I know the answer BUT I cannot believe that these Rv places that take in an RV or buy one at auction don't pay the lot person 1/2 hour with a simple set of hand tools and simply go through the RV and tighten ,adjust and straighten up stuff..Unbelievable when we bought our new to us 2001 GS Sport a couple years back we had two pages of items we found that needed attention. Once they had the repairs done we did another walk through and once we both were satisfied, we signed on the dotted line.They don't want to put a dime more into it and are counting on the buyer will miss things that are wrong with it and then SOLD AS IS.. And when the people bring it back they just show them the paper work ! SOLD AS IS.Do to my back we sold the GS and now are looking for another MH with a bed instead of climbing up top over the cab. Today we did a 300+ mile trek looking at MH's both new and used.Every single used one we looked at from a 2015 Minnie Winnie with 17K miles on the OD had everything from the coach battery connections completely covered in corrosion, to fake panels between cub-bards being taped with of all things Blue painters tape and when you opened the doors the tape was sticking out everywhere , ac/heater vents screws hanging by a few threads from falling out. Cabinets hinge screws loose and the doors are crooked etc The older the MH the worse things got . I could understand a private party somewhat being like mentioned above maybe ?!, but an RV dealership doesn't even have the integrity to even halfway try . This was from big name outfit RV dealerships, not just the little ones with 20-30 RVs on their lots... Yeah I know a lot me included like to tinker and fix things , but NOT at what prices they are asking for these things tho !!

Its been discussed before. Something to the effect that RV dealers don't want to put more money into them than they must. They don't want to fix a cabinet door and then have some Looky-Lew come and rip it open again... then fix it and have someone else, then fix it and have someone else... etc. The same argument goes for cleaning. They figure no sense cleaning the RV and have a family wander through with muddy shoes and kids with grubby fingers. The other argument is some RV's don't sell as quickly and get taken to auctions. The dealer won't recoup any money he spent fixing/cleaning when it gets sold for wholesale.Another argument is the cost of having an employee go through each and every RV after each and every customer showing and fixing things that get damaged.Again, the argument is that once someone puts money down then the dealer will spend money cleaning and fixing whatever is agreed upon.I don't agree with any of those arguments, but that is how they have been explained to me. It seems to me that people would be willing to pay a little more for a used RV from a dealer if they walked in and it was clean and in tip-top shape... otherwise why not buy it from a private seller for thousands less?

I,D rather buy from a private owner MOST take better care of there rv,s . a dealer could care less about a used unit, and if a sucker comes buy they take advantage of them.

Sad but that's the way it is. It's best to assume nothing works and make sure everything is tested before signing the last piece of paper that makes it yours. Make a detailed list of what needs fixing and verify it was taken care of.

My experience is that RV dealers are flat lazy. How hard is it to take an RV in trade, for example, and spend some energy to clean it up before potential buyers come to look at it. One major turnoff is not keeping water in the p-traps and then getting a foul smell that turns away buyers. Loosing a sale over something so minor. Show me another business that doesn't make their product look as good as possible. Lazy.

Part of the logic/mentality is they want the consumer to bypass those dirty old used units and buy new.They don;'t want the used units to be too attractive to a customer looking to buy new.When I was buying none of the used units were appealing. I'm sure they were left in their dilapidated state intentionally.

When Your At The RV Dealership Looking To Buy | Good Sam Community

17 Replies

guidry
Explorer II
Dec 28, 2014
I agree that if you want to sell something, you clean it and fix what is broken (or at least deduct the price of the fix). I know my brother bought a used car that had just been traded in and the dealer wanted to clean it but my brother told them he would buy it dirty and saved quite a bit of money on that sale because the dealer didn't spend any money on it.

So if I saw a dirty RV I would offer a lot less than asking price, as long as I inspected it and deducted my time fixing and cleaning from the dealers price!
jplante4
Explorer II
Dec 28, 2014
Yet another reason to get an independent inspector to look over a prospective purchase.
Lantley
Nomad
Dec 28, 2014
Part of the logic/mentality is they want the consumer to bypass those dirty old used units and buy new.
They don;'t want the used units to be too attractive to a customer looking to buy new.
When I was buying none of the used units were appealing. I'm sure they were left in their dilapidated state intentionally.
azdryheat
Explorer
Dec 28, 2014
My experience is that RV dealers are flat lazy.

How hard is it to take an RV in trade, for example, and spend some energy to clean it up before potential buyers come to look at it. One major turnoff is not keeping water in the p-traps and then getting a foul smell that turns away buyers. Loosing a sale over something so minor.

Show me another business that doesn't make their product look as good as possible. Lazy.
wildtoad
Explorer II
Dec 28, 2014
Sad but that's the way it is. It's best to assume nothing works and make sure everything is tested before signing the last piece of paper that makes it yours. Make a detailed list of what needs fixing and verify it was taken care of.
midnightsadie
Explorer II
Dec 28, 2014
I,D rather buy from a private owner MOST take better care of there rv,s . a dealer could care less about a used unit, and if a sucker comes buy they take advantage of them.
spoon059
Explorer III
Dec 28, 2014
Its been discussed before. Something to the effect that RV dealers don't want to put more money into them than they must. They don't want to fix a cabinet door and then have some Looky-Lew come and rip it open again... then fix it and have someone else, then fix it and have someone else... etc. The same argument goes for cleaning. They figure no sense cleaning the RV and have a family wander through with muddy shoes and kids with grubby fingers. The other argument is some RV's don't sell as quickly and get taken to auctions. The dealer won't recoup any money he spent fixing/cleaning when it gets sold for wholesale.

Another argument is the cost of having an employee go through each and every RV after each and every customer showing and fixing things that get damaged.

Again, the argument is that once someone puts money down then the dealer will spend money cleaning and fixing whatever is agreed upon.

I don't agree with any of those arguments, but that is how they have been explained to me. It seems to me that people would be willing to pay a little more for a used RV from a dealer if they walked in and it was clean and in tip-top shape... otherwise why not buy it from a private seller for thousands less?

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When Your At The RV Dealership Looking To Buy

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