Newbie planning first purchase
Hi, My wife and I are planning to purchase a Class A diesel in the next month, to use as a part-time liveaboard for work. Given the potential sensitivity of this subject - and I certainly don't ...
Forum Discussion
The first thing I did 4 years ago when looking was to get everything written on the subject of motor home quality I could. I read this and a couple other forums. I also just googled some brands. You can get a lot of information by just googling Tiffin, Country Coach, Newmar, Fleetwood, and so on (BTW I just picked those names that is not my list of quality coaches) Four years ago I found that the most complete information by far was from a group called the RV Consumer Group. Things may have changed in four years, but if I was going to buy a coach today that is the first place I would go. They are at RVCG.org - join and then buy their compilation CD set that gives the basic statistics of thousands of RVs. They do also give quality ratings. I found their ratings very accurate.
I also spent a huge amount of time following sold's on ebay. What something actually sells for gives you and idea of what you should be paying. There is also the NADA assesment of value. The banks do pay attention to the NADA values. I paid substantially under wholesale NADA for my coach. But when I bought it the Dow was 7,000 and not 15,000. Today you likely will have to pay at least wholesale to get a good coach.
Most important by far is your perception of the coach. The motors and transmissions generators and so on are the same. Chassis are not. One made specifically for a motor home is better. People will argue this depending on what they have, but every writer I looked at giving an educated opinion on this said purpose built chassis is better. From there just look in the corners when people normally don't look and see how well it is built. And of course how comfortable you are driving it. By all means!!! Do not buy a coach that does not handle well BEFORE you put money on the table. Do not write to this forum saying you just bought a coach and it handles terrible, "what should I do". The answer is you should not have bought it till the previous owner got the problems fixed to your satisfaction.
Have fun. I did. I spent two years in research and still love our coach. Drives like a dream.
I also spent a huge amount of time following sold's on ebay. What something actually sells for gives you and idea of what you should be paying. There is also the NADA assesment of value. The banks do pay attention to the NADA values. I paid substantially under wholesale NADA for my coach. But when I bought it the Dow was 7,000 and not 15,000. Today you likely will have to pay at least wholesale to get a good coach.
Most important by far is your perception of the coach. The motors and transmissions generators and so on are the same. Chassis are not. One made specifically for a motor home is better. People will argue this depending on what they have, but every writer I looked at giving an educated opinion on this said purpose built chassis is better. From there just look in the corners when people normally don't look and see how well it is built. And of course how comfortable you are driving it. By all means!!! Do not buy a coach that does not handle well BEFORE you put money on the table. Do not write to this forum saying you just bought a coach and it handles terrible, "what should I do". The answer is you should not have bought it till the previous owner got the problems fixed to your satisfaction.
Have fun. I did. I spent two years in research and still love our coach. Drives like a dream.
