new or used

[4x4ord]

I am thinking of purchasing a new 5th wheel and spending a couple months per year touring around. I still haven't nailed down exactly when, but likely in the next couple of years. I wrestle with buying a little lesser quality new one vs a high end slightly used one. Anyone regret buying new?

[FlatBroke]

Always bought new. Cost me a ton of money in allthose years. The one I have now was used. Great deal on an upper end unit. Never new again. But this is probably our last one any way.

[deleted-2]

All three of our coaches have been new.
We tried to buy a really nice used 2011 fifth wheel that looked as though no one had used it.
Missed out so we ended up buying a new 2012 for $2000.00 more than the used unit.

I'd go end of model year new because of the horrendous discounting that can be had.

[billmac]

Everyone has an opinion. Here is mine. I like to buy used vehicles that are clean and well maintained, if I can save a fair amount of money. I look for value. Unfortunately more often I cannot find that value and end up buying new.
I looked for over a year to find a 1 to 4 year old fiver at a value and ended up buying new. The new one took a year to get all the bugs worked out. I figure if I take my time, and am an informed buyer, I will be happy with my purchase.

[Allworth]

Consider your first purchase a "training trailer" and look for gently used. Let somebody else take the initial depreciation hit.

After a couple of years you will have a much better idea of what is important to YOU and what is just flash. Then look for a "permanent" trailer.

Keeping in mind that second and third trailers always seem to get bigger and heavier, there is no such thing as too much truck.

[Lantley]

I purchased new because I wanted the rig equipped exactly the way I wanted it vs. the way someone else wanted it.
I was more interested in the rig being to my specifications vs. saving money.
I do believe there is merit to buy a gently used high end model vs. a new mid range model. There is a decent amount to be saved in that scenario.
When talking mid range model new vs. used there is less of a difference in pricing and less margin for savings.

[dbbls]

I have bought two used 5er and had zero problems with them. I have bought two new ones and have had problems with both. The first one took me about 4 years to everything in order. Our current one is a year old and am still working on problems. The one major one is with the refrigerator and this could happen even in the highest quality unit. This problem has been addressed twice and it still is not fixed. If I was in the market for another one I would look at used higher end units.

[Cummins12V98]

4x4ord wrote:
I am thinking of purchasing a new 5th wheel and spending a couple months per year touring around. I still haven't nailed down exactly when, but likely in the next couple of years. I wrestle with buying a little lesser quality new one vs a high end slightly used one. Anyone regret buying new?

That is great, I thought you were getting the itch for a while!

We bought our Mobile Suites 4 years old. It was around 80k or more new and paid about 50K with tax. We can still after 20 months get our money minus taxes out of it. A lesser quality like Montana would be worth MUCH less now and will be worth much more less in the future. We still have a high end unit and we are really pleased with it!

[remoandiris]

Current 5er was used. One on order is new. I have no regrets either way. The used one was a learning experience. Didn't want to spend big bucks buying new since we didn't know if we'd like RVing. Well, we do and I want to take my bike, so the new one is a toyhauler. Either way, just use it and enjoy it.

[4x4ord]

Alley Fox wrote:
We purchased a "new" 2012 Arctic Fox last month for about 2/3 MSRP so we still got the factory warranty and traded in our well-traveled 10 year old AF that was needing some expensive repairs. It was a fifth wheel that someone special ordered but the deal didn't work out. I wouldn't have any qualms about buying a nice used RV, especially from a private party but this one came along and was what we were looking for.

You gotta love it when that happens. If I happen to stumble across a deal like that I might be buying sooner.

[Alley_Fox]

We purchased a "new" 2012 Arctic Fox last month for about 2/3 MSRP so we still got the factory warranty and traded in our well-traveled 10 year old AF that was needing some expensive repairs. It was a fifth wheel that someone special ordered but the deal didn't work out. I wouldn't have any qualms about buying a nice used RV, especially from a private party but this one came along and was what we were looking for.