. It is 38.5 feet long. We have decided to replace our 1994 gas Class A with a diesel. Like you Johnny, we travel a lot versus parking. The older Newell has no slides but we truly feel we are fine without them.Because it has no slides, we expect it would not be easy to sell in future and we would plan to keep it for a long time. It is a choice of the older Newell which is like a vintage cadillac, versus a 3 or 4 year old Diesel with one or 2 slides, and we could not afford one of the really good models. If we get the Newell we will have to try to sell our coach ourselves but we can afford to buy the Newell whether we sell ours or not. The dealers don't want to give us much on a trade anyway. We have talked to some Newell owners and they love their older coach. They are very hard to find used. We have looked at some 99 and 2000 Diesels such as Monaco and Bounder,and they are quite a bit more than the Newell, but they cost the most we can afford to spend even with our trade. I wish I had read your good advice before we bought our first coach. Johnny- do you or any others out there have an opinion on our dilemna? Thanks in advance for any and all opinions. Annie