Assessing RV Value

Huntindog wrote:
Never trade in an RV. Unlike the auto industry there is no reliable "book" price. For new or used. The only way to know what you are really paying for an RV is to pay cash. And the only way to know what you are recieving for your old RV is to sell it for cash.

I will not knock the RV dealers much for this, as they deal with the same uncertainties in a trade in situation as well. If they misjudge what they can sell for your trade, then they stand to lose money on the deal. Obviously if that happens too often, they can't stay in buisiness.

When you trade in and then buy a new vehicle, the dealer is making a bunch of dough. If he has a trailer for 30k you most likely could bargain that down 3 grand. If you trade and he says Ill give you 6000 grand for your trade he is deducting that 6 G from the 30, not the 27k number, so you are getting 3K for your trade. Trades are deducted from the sticker price, not a negotiated price.

Huntindog wrote:
Never trade in an RV. Unlike the auto industry there is no reliable "book" price. For new or used. The only way to know what you are really paying for an RV is to pay cash. And the only way to know what you are recieving for your old RV is to sell it for cash.

I will not knock the RV dealers much for this, as they deal with the same uncertainties in a trade in situation as well. If they misjudge what they can sell for your trade, then they stand to lose money on the deal. Obviously if that happens too often, they can't stay in buisiness.

Well, that all depends on what someone else will pay and how much effort you wish to find that person. :)

For me, I traded my 16 year old 722F Prowler TT that was in great shape and cleaned up pretty nice for what I thought I'd get maybe 2-3 grand for.. Dealer offered me $6,500 for it sight unseen for my 2019 Rockwood that I feel I got for a heck of deal too!

Anyway, I had folks knock on my door for YEARS offering to buy my old Prowler and I would just say, "it's not for sale". I didn't want to go thru the hassle of all that, and at the time, it was all the TT I needed..

After the deal was made, I looked at the local dealers web site and they had the old Prowler pic with a "Sold" label in in and the price was $9500.. I don't know what they ended up with, but I was still happy with my trade.. :)

I'm not a sales person, so I just was not comfortable with offering this to the general public, where most would be just "looking", or someone trying to rip me off..

Anyway, that was back in 2019, so dunno what it's like now, but I still detest dealing with the general public in that manner, so trading was a win/win in my case...

Your rig will be worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it.. Dealer, dude off the street, whoever...

Online or other samples of similar rigs values are all fine and dandy.. It's the guy or offer that you feel comfortable with at that time is what you are going to have to decide.

To me, towing my old Prowler into the dealer, getting $6500 trade and driving out with the new Rockwood was the deal for me.. Your mileage may vary.. ;)

Mitch

Look on internet and price yours based on what others are selling theirs for. Sold a Honda,Jeep and class C for prices the naysayers said "you will never get that"
Used are drawing great prices. Dealers make enough off the sale of the new one. You are basically giving your trade in to them. Did they give you a huge discount off the new price before figuring in your trade? No, of course not. Dealer/stealer same thing. :B

If ya trade it in, 99% of the time it’s a sucker deal anyway, so actual value is largely irrelevant unless you’re actually selling it.
In which case, look up the prices of others the same or similar and price accordingly how you see fit.

I looked at nada.com to see their values. Then googled my model and year to see same units for sale and asking prices nation wide. Those prices were all over the map. I used the nada “average retail” value (mine was in very good condition) and listed it on Facebook Marketplace and sold it for full asking price in two days. Ad was limited to a chosen local distance making it easy to show to potential buyers and then meet the buyer at their bank to get a bank issued check. Quick, simple, and safe money transfer.

Had over 20 more inquiries before I could mark it sold on FB.

Not sure what you expected trading in?

While you make think the dealer was "low balling", in reality they must offer less than what they think it may sell for. Otherwise they would go out of business in a hurry.

Yes, the dealer "makes money" on the sale of a new unit to you, but they must in turn make money off the sale of the unit you traded in.

Even a "lightly" or "gently" used RV isn't worth as much as what you paid for it. Used is used, it will never be new again and the price that someone is willing to pay for it isn't going to be close to what you paid for it.

RVs are a lot like boats, insert money and flush..

If you want to get more than what the dealer offered, then try your hand at selling it yourself at the price you value it for and see if you get any takers.

Have you tried to sell privately? In this market and with predictions of what will happen in the next year, I would.

You can look up RV values on NADA. That is what I looked at when buying my RV. I would assume with the current market no source is really that accurate. A dealer needs to make money. Guessing that RV values are going to drop over the next year or so they are going to low ball you just so they can make a profit should the value drop and they can't sell it for "todays" value. I would look at Craigslist, other sources where people are selling a similar year make, etc to see what they are asking. Expect a trade to be much lower than that value. You can try to sell it outright but you take a tax hit on the new trailer and you might not be able to sell it quickly. If you do, good for you.