"Don't Buy New"
I notice a lot of you say not to buy a brand new rv unit. I'm "assuming" this is because it takes a while to shake all the right-out-of-the-factory bugs out of it and locate all the problems associat...
Forum Discussion
I would buy new if I could. I did buy a 1998 travel trailer that looked new inside and out and very clean, used by an older couple just for vacations. Everything works great...except the oven. The oven door doesn't close completely and needs new hinges. But, of course, they don't manufacture them any longer and no one has them. For lacking a couple of door hinges, I have to buy a new oven!
Here's what I was told in an email from Atwood: "Atwood only offers repair parts for any particular range / cooktop etc. for an estimated 7 years after the model is discontinued being manufactured. So for example they will offer 100 hinges for your oven door which is their estimation of repair parts needed for the seven year repair cycle. If those 100 are used in a time span that is half of the seven years, they still will not manufacture more and the price of a part increases substantially as their stock decreases. This is why a $2.00 replacement burner knob now sells for $50.00 in some cases."
I had an older RV before this one and the discontinued and impossible to find replacements were a very expensive headache. Repairs added up, when they could be made at all. This is planned obsolescence that you deal with all the time with used RVs. At least with a new model, you don't have to worry for several years about parts being available after the warranty wears off or have so many hassles with repairs.
And just knowing you are the first one to use it really would be nice! And I'd like to have exactly what I want instead of settling for something less than you want. Well, maybe some day...
Here's what I was told in an email from Atwood: "Atwood only offers repair parts for any particular range / cooktop etc. for an estimated 7 years after the model is discontinued being manufactured. So for example they will offer 100 hinges for your oven door which is their estimation of repair parts needed for the seven year repair cycle. If those 100 are used in a time span that is half of the seven years, they still will not manufacture more and the price of a part increases substantially as their stock decreases. This is why a $2.00 replacement burner knob now sells for $50.00 in some cases."
I had an older RV before this one and the discontinued and impossible to find replacements were a very expensive headache. Repairs added up, when they could be made at all. This is planned obsolescence that you deal with all the time with used RVs. At least with a new model, you don't have to worry for several years about parts being available after the warranty wears off or have so many hassles with repairs.
And just knowing you are the first one to use it really would be nice! And I'd like to have exactly what I want instead of settling for something less than you want. Well, maybe some day...
