Thor Forums

[gmc]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

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Why is this relevant to me? Take the money / depreciation out of the equation. If your were looking to buy your very first RV, which would you buy hoping to have the least amount of things to worry with to fix, break downs etc.? Brand new or preowned?

I've bought 2 RV's so far... both used...
First was an older unit - Infinity - (10 years) and was really a 'lets see if we like this and what we want'. It served us well for several years. We upgraded when our travel started to include longer snowbird trips and wanted more room (slides) as I am still working so needed to consider workspace.

Second (current) unit was about a year old - still at the 'entry level end' (Hurricane) and had been a rental from the dealer for the season. Many of the 'startup' problems others reported I never saw - and likely because of the dealership being incented by making more $$ if the unit was rentable and they addressed things like batteries, etc.
I still am seeing some of the 'aging' issues - like peeling furniture - but I seemed to have missed many of the 'startup' issues.

What would I buy next? Probably a higher end used unit... but not in a rush to do so (though DW certainly liked the Aria when she saw it at last Florida rally...)

What would I do different if doing this again?
Not much... I think starting with used was a good decision for us. I would know more now (I hadn't found the forum till after I bought the second one) - I certainly got lucky with what I missed on PDI's but had good dealers that took care of it. I would do better negotiating on the second one - as I probably paid a little more than I should have looking back... didn't really understand the 'normal' new discount to better negotiate used. But we've been happy with our rigs and what they have allowed us to do.