Confusion - Part II - New or Used

[judi]

I bought my first Roadtrek in 2011 and was a used 2006. It was my first RV ever and I wanted to see how I liked the whole idea. Of course I loved it! There are many great used RVs out there.

[snowball]

Several years ago we bought a pop up camper...thinking we had a warranty it was rental that they were selling off...when we had problems with the mechanism for pushing it in we found out we didn't have a warranty although they did cover half of the repair when it came to purchasing our 5th wheel we did go for a new one peace of mind and hey I'd never had a new home and we got the extended warranty which we've never had to use...there were only some cosmetic type issues that had to be taken care of perhaps I should knock on wood...oh the squirrels chewed through the hose that has the oil for the slides go through it so the slides didn't go in but dh was able to fix that nothing has happened that he wasn't able to repair...so I live in fear now what will happen if this or that goes wrong ??????????? in retrospect possibly would have found a unit that we would have liked as well as this one used and perhaps I wouldn't still have payments to make...who knows as Beth has said just look see what you like and figure out what is the best fit for you
sheila

[DearMissMermaid]

I bought used (for cash) and I am super happy I did. Mine was 15 years old when I bought it, a 28 foot Class C Tioga Montara by Fleetwood. 4 years later, I am still fulltiming in it and loving every minute. I thought it would be my "stepping stone" to the next RV, while I figured out what I was doing, but I just love mine as is and I am still fulltiming in it with my crazy little monkey dog. I have a spare bunk and a friend that sometimes hops aboard for a trip of 1-5 weeks at a time, so that has added to the fun factor.

Go out and LOOK at tons of used RV's, the more the merrier. This way you can come up with a short list of MUST HAVES and a long list of WISHFUL HAVES. This is how I settled on my final purchase. I looked at loads of RV's including plenty that I couldn't afford, but it gave me tons of ideas and a good feel for what was important to me personally. For instance I discovered I wanted plenty of windows.

On mine, I loved the layout, it looked very livable to me. The existing colors and decor were pleasing to me. Everything seemed to work, the engine only had 35,000 miles, it came with the manuals and some repair papers from the past 2 owners. It had everything on my short list of MUST HAVES and surprisingly many of the things on my WISHFUL HAVES. My MUST HAVE list was very short, if you make it too long, you will drive yourself crazy trying to find everything. Keep it super SHORT.

What I didn't know then, that I know now, that I just love... is that when you buy used, as time goes on, you can upgrade and customize more to your lifestyle and liking. This way you end up with a customized coach at a teeny tiny fraction of the new cost.

I was paying cash and I decided at some point NOT to spend 100% of my original budget, instead I spent about 70% on the purchase. Then I set the rest aside for emergency maintenance, repairs and upgrades. I thought I had thoroughly checked everything, but I was new at this and I missed a few things. So within a month, there was a list of small repairs to be made.

I am one of those types that wants everything functioning. When something goes awry, I put it on the to do list and try to tackle it sooner rather than later.

Just a for instance on upgrades... I am not a carpet fan but mine came with wall to wall original carpet. A few months later, I was able to rip it out and lay down a vinyl flooring I picked out. This was very cost effective because my carpet was old. If I had bought new and hated the carpet, I would have been ripping out new carpet (not very cost effective.)

Mine didn't come with any TV's and besides who wants TV's from 1994? Two years later I decided I was ready for TV, so I was able to pick out the exact type of TV mounts and TV sizes that suited me and my lifestyle. I didn't have to rely on what some manufacturer thought I wanted.

I didn't rush in to make changes, I lived and traveled with my rig "as is". As time went on, I figured out things that suited me better, then worked to evolve that.

[IrishIroamed]

Go out and LOOK at tons of used RV's, the more the merrier.

I've been all over creation, including Winnebago factory in Iowa because they had floor plan that isn't sold in Illinois (not a popular model). I think seeing so many caused the confusion.

As everyone has mentioned, maybe I'll just know it when I see it. I do have a list of what I want, amentity wise, so that does help narrow down the list somewhat.