Which is cheaper - new or 3-year old over 8 years?

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Using the NADA guides for new and used RV's you will find that for any particular model, the difference between a new 2014 coach and a similar model 2011 unit is going to give the approximate deprciation, which for a $250,000 coach is about $125,000. IN other words, a three year old coach is worth about 1/2 for what the MSRP was when new.
Now, looking around the country, you can still find "brand new", untitled coaches from 2011 that are selling for 40-50% off of MSRP, with a new coach warranty. Naturally they have been sitting but you will still get a warranty whereas a used 2011 will be out of warranty.

Yes, but if you apply the typical 20-30% discount on a new unit, the actual depreciation is much less. I've been browsing for specific used models in rvt.com and rvtrader.com and learned that the difference between a new unit (with discounts) is no where near twice the cost of a 3-year old unit.

A 2011 model that's still new? Yikes. I wonder how well the motor works on those units, especially if they have been siting at the same spot all the time.

Using the NADA guides for new and used RV's you will find that for any particular model, the difference between a new 2014 coach and a similar model 2011 unit is going to give the approximate deprciation, which for a $250,000 coach is about $125,000. IN other words, a three year old coach is worth about 1/2 for what the MSRP was when new.
Now, looking around the country, you can still find "brand new", untitled coaches from 2011 that are selling for 40-50% off of MSRP, with a new coach warranty. Naturally they have been sitting but you will still get a warranty whereas a used 2011 will be out of warranty.

Aridon wrote:
Used is always better in that time frame. The depreciation scales on these things are out of whack the first few years. Then they even out a bit as it gets older.

The kicker on older coaches is once they get to around 6 years old they get a bit hard to find financing on. So that limits your resale market considerably on the older, but still expensive units. Where someone can show up a dealer and easily get financing on a new coach or couple of year old one for 300k or more when you hit the used market and look at a 7 or 8 year old 100k (same coach lets pretend) you might need all cash.

In the end, you are always better off buying used. Plenty of quality used coaches out there with buyers looking to sell. Biggest issue is most of them are upside down on big loans.

Financing is not an issue since we are looking to go full-timing and we are going to be selling our house. If we can't get a good interest rate on a loan, we will just pay cash and invest the rest.

Looks like a new unit will cost around $180k-$200k after discounts, while a 3-year old slightly used units will cost around $120-$140k for similar units. The difference appears to be around $60k and I'm sure some of that will go away since more repairs will be needed on a 3-year old unit over the following 8-years and both units will be worth something when we are done full-timing so the difference will be even smaller. I'm trying to figure out how much savings are we talking about by going used. Looks like it amounts to $200-300/month difference over the ownership period of the MH which is less than what I was expecting.

Am I overlooking at something here?

Used is always better in that time frame. The depreciation scales on these things are out of whack the first few years. Then they even out a bit as it gets older.

The kicker on older coaches is once they get to around 6 years old they get a bit hard to find financing on. So that limits your resale market considerably on the older, but still expensive units. Where someone can show up a dealer and easily get financing on a new coach or couple of year old one for 300k or more when you hit the used market and look at a 7 or 8 year old 100k (same coach lets pretend) you might need all cash.

In the end, you are always better off buying used. Plenty of quality used coaches out there with buyers looking to sell. Biggest issue is most of them are upside down on big loans.

I guess I'm indirectly asking the difference in maintenance cost between a new model and a 3-year old model if kept for 8 years or longer. At what point, does DP start accumulate significant repair cost?

As a comparison, if I intend to own a car for 8 years or longer, I would just buy it new, rather than getting a 3-year old used model. Not sure how it compares vs Class A DP...

Acei wrote:
The title says all - which is cheaper overall in terms of total ownership cost over around 8 years? (which obviously should include the depreciation cost, maintenance/repair costs and the residual value at the end).

I'm looking at a low-end Diesel pusher, around 35ft and a new model seems to go for around $200-240k MSRP.

As long as a unit is nice and well kept, used is always going to be cheaper over the short or long term. One must remember that the highest cost of ownership is in the depreciation per mile and depreciation does decrease with age.

NO ONE KNOWS>
BUY THE ONE YOU LIKE.

Mike Hohnstein wrote:
Cheaper? Really? Not when you are talking class A.

Obviously, both are not going to be cheap. But I don't want to ignore costs completely either.

What I'm asking here, is which is CHEAPER. I fully recognize that going class A is not going to be the best investment for my money.

Cheaper? Really? Not when you are talking class A.