Questions on purchasing campers from dealers.

[1handyhubby]

Now that we've found our dually we're looking to retire our old Lance and get a newer camper. We've always bought used and from private parties but now that we're close to retirement and traveling more we're thinking about purchasing new. Anyone care to share their experiences with dealers? How long can you finance for and what kind of payments can we expect on $50-$60,000? I know I can check with a dealer but a little knowledge beforehand is always good. We don't have much to choose from in San Diego so we will probably head up into Oregon. Any recommendations on reputable dealers? My wife is drooling over pictures of a Host Mammoth so we'll be looking for that or something similar. Thanks in advance. Y'all have helped a lot.

[1handyhubby]

Thanks, I've been keeping an eye on it. Credit union couldn't do better than 7.75% and $700 a month payments. Looking into a home equity loan.

[cartmancartman]

There is a used Host for sale here in San Diego, it is on RV trader. He wants 45k for it/

[1handyhubby]

I agree on buying used. We just weren't finding the floorplans that we wanted that were only a few years old. This will be a big purchase for us and I wanted to stay under $25,000 but my DW has other plans and is in love with the Host Mammoth. Happy wife happy life. Hopefully we'll find a 3 or 4 year old. I have tried those calculators and who knows what I can actually get. We'll be going to our credit union this weekend. Thanks for the opinions.

[mkirsch]

Yes there are all sorts of loan calculators, but they do not give you the range of interest rates you can expect or the term lengths...

Is a good interest rate for an RV 1.99 percent or 19.99 percent?

How long of a term can you expect to be offered? 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?

I can plug in 0.69 percent interest and a 15 year term and come up with a great payment, but that doesn't mean I'll be able to get that kind of loan from the bank.

[joeshmoe]

If I had to do it over again, I would likely buy a gently used camper from a private party. 1 to 3 years old. All the searching, game playing over the phone and the hoops I had to jump through to get the right deal, I'm not sure I would want to go through again. And the warranty was only a year. we used the camper a handful of times during that time so the warranty period pretty much blew right byand useless. If you have the means to purchase with cash, privately, I'd go that route. You'll have to be more patient finding the right camper and going over it with a fine tooth comb, but it'll be worth it

[Grit_dog]

Based on your new truck being 15 years old, I'm going to guess that a new camper will be a significant purchase for you, financially speaking. That said, new vs used, for you, I don't see why you need to spend the extra dough on brand new.
The way I see it whether it's a camper, truck, toaster etc. usually some bugs to work out that the warranty covers then with a camper, in a year the warranty is gone (maybe they're longer, idk) and you now have a pretty new camper that you paid full retail for and no warranty left.
Prices of high end TCs are ******** for what you get imo. Wrong time of year to look for used at good prices but they're still way cheaper than new. And if you go private party you can skip the dealer bs.
Financing wise, again my opinion, but if you have to finance it, you're not rich, so save $10-20k and find a new used one.
If you do go dealer, get some financing secured before hand. Credit unions are better than s&l imo. Figure out what a couple banks will do for you so know what to push the dealer for.
Here's the deal. If you finance w your own bank the dealer gets a cash deal so no more money to be made after the sale. It's a cash sale to them.
If you finance through the dealer, I'd guess some finance in house so they're making more $ throughout the life of the loan and even if thy use a bank they still get a cut of the deal. Typically you can negotiate a better sale price if the dlr is financing. Also make sure the financing can be paid off early without penalty. Then if you have a Better bank deal you can let the dealer soak you on interest rate and you stick to a lower purchase price. Then refi it right away with your best preferred rate after purchase.
That's my 2c.

[_DJ_1]

If you're wanting a good deal for financing you're going to have to get new. I have seen campers in your price range financed for 144 months (12 years)!!

[jimh406]

I don't see any big advantage of buying new unless you are wanting something custom done. If you have time, I'd visit all of the factories even if you will buy used.

[Buzzcut1]

You are only 2+ hours from the Lance Factory. You might as well go take a tour and check out how they do things

[deltabravo]

donn0128 wrote:
... Also Apache Camping centers in Portland and Seattle .

Apache is actually in Portland, Tacoma, and Everett

Thompson RV in LaGrande, OR is also an AF dealer.

There's all sorts of loan calculators on bank and credit union websites you can use to find out interest rates and payment estimates.

I'd pre-arrange your own financing rather than rely on a dealer to do it. Why? ZERO PRESSURE to buy.

RV loans are often up to 12 years. (144 months)

[fpoole]

I got mine at Apache Camping Center in Everett, WA.

A little far, but I can't say enough good things about them and they are always there while I'm traveling if something goes wrong or needs looking at... usually, it's "Lessons learned" as the rig is slowly breaking me in... heheh.. but they are there and tolerant

I send a photo of the problem, they respond right back...

[srharris111]

We used SCATT Recreation in Roseville, Ca. We also live in San Diego and what a pain to camper shop. We settled with an Eagle Cap and worked with the factory and Jason, the owner at SCATT.
The banks did not want to give us a loan until there was a serial number and we were ordering the camper to our spec's. Jason set us up with a bank that would give us the loan before it had a serial number.
We had the camper shipped to Roseville from Washington to save time. It cost about the same, gas vs shipping.

[bjohns]

Here is a thought to keep in mind. We are from Colorado and bought an Arctic Fox truck camper from Camping World in the Portland area. Since there is no sales tax there at the point of sale in Oregon, that savings paid for our trip to Oregon to pick up the camper. Colorado does not require truck campers to be registered, so there was no title issue and no tax paid in Colorado either. Camping World had a little trouble figuring that out, but in the end we closed the deal with no issues. We were pretty happy with how it all worked out.

[CAJW]

Another vote for Thunder RV. Great dealer and Wayne in their service dept. is top notch!