How to buy a used toy hauler

CincyGus wrote:
Congrats on the trailer! On the point of your post, many just have to understand that large "markups" are the norm on such a large purchase of this type. I mean look at the $7000-$10000 off ad's on TV for trucks during truck month or whatever the marketing gimmick is every quarter.

These forums are full of people that negotiated 25%-30% off New trailers. Even have a few that if they are honest will tell you they traded in their trailer for about 60% of what they later saw it listed for on that dealer website.

So know that listed or MSRP is a number that no one expects anyone to pay for NEW or USED trailers. Many private owners are having a hard time coming to grips that they are upside down in a 15 year load of their trailer and it's worth about half what they owe on it. Some decide that they want a new trailer bad enough to trade it in, take the loss and move on. The smart ones list it, listen to offers for a while and sell it for somewhere between what the dealer offered and low retail.

I couldn't agree more. The market for these things is really screwed up. I ended up buying an older, larger, and heavier 5th wheel than I wanted, because that's what I found used and in good condition. Mine is a 1-owner unit, smells new, and so even though I will have to carefully go over a lot of details, it's a good canvass.

The entire RV market is broken. Dealers are delusional on used units. I wouldn't be surprised if they're listing them for 3 times what they own them for. I have no problem with people making a fair profit, but if someone is going to do business like that, I am skeptical of absolutely everything they represent about the product. I went to look at a camper locally that had a book value of about $9000. The guy told me he was "blowing it out" at $19,300 and wouldn't negotiate. I see now the same unit is for sale in the $18k range. I would have happily written him a check for the whole $9k and left with the unit that day, but our discussion indicated that he was looking for a willing sucker to part with his cash (or worse, to finance it with private money, since no bank will loan $19k for an asset worth $9k).