Former Rental RV? What say you..
In my search I found a number of discussions where people buy former rental rigs. Cruise America now has a number of used 2008+ 25 and 28 ft RVs that have just a little over 100K on the ODO (not all ...
Forum Discussion
I am in the same situation as some others here in regard to buying a used or new motorhome (MH). At my age I do not want to invest as much money as it would take to purchase a new motorhome so I have ruled that out for me.
I have talked on several occasions with the people at Cruise America and have visited the larger MH dealers in the area and looked at their inventory. I am trying to compare apples to apples but that is not easy. One thing is abundantly clear is a great disparity in price upfront. I looked at a 2009 Majestic 28A at CA. It had mileage in the 140K range. I looked at several other 28 foot class C MH on other lots with much less mileage. Most of these seemed to have options that the CA unit did not have. Some were nice but some I don't feel I need being that I used to own a MH.
Now here is what I am fighting with myself about. The CA MH was in the $27K range as far as price. Most of the other ones on other lots where in the $45K to as high as $65K range. Now using the lowest price MH and comparing it to the CA motorhome that would be $18K difference. Both are the same year, been in the sun, rain, snow what ever for the same time. Either could be abused in many ways. The local lots told me that they would give me the maintenance records they have on their MHs but they would only be as good as the former owner had kept them. All places told me something like. "No need to worry, we have gone over the MH with our staff and everything has been brought up to standard and is in great working order".
Sooooo. I am asking myself is it really worth at least $18K to have less mileage? As far as the coach is concerned, I will spend hours inspecting every part of it. If I can not look at the roof and test everything on the MH I will walk away and go somewhere else. In any place I buy a used motorhome I will buy the extended warranty on the frame, and I feel I am capable of fixing just about anything on the coach part of the MH. Just for curiosity sake, I asked my mechanic friend who works on cars and trucks how much, in ballpark terms, would it be to replace the engine and transmission and he told me between 5 and 6K. Well within the $18K margin.
I am ready to buy now, but I am in the middle of an extensive and costly home remodel/refresh and I do not want a MH tempting me to stop working on the house and go camping so I have time to investigate and listen to the learned folks here on this forum.
I have talked on several occasions with the people at Cruise America and have visited the larger MH dealers in the area and looked at their inventory. I am trying to compare apples to apples but that is not easy. One thing is abundantly clear is a great disparity in price upfront. I looked at a 2009 Majestic 28A at CA. It had mileage in the 140K range. I looked at several other 28 foot class C MH on other lots with much less mileage. Most of these seemed to have options that the CA unit did not have. Some were nice but some I don't feel I need being that I used to own a MH.
Now here is what I am fighting with myself about. The CA MH was in the $27K range as far as price. Most of the other ones on other lots where in the $45K to as high as $65K range. Now using the lowest price MH and comparing it to the CA motorhome that would be $18K difference. Both are the same year, been in the sun, rain, snow what ever for the same time. Either could be abused in many ways. The local lots told me that they would give me the maintenance records they have on their MHs but they would only be as good as the former owner had kept them. All places told me something like. "No need to worry, we have gone over the MH with our staff and everything has been brought up to standard and is in great working order".
Sooooo. I am asking myself is it really worth at least $18K to have less mileage? As far as the coach is concerned, I will spend hours inspecting every part of it. If I can not look at the roof and test everything on the MH I will walk away and go somewhere else. In any place I buy a used motorhome I will buy the extended warranty on the frame, and I feel I am capable of fixing just about anything on the coach part of the MH. Just for curiosity sake, I asked my mechanic friend who works on cars and trucks how much, in ballpark terms, would it be to replace the engine and transmission and he told me between 5 and 6K. Well within the $18K margin.
I am ready to buy now, but I am in the middle of an extensive and costly home remodel/refresh and I do not want a MH tempting me to stop working on the house and go camping so I have time to investigate and listen to the learned folks here on this forum.
