Best ways to purchase a used RV?

Have you thought about borrowing a friend's Family Motorcoaching? I would work that and Craig's list first. A dealer would be last choice.

Matt

If you are really set on purchasing a 2006-2008 model, you absolutely do NOT want to attend an RV show. You also do NOT want to look at new campers on an RV dealership lot! Why?

If you do, you will see how much nicer, flashier, and advanced the NEW campers are and then if you come across a used one from the era your considering, you'll be nothing but disappointed and maybe even depressed with what you see. Flashy, glitzy, and NEW will prejudice your perceptions and when you find an older unit, it will just simply never measure up.

My advise... stay away from the RV shows, unless you are willing to inevitably accept a new one! Also, if going to a dealership, look ONLY at used RV's for this same reason. Because, once you see the new 'glitz', you'll want one!

those units are out there BUT there so darn nice people keep them. do a fifty state search ,and have fun. I like buying from private owner. I don,t think they lie as much as a sales person does.we have a 2007 on a sprinter and its the best we ever had.

At least the local RV show here is very, very much geared towards new buyers, more of a showcase of the local dealers than anything. I'm not sure there were any used units the last time I went. There was also a very large majority of towables vs. motorhomes, perhaps a hundered of the former and a half dozen of the latter all told.

Attending an RV show is a nice way of seeing, at least in a general way, what all is available (at least of the types of units they have on display) and what sorts of features are sensible and what ones make you immediately scratch your head. If looking to buy new, they can at least sometimes have good deals; that's probably more true the larger the show and the farther away the dealers come to it.

I would suggest having a relatively open mind towards units. Driving down the road, a longer RV is very little different handling than a shorter one. I'm much more conscious of the eight foot plus width of my class C than the 32' length of it. Do also bear in mind that your small children will not stay this small for too much longer. (Length does, of course, make a difference when maneuvering in tight places or trying to fit into small camp sites. Somewhere around 18' or so there's a jump from fitting into a single parking space to needing two end-to-end if you're not towing, but once you need to find the double space another five or ten or so feet doesn't make that much harder.)

theoldwizard1 wrote:

Lady_Katie wrote:
That being said, I kind of have my sights set on the Winnebago View (2006 - 2008 model), but I'm only seeing a handful of these across the entire country, so I'm not sure how realistic it would be to look for a specific model.

That was just prior to and in the middle of the Recession ! The RV industry all but dried up and blew away.

Sale probably did not pick up into 2010-2012, maybe even later.

Good point!

Lady_Katie wrote:
That being said, I kind of have my sights set on the Winnebago View (2006 - 2008 model), but I'm only seeing a handful of these across the entire country, so I'm not sure how realistic it would be to look for a specific model.

That was just prior to and in the middle of the Recession ! The RV industry all but dried up and blew away.

Sale probably did not pick up into 2010-2012, maybe even later.