How old is too old?

Our 2004 Country Coach has 110,000 miles on it and is still going strong.

I have always believed it is best to get one from a private owner within 5 years as they are still eligible for extended warrantees.

I bought my Overland when it was 13 yrs old. It is now 17 yrs old.

I do a lot of the work my self with the exception of major things like dash a/c rebuild, Allison transmission computer problems, manifold gasket replacement and rear end differential replacement. I have $10-12 k in these items. I have fixed countless other items - I pretty much am working on it constantly. Some of the items like slide repair and Big Foot leveler repair would have been quite costly in labor. If it goes to the shop I expect it to be a min. of $1500.

My rig cost $36k, so the 50% estimate above is probably quite accurate.
But I could 't buy a rig of that quality for $55k, so I have no regrets and I enjoy doing the work.
If you don't do your own work it will cost double that not counting all the time taking it to the shop and waiting for a week before they work on it.

And remember you don't know something is broke most times until you are taking it on a trip. Shops can ruin a lot of vacations with the time to have them fix it.

My 2 cents worth.

CCIntrigue wrote:
We have a 10 year old Country Coach that's like new.

I have a 2002 S2000 with 43,000 miles that is also like new. Something like my sports car or your coach is what I hope to find.

Wayne

havasu wrote:
From my experience, when you buy an older MH you have an initial period and expense of 'fixing her up'. That could be 30%-50% of the purchase cost.

. . .

Just to put some numbers to this . . .

I was hoping to spend in the neighborhood of $50 – $60,000, up to maybe $80,000, for the initial purchase. With due diligence on my part before buying, I was hopeful that another $10,000 would easily take care of bringing it up to snuff.

Are you suggesting that I may need to put more like $15,000 to $24,000, or even as much as $40,000 into it for fix-up? Or were you thinking 30% to 50% of a much lower purchase price?

Wayne

We have a 10 year old Country Coach that's like new.

havasu wrote:
From my experience, when you buy an older MH you have an initial period and expense of 'fixing her up'. That could be 30%-50% of the purchase cost.

Assuming that you did everything right from the start, your 10 year expectancy is spot on.

Thinking that you can buy an older MH and just jump in and drive and not suffer a catastrophe or 2 is unrealistic :)

People generally sell MHs that have some issues, either declared or hidden.

X2

From my experience, when you buy an older MH you have an initial period and expense of 'fixing her up'. That could be 30%-50% of the purchase cost.

Assuming that you did everything right from the start, your 10 year expectancy is spot on.

Thinking that you can buy an older MH and just jump in and drive and not suffer a catastrophe or 2 is unrealistic :)

People generally sell MHs that have some issues, either declared or hidden.

If you plan to have most of the significant work done by others you'd better be prepared to empty some pretty deep pockets. These big toys can get expensive.

Obviously, buying an older rig saves you depreciation compared to buying new or near new. Newmar would be an excellent choice. If you focus on rigs over 10 years old, then Holiday Rambler and Monaco should be safe bets. Newer models of those rigs may or may not be as well built. Good luck.

Empty Nest, Soon wrote:
We're looking to buy a used motorhome (our first.) I'm leaning toward an older higher-end MH, such as Newmar, in order to get the features we would like within our budget.

I would like the MH we buy to last for 10 years and be reliable if we give it good care. I don't mind doing the simple maintenance items and repairs, but I'm not looking for MH renovation to become a hobby. I will probably hire all significant work done.

Right now, I have a reasonably good comfort level with buying a 10 or 12 year old Newmar or equivalent MH that has been cared for and is in good condition. I feel that it should last another 10 years without maintenance issues becoming enough of a problem to cause me to sell it. Is this a reasonable expectation? How old is too old before it figures to become too much of a pain in the backside?

Thanks.

Wayne

I have a 13 yr old Country Coach and there aint a thing wrong with it...!