Looking at some Airstreams
Wondering what percentage off on MSRP is typical for this kind of trailer? Looking at something like a 25' 2013 flying cloud model.
Or is it best to buy used?
Or is it best to buy used?
Forum Discussion
28 Replies
GeoBoy wrote:
My wife's uncle has inherited a small old Airstream and whenever we talk RV's he says how great Airstreams are. So, I really looked at buying an Airstream. They are poorly or not insulated at all, due to their shape storage is lacking at best, on the Airstream forums you hear complaints of people towing down a dirt road only to open the door to their trailer and find it full of dust, due to poor sealing practices. I believe that the old Airstreams were well made but they are not perfect, lack of storage and insulation just 2 factors.
As far as a discount take the suggested retail less freight and deduct 25% and don't pay a penny more.
Good luck.
:) Hi, sounds like an isolated case to me; Mine doesn't fill up with dirt and has done quite well in cold weather.
gmw photos wrote:
From what I have seen and experienced regarding this whole world of RV's and I feel this applies to Airstream and all the other brands as well, this whole "MSRP" is pretty much a bogus number anyway that gets tossed out there so the sales team can play games with "discounts".
Possibly a better way to look at the whole cost issue is to find the trailer that fits your needs and desires, try to make the best deal you can, and then decide in your own mind if it's worth it or not. If it is, buy it and go have fun. Life is short, and after you have initially spent the money on it, you can move past that part of it, and get to the part where you are camped on the beach or in the mountains, sitting outside in the morning with a cup of coffee in your hands. At those moments, you won't even think about or care what you paid for it on delivery day.
Did I mention life is short ?
Very well said!
WoodGluegemsworld wrote:
I'd like to know what family car or SUV can easily pull most Airstreams.
I know someone who pulls a 25' with a Cadillac sedan w/ the suicide doors.
WoodGlueSlowmover wrote:
Really, . . . on this planet? "Lifestyle" is itself one of those bogus marketing terms folks "think" has vailidity? Care to define it? And then how it is supposed to apply?
An Airstream -- like its' upmarket cousins now gone (Avion, Silver Streak and Streamline) -- was designed to be pulled by the family car. And last for a generation or more, not just a few years. A higher initial cost, yes, but a long-term lower cost in operation and ownership.
Quality has its' price. So for those who'd rather not throw away money on a disposable travel trailer but buy one when the children are small and be used until one is literally too old to travel by car anymore, an all-aluminum, aerodynamic trailer with fully independent suspension is a fairly easy choice.
For those for whom a trailer, any RV, will be used just a few years (and toss away tens of thousands in some instances) any brand of plastic white box with terrible road performance and high horsepower demand will apparently satisfy.
Don't get too far out with the H-D motorcycle analogy. A technically inferior bike. All sizzle and no steak. Obsolete. A genuine waste of money except for the criminal cachet which attachs to it. T-shirts, tattoos and felonies . . something to which to aspire?
Americans don't individually take home as much of GNP as they once did. And a travel trailer , the upmarket versions, that once cost as much as the average American house, no longer have the market they did in the RV golden era of the 1960's. Women going to work fulltime and less time off for families, etc, changed the market. Not just that fuel that is no longer cheap. Plenty of demographic changes. For travelling continent-wide this was the TT to have before truck and airline "de-regulation" (read: profit confined to fewer hands).
Airstream was also doomed before being bought to be the flagship of an RV conglomerate. Changes to keep costs down, yes, and no longer a leader in tech innovation. But there is no other leader. Nor is there any better TT to pull. With a tow vehicle that won't break the bank like a $1/mile pickup in daily, year-round use a family car or minivan can pull nearly any of them.
As with any quality brand there are those for whom cool and shiny is enough. Planety of laughable pickups out there --lifted, bechromed and fitted with offroad tires that all together make it an even worse choice for towing than originally (already the least safe vehicle one could buy) -- so one might say that those who intentionally waste their families money buying one cheap trailer after another to be pulled by a too-expensive tow vehicle are the ones seduced by marketing. Lifestyle.
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One of the best essays on Airstreams and upscale TT's value of ownership, etc - that I've ever read! Excellent!
WoodGlue- Well, let's talk about "throw away" for a little bit. It is often pointed out that many old Airstreams are still on the road today. And it is true. But the real question is "why" ? Is it because it is a superior product that is designed and built to stand the test of time ? Or is more a testament to the perseverance and dedication to the marque that so many of these owners represent ?
I'll leave it to each person to decide where it all fits in.
By the way....many folks say that Japanese bikes are "throw-aways". See that little 929 sportbike up there in the earlier post ? I have 85,000 miles on it. And a whole bunch of those miles have been at trackdays at various roadrace tracks. I have not babied it, but I have maintained it meticulously. It's not ready to be thrown away yet.
It sits in the garage right now, next to a BMW K-RS.....the BMW has 144,000 miles on it. It's also not ready to be disposed of.
I suspect a lot of what gets thrown away, campers included, is because folks did not bother to, or know how to, take care of them.
As to the Airstreams....I too would like to have one. Have looked at them, but honestly,"the one" I want....they don't make. My little white box camper ( funfinder ) is 19' long, and has a nice big slideout. I really, really love the slideout. Now then, if Airstream would build a 20' trailer with a slideout.....I would have to seriously look at that. Probably not gonna happen though. Slowmover wrote:
Don't get too far out with the H-D motorcycle analogy. A technically inferior bike. All sizzle and no steak. Obsolete. A genuine waste of money except for the criminal cachet which attachs to it. T-shirts, tattoos and felonies . . something to which to aspire?
HD isn't like that anymore.
My FIL is a 40 + year employee of HD.
He says that the criminal element isn't a part of their buissiness anymore. They have been priced out of the market.
Doctors, Lawyers, CEOs, even movie stars and rock stars, etc. are the new HD customers. They sell a lot of fake tattoos and leather so that these upstanding people can "look" the image at a weekend rally etc.
You would be very surprised at just who is riding HDs nowadays.
And as far as inferior technology goes.. Not true anymore as well. They had to improve just because of the emissions laws.
40 years from now the Harley will still be running and likely be worth more than it was new... Not many if any of the other brands can say that.
They are the "throw away" brands...
As for the Airstreams, I have looked at them, and I find them too small inside for my tastes. The very shape that makes them tow so well, and efficiently is a detriment to the interior space.
Obviously, others may have different opinions and priorities, which I respect.- Airstreams are pretty much a sign of American rise and fall, and the fact that we live in an age whose motto is, "they don't make them like they used to."
gmw photos wrote:
....Hey !!! I wanna be a criminal too ! Oh dag nabit....wrong kind of bike...and no tattoos either......just my luck.
It's easy to get a tattoo. And, for that reason you can buy another bike and have 2.gmw photos wrote:
....Hey !!! I wanna be a criminal too ! Oh dag nabit....wrong kind of bike...and no tattoos either......just my luck.
Now that's more like it .... :)I take offense at the idea that owning a Harley means your a criminal. I don't have one but, have a some of friends that do and none of them are criminals. Also, they may indeed be not as nice as some other bikes but, there built here in the USA. And, I know the guy that works for us rides his a lot and has no problems with it. But, I fully admit I know nothing about bikes.
I totally agree. The person that wrote this is insensitive and wrong. Harleys are a lifestyle motorcycle and that has nothing to do with criminal.
