Purchase from dealer or private party?

EricGT wrote:
Personally I would prefer to purchase private party.
As particular as I am, I highly doubt I will find exactly what I want within 150 miles. So a dealer warranty is pretty well useless when the dealership is 1500 miles away. Heck I am actually excited to take the family on vacation next year when we go to pick up our new to us class A. Honestly we will be highly disappointed if we find something nice in the northeast. We have our fingers crossed for Texas, Florida, Georiga, etc. ;)

But I do not trust dealerships and feel a private party RV is typically a better unit. Think about it this way...if I had a dirty old clunker do I want to try to sell this unit privately or merely take what I can get on a trade in?
I'd be embarrassed to privately sell a smelly, dirty motorhome to someone one on one. The condition of the RV is a reflection of me. Trading in to a stealership...who cares.

Plus dealerships typically know very little about the RV including how many owners, how it was used, how it was taken care of, etc.

Dealer or private all comes down to the knowledge of the buyer. Your buying the unit. I could pick a decent unit on a dealers lot just as well as I could in a driveway.
I'll take whatever info or history I can, but in the end its not about trust but about a keen eye and the knowledge to know what you are looking at.
I'm particular enough at this point that I don't want the unit that someone else has someone else has equipped and spec'd.
I want it just the way I personally spec'd it. Therefore I factory ordered it that way.
Yes I pay a new price, but I get a decent deal because the dealer has an easy sale and doesn't have to inventory the unit.
I keep my units a long time and don't really worry about depreciation.
I get value out of my unit by using it, it is not an investment.

I would never buy new from a dealer. Not cars, or anything big. Nor would i finance anything. the depreciation is more than the interest. There are a lot of good rigs in the private sector. Look on line at craigs list and others. Research the best brands. All of them get their appliances from the same dealers. And they can all have parts replaced. You can find some one to check it out if needed. I bought a 97 Excel 28 ft for 6500 and paid cash. Been in it for two years and have 300 in repairs. Like I said NO to new...

Personally I would prefer to purchase private party.
As particular as I am, I highly doubt I will find exactly what I want within 150 miles. So a dealer warranty is pretty well useless when the dealership is 1500 miles away. Heck I am actually excited to take the family on vacation next year when we go to pick up our new to us class A. Honestly we will be highly disappointed if we find something nice in the northeast. We have our fingers crossed for Texas, Florida, Georiga, etc. ;)

But I do not trust dealerships and feel a private party RV is typically a better unit. Think about it this way...if I had a dirty old clunker do I want to try to sell this unit privately or merely take what I can get on a trade in?
I'd be embarrassed to privately sell a smelly, dirty motorhome to someone one on one. The condition of the RV is a reflection of me. Trading in to a stealership...who cares.

Plus dealerships typically know very little about the RV including how many owners, how it was used, how it was taken care of, etc.

MookieKat wrote:
Not if the new smell makes you ill.

They were all new at one time. The new smell doesn't last forever and will eventually dissipate,however the wrong color,floorplan or ancient decor will last forever

Not if the new smell makes you ill.

MookieKat wrote:
I can understand! 80% of them have had odors but we have seen some used ones that were clean smelling....but the floor plan was not to our liking.

Hopefully, we will find something suitable for us.

If saving money is your goal used will always win out.

If getting the RV you want with the exact floorplan you want,equipped precisely the way you want it including interior decor and colors than buying new is the way to go.
Buying used may net savings but there will always be some compromise involved vs. a new unit.
Based on all the post maybe the OP does not know exactly what he wants which voids any advantage of buying new.
I can certainly say I would prefer to deal with a new smell vs. the compromises of buying used.

I can understand! 80% of them have had odors but we have seen some used ones that were clean smelling....but the floor plan was not to our liking.

Hopefully, we will find something suitable for us.

Every used TT we looked at smelled worse than the new one we ended up with.. Cigarette smell, wet dog smell, musty smell, poo smell..... The list goes on...

Our new TT did have formaldehyde smell in it, but after a week of airing out, it was fine (I told you my story in one of your original posts about new trailer smell.. ;) )

So, IMO, if you find a good used unit that does not smell of the things I experienced, call yourself lucky and it will probably be a good deal... But, after the first dozen smelly used units we went thru, new was all we could deal with..

Good luck!

Mitch

We bought our current rig from a local (30 miles away) private party. The deal couldn't have been smoother.

The sellers were the original owners from new and were having to sell for medical reasons. Their asking price was about $8K under NADA and they were comfortable with it. It tunrned out to be their remaining balance on the home equity loan they had raised to buy it 8 years previously.

We financed it the same way. It was in very good shape, with only 12,000 miles on it at 8 years old. The generator had 48 hours on the meter. We've since put another 5000 miles on it and another 15 hours on the generator.

We did put new tires on it, as it was still wearing the OEM tires Ford had put on the chassis in 2001! Apart from a couple of self-inflicted dings, it still looks good. We get those fixed and the generator running again, it'll be as good as when we bought it. We did have to replace the fridge this season. The dreaded sulfur dust showed up at the flue pipe.

We'll probably sell it on after a couple more seasons, as it's getting a bit expensive to run, with gas and CG fees both going steadily up and retirement funds going slowly down.

Thank you!!