Every one's experience is different. I prefer to purchase new because I don't like buying other people's problems. Most people, even the most honest of folks, aren't going to tell you about the horror stories they encountered or how they treated their vehicle poorly.
We purchased our Motorhome new in 2009 while Jayco was having a nationwide sale. The MSRP was $92,500 and we paid $67,700 for the rig (pre-tax and other fees). 6 years later, we are still above water on our loan and will stay that way. We've had a few problems under warranty; Jayco offers a 2 year warranty. Haven't had any trouble with the Chassis at all. We had a handful of problems over the summer, but only one of them I'd blame on Jayco. Everything else was failures with other manufacturer's products like the Converter/Charger or just general wear and tear, like the house battery.
The years leading up to purchasing our Motorhome, we searched the Used market and as you are finding the price of Used did not seem appealing. We were looking at 3 to 5 year old small Class Cs, 27' or smaller and private sellers and dealers were asking $50k for some units. To get what we thought was reasonable prices, we had to look in the 7 - 10 year old range. We were not interested in rigs that age.
We bought this Motorhome with the intention of keeping it for a long time. At the end of the month will mark 6 years and we plan to keep it until the kids move out, probably another 6 - 8 years. The loan will be paid off by then and we'll probably trade it in for a mid-range Class A or possibly a Super C.
-Michael
