!

[GDS-3950BH]

! :S

[2012Coleman]

magicbus wrote:

GDS-3950BH wrote:
Just because you don't care does not mean other people on the board do not care. Why not just dump it in the ho-hum bucket when you first read the thread, and not even comment to begin with if you don't care?

Maybe you need to stop posting just to defend your original post and accept that other people have differing opinions. Until your last post (and now mine of course) the discussion was not personal, it was about RV sales.

Dave

Yes - sorry, meant no offense.

[magicbus]

GDS-3950BH wrote:
Just because you don't care does not mean other people on the board do not care. Why not just dump it in the ho-hum bucket when you first read the thread, and not even comment to begin with if you don't care?

Maybe you need to stop posting just to defend your original post and accept that other people have differing opinions. Until your last post (and now mine of course) the discussion was not personal, it was about RV sales.

Dave

[2oldman]

Lightning55 wrote:
As the Boomers age, they can't live the active lifestyle that they did when a little younger.

I hear that. I can barely manage to raise my solar panels.

[Lightning55]

Bipeflier wrote:
We older Baby Boomers are starting to slow down and not spend as much money, moving into retirement type homes instead of campers. Younger folks are not into camping. Given the demographics in the U.S. I suspect it is all downhill from here.

I agree. As the Boomers age, they can't live the active lifestyle that they did when a little younger.

[TomG2]

After 70 years, you would think we would recognize the impact of baby boomers. We built schools for them. We sized our power plants for them. We built subdivisions for them. We sold them a ton of RV's. Their time is about over for mass consumption. They are now exploding the health care industry. Follow the boomers and their money.

[monkey44]

Next generation will probably watch an RV start its engine, travel down the highway and thru the forests on their phone. No sense buying an RV when they can observe the travels in living color on a 3x5 screen. Life in a box.

Monkey predicts sales over the next year or two will drop significantly. Less people camping, less people retiring, more phones and I-pads ...

Fine with me, leaves more camp space for us old fogies!! 🙂

[Cloud_Dancer]

I care about PARTS availability. Without parts my Dutch Star will die.

[2012Coleman]

I'm really struggling to figure out why people with RV's would really care if sales figures are down. Every time I drive by the dealer I bought it from, I see a sea of RV's and it looks like the RIVA data is dealer purchases - number of units shipped per year, and not consumer purchases. So dealerships have a lot of stock - so what? It's winter isn't it? I've got the one I'm happy with, and will continue to use it - this one goes in the Ho-Hum bucket.

[pianotuna]

schlep1967 wrote:

Some more math. 2.8 million units (probably a low number) divided by 14,600 RV Campgrounds = roughly 192 RV's per campground.

I think we could stand a few years with fewer RV's being made.

You need to extrapolate to camping nites per unit. Many don't do 14 a year.

[Terryallan]

Dave5143 wrote:
How many people have wised up and bought used? Maybe that accounts for the drop in new sales also.

At some point. they had to be bought new. There is only a finite number of used RVs.
Me. I always buy new. I don't want a used one. I want a new bed, and new axles, and a new roof, and a new bathroom. I like new stuff. My current Tt was bought NEW in 2012. If I ever buy again. It also will be new. There is nothing like new.

[schlep1967]

GDS-3950BH wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:
I'll start believing this data when I no longer have to plan trip a year in advance in order to get a spot.

Believe what you wish, but the data is the official release from the RV Industry Association.

So I went and looked at the last 4 years of RVIA shipment releases.
2017 was the highest on record for units shipped.
2018 was the second highest for units shipped.
From 2016 through 2019 the average number of units shipped per year was 456,258.
Total units shipped over the last 4 years was 1,825,032. Now I'm sure a few of them have been destroyed in crashes or fires in the last 4 years but other than that you could pretty much say they are all still in use. You can also figure that most of those RV buyers in the last 4 years were not new to camping. Meaning their used units are also out there in the market. Let's assume another 1,000,000 units.
Another Google search came up with approximately 14,600 RV campgrounds in the US (Private and State Park).
Some more math. 2.8 million units (probably a low number) divided by 14,600 RV Campgrounds = roughly 192 RV's per campground.

I think we could stand a few years with fewer RV's being made.

[Dave5143]

How many people have wised up and bought used? Maybe that accounts for the drop in new sales also.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

GDS-3950BH wrote:

wildtoad wrote:
Sounds a bit like Chicken Little.

No chicken little, just accurate data. A drop of close to 100,000 sold, or 20% in two years, is substantial. Call it 4 billion dollars (if you do the math from the RVIA trumped up revenue numbers), not exactly chump change.

Yeah, listened to business analyst who opined that this is a pre-cursor of a weakening economy as purchase of RV is a big-ticket use of disposable income.

It also might have saturated the sale to boomers and the next generation may not be so inclined to outdoors life.

[SidecarFlip]

We don't buy new every other year or every 3 or 4 years, we buy when out unit becomes worn out. Our last unit went 16 years and bought a new one and never even looked at a lot, we knew exactly what we want and bought it.

I pay zero attention to market trends but I will agree that in general, the RV industry turns out junk. Not all are, but most are.