Buying an RV
01-27-2015
The Ugly Truth of RV'ing with Jim
So after our experience with the RV weekend in Daytona, we decided to go and look at other RVs and see what the market was bringing. Cindy is very good at doing RV research and she now wanted to find as much information about RVs, their likes and dislikes and she also joined a blog to get a real opinion, not just a salesman's.
So, we sat down and wrote down our wish list of items that we both wanted, so we combined and discussed them. My main concerns were the powerplant, the chassis, and how much maintenance it was going to require. And of course how much it was going to cost me. Salesmen are not my friend. All my experiences with buying vehicles, if I like something, I would find a way to buy it. The "S" that would appear on my chest did not stand for "Superman", it stood for "Sucker"!
So we spent a couple weekends looking around the Orlando area at RV dealerships, and left our information and wish list with different salesmen. About a month later, we received a phone call from a dealership that just took a 2003 Travel Supreme Select on trade. So we went into the dealership to take a look at this RV and gathered as much info on it as possible. It had a very strong engine and a good chassis. A 500 horsepower Cummins diesel and a Spartan chassis were a good combination for this rig from the research we found.
The Ugly Truth of RV'ing with Cindy
So back we went to the dealership for a test drive. Since our only recent experience was when Jim drove from Orlando to Daytona in the rental unit it was not like we really knew what to look for but it was interesting to see how it handled. When we safely made it back we asked to spend some time alone in the unit so we could talk. This was a huge decision since the asking price was $95,000 and we felt like we were in way over our head.
To this day I am not really sure how we went from trying a weekend RV experience at Daytona to seriously looking at purchasing a 41 foot moving house yet it felt right and I am so glad we went with our gut.
The next step was to find someone to do an inspection. It is funny that I won't spend the money for a home inspection when buying a 200+ home yet for something like this I needed to make sure someone with experience looked at all of the pieces and let us know what we were getting into.
In hindsight I don't think we received the inspection we were looking for, many of the issues we had to fix the first year should have been caught during the inspection but instead he checked the obvious such as if the doors shut, did the TV's work ect. The inspection was also stressful when we were harrassed by one of the managers of Orlando RV, the lot where the unit was located, for having an inspection. He even threatened to have the inspector thrown off.
This was resolved when we threatened to walk away from the sale if he did not make himself scarce which he did. The inspection showed what we had already figured out.
The unit had all original parts and lots of deferred maintence. From owning and flipping homes we both understood that this would equate into repairs sooner rather then later but that the price also reflected that. We were also offered an extended warranty which for a unit of this age and with the issues we felt would come up well within the first five years seemed like a good investment. Boy was that a great decision but more on that later.
So inspection completed and now time to negotiate the deal. We sat down with finance and after some back and forth we received the deal we wanted. I am not a salesmans dream, I love to negotiate and while I like to see both sides walk away happy I am not afraid to walk away if not given what I want.
Next it was back to the salesman. At this time he knew we were serious and that the bank would give the money to make the deal happen. What he didn't know was that this is when the real negotiations begin. We had a list of about 30 items that we required to be taken care of before we would accept ownership of the unit. They played the "let me talk to my boss" and " we can do some but not all of these".
I stood up and told Jim that it was time to leave and that we would find another unit that fit us better. We didn't make it out the door before the GM stopped us and asked what it would take to finish this deal. I stuck to my list and they agreed. The moral of this story is don't fall in love with the unit, fall in love with the full deal that you feel makes a good deal.
From the Blogger, Cindy Boyd: He said…She said...This blog is about everything my husband and I have learned on our journey to RV fulltime and how two people can have the same experience yet see it very differently.
So after our experience with the RV weekend in Daytona, we decided to go and look at other RVs and see what the market was bringing. Cindy is very good at doing RV research and she now wanted to find as much information about RVs, their likes and dislikes and she also joined a blog to get a real opinion, not just a salesman's.
So, we sat down and wrote down our wish list of items that we both wanted, so we combined and discussed them. My main concerns were the powerplant, the chassis, and how much maintenance it was going to require. And of course how much it was going to cost me. Salesmen are not my friend. All my experiences with buying vehicles, if I like something, I would find a way to buy it. The "S" that would appear on my chest did not stand for "Superman", it stood for "Sucker"!
So we spent a couple weekends looking around the Orlando area at RV dealerships, and left our information and wish list with different salesmen. About a month later, we received a phone call from a dealership that just took a 2003 Travel Supreme Select on trade. So we went into the dealership to take a look at this RV and gathered as much info on it as possible. It had a very strong engine and a good chassis. A 500 horsepower Cummins diesel and a Spartan chassis were a good combination for this rig from the research we found.
The Ugly Truth of RV'ing with Cindy
So back we went to the dealership for a test drive. Since our only recent experience was when Jim drove from Orlando to Daytona in the rental unit it was not like we really knew what to look for but it was interesting to see how it handled. When we safely made it back we asked to spend some time alone in the unit so we could talk. This was a huge decision since the asking price was $95,000 and we felt like we were in way over our head.
To this day I am not really sure how we went from trying a weekend RV experience at Daytona to seriously looking at purchasing a 41 foot moving house yet it felt right and I am so glad we went with our gut.
The next step was to find someone to do an inspection. It is funny that I won't spend the money for a home inspection when buying a 200+ home yet for something like this I needed to make sure someone with experience looked at all of the pieces and let us know what we were getting into.
In hindsight I don't think we received the inspection we were looking for, many of the issues we had to fix the first year should have been caught during the inspection but instead he checked the obvious such as if the doors shut, did the TV's work ect. The inspection was also stressful when we were harrassed by one of the managers of Orlando RV, the lot where the unit was located, for having an inspection. He even threatened to have the inspector thrown off.
This was resolved when we threatened to walk away from the sale if he did not make himself scarce which he did. The inspection showed what we had already figured out.
The unit had all original parts and lots of deferred maintence. From owning and flipping homes we both understood that this would equate into repairs sooner rather then later but that the price also reflected that. We were also offered an extended warranty which for a unit of this age and with the issues we felt would come up well within the first five years seemed like a good investment. Boy was that a great decision but more on that later.
So inspection completed and now time to negotiate the deal. We sat down with finance and after some back and forth we received the deal we wanted. I am not a salesmans dream, I love to negotiate and while I like to see both sides walk away happy I am not afraid to walk away if not given what I want.
Next it was back to the salesman. At this time he knew we were serious and that the bank would give the money to make the deal happen. What he didn't know was that this is when the real negotiations begin. We had a list of about 30 items that we required to be taken care of before we would accept ownership of the unit. They played the "let me talk to my boss" and " we can do some but not all of these".
I stood up and told Jim that it was time to leave and that we would find another unit that fit us better. We didn't make it out the door before the GM stopped us and asked what it would take to finish this deal. I stuck to my list and they agreed. The moral of this story is don't fall in love with the unit, fall in love with the full deal that you feel makes a good deal.
From the Blogger, Cindy Boyd: He said…She said...This blog is about everything my husband and I have learned on our journey to RV fulltime and how two people can have the same experience yet see it very differently.Comment
ChristopherSlackFebruary 24, 2018 | 08:04 AM
Thanks for sharing this information. The experience you told is really helpful while buying an RV. It is really appreciable that before buying an RV you have done a full research on it and take care of all the small points to check it and get it on your price. My neighbor had also bought an RV last month from California and then he transported it with https://www.wewilltransportit.com/rv-shipping , they have also provided the RV service and preparation. Getting an RV is like getting a moving home.
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