We have officially purchased our new RV. Well, new to us at least. More on that in a minute.

If you remember, we previously lived in a 40’ diesel pusher. It was literally a home on wheels. To give you an idea of what we had going on back then, here are some of the features our old rig had to offer.

King bed, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 3 air conditioners, residential refrigerator, 4 burner stove, convection oven, theater seating, 4 big screen TV’s and 3 slide outs that made the living space nice and wide open. It was a pretty sweet setup.

As I said in our last blog, if we are going to do this again we want to do it better and more efficient than last time.

The land yacht was absolutely wonderful! But, an RV like that also comes with a lot of limitations. For example, if we wanted to stay somewhere for a decent period of time having a big rig required us to make reservations far in advance. Also, we always needed to book the bigger sites which can get quite expensive.

Often times we had to settle for just staying somewhat close to the places we wanted to visit just because of availability. It wasn’t a huge deal as we could drive our jeep to get places. But, sometimes it was a bummer. We had a couple of instances where we wanted to stay on a lake, but had to settle for a decent drive to the lake. That sucked.

Additionally, there was almost no ability to boon-dock. Unless you consider a rest area or truck stop boon-docking? We certainly don’t.

Don’t even get me started on the annual maintenance expenses. Since the land yacht was on a big rig chassis with a big rig engine we are talking about thousands of dollars annually just for proper care and maintenance. Heaven forbid something breaks! Our good friends spent $20k one summer on repairs. No thank you!

So when we started getting real about doing this again we had a decision to make. More living space or more flexibility. We both agreed that we wanted to get a smaller RV. We want to be more flexible and have the ability to go places we couldn’t go before. We also want to do this at a lower cost. This is what is important to us this time around. That’s not asking for much, right?

We’ve spent the last few months looking at RV’s across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, New Mexico and Arizona. Over that time we could not find a single RV that even came close to the options or layout that we were looking for.

Some RV’s had good floor plans, but cheap plastic fixtures. Others had nice fixtures and interior, but the layout was not going to work for us. We just couldn’t find a good fit or even an acceptable combination to consider compromising on.

Once we decided to go full-time again we stepped up and expanded our search. Even though we were committed to finding a used RV we started looking at new models. If anything we just wanted to see if we could find a model that could be the right one.

Finally, after a nationwide search, we found a couple of models that fit what we were looking for. Except there were some issues. First, one model was way more money than we wanted to spend. Of course! Second problem, the only dealer with one of the more affordable models was in friggin Michigan! Yeah, that’s not happening.

Both of these rigs were also new which we really didn’t want. RV depreciation isn’t just as bad as you can imagine, it’s worse! Once you leave the lot you can kiss what equity you thought you had goodbye. Buying a used rig can at least help to mitigate that situation a little.

Since we were kind of out of luck we stepped back for a few days. Then last week we got an email for a new listing. And wouldn’t you know, it was one of the two models we liked. Even better, it was in Texas! 4 1/2 hours away, but in Texas nonetheless.

Here’s where it gets interesting. The RV was listed as “used” but it was a new model with almost no miles in RV terms. Meaning, the only miles appeared to be factory delivery miles. My first thought was that it was a lemon that someone dumped. I was extremely skeptical and thought it was either mislabeled or a pile of junk.

After talking to the dealer we decided to take a drive and at least look at it. If nothing else we could confirm it was a model with the features and a layout we liked. If so, that would at least help us narrow our search and maybe a trip to Michigan would be worth it.

We also wanted to get to the bottom on the history of this particular RV. Why is it new, but listed as used. The salesman said he would find out the history before we got there so we headed out.

Once at the dealer we walked through the coach and confirmed it was the layout we were looking for. Just as important the interior features and fixtures weren’t cheap plastic garbage. Then we took it for a test drive which was a very nice. It was such a smooth ride and far easier to drive than a 40 foot 30,000 lb. bus.

We then turned our attention to the RV history. What the heck was going on with this RV and why it was listed as used?

The salesman said he looked into it and the RV was sold a few weeks prior. Unfortunately, the couple who bought it was never able to use it due to unexpected medical issues. They drove it home and it just sat on their property. Ultimately they decided the best thing for them to do was to bring it back to the dealer, sell it back to them and take the loss.

While it was a sad and unfortunate situation for them it was looking like a possible great buying opportunity for us. Although we were still skeptical of the story the RV itself checked almost all of our boxes. And if it could be had at a used RV price while in completely new condition that would be a best case scenario. There’s something to be said about being in the right place at the right time.

After talking through the history we went out and did another walkthrough. Since we were still skeptical we really paid close attention to the details this time. Having purchased a POS RV many years ago, before the land yacht, we needed to do a more thorough inspection to make sure this wasn’t just some shiny object hiding a piece of junk.

There are things that are prevalent in low quality RV manufacturing. Loose trim, pealing wall paper, flooring popping up or having soft spots, missing or loose screws and poor quality on doors and cabinetry. Just to name a few.

These are things that drive RV owners crazy. After spending a lot of money you don’t expect things to just break or fall apart. But they do in far too many RV’s because the quality control is a joke.

We went through and checked everything from top to bottom. From the roof, to the interior down to the trim, to the tread on the tires. I even checked the born on date on the side walls to see if they slapped on crusty old tires for some reason.

After going through everything we found nothing that would be of concern. There was no sign that this was an RV with issues. Is the story true? Who knows, but the RV looked as good as one would expect a new RV to look fresh off the line.

With our minds settled on the condition we decided to make an offer. Having done this a couple of times we know the game pretty well.

MSRP is a laughable number. The dealer “sale” number is only slightly less laughable. It’s really only there to make people feel like they are getting a good deal off the MSRP. The real good deal lies somewhere between 10% – 20% below the phony “sale” number.

The only difference for us this time around was that this was technically considered a “used” RV. So maybe the margin is a little less, but that’s not my problem to worry about.

We had done quite a bit of research on the price of used RV’s beforehand. So we felt like we were as prepared as we needed to be to make an informed decision.

We had a number range in mind that we felt would make a satisfactory deal. Of course, we had a number range would cause us to just walk away. Which we have no problem doing as we’ve done it a few times before. Even on the land yacht.

So of course we lowballed our offer just to see how it landed. Eventually we agreed on a price that was satisfactory. Luckily for us that price was well below where we expected to end up. It was a win win for everyone.

I’m not going to be that person who brags they got some amazing deal and really stuck it to the dealer. I don’t know what price the dealer bought the RV back at. I don’t even know if the story behind it is true. All I care about is that we got something we spent months trying to find and at price that makes us very happy. That’s all that matters. The fact that it’s essentially a new RV makes it just a little bit better.

The dealer gave us the option to stay in their RV park for a night before driving home. We took them up on that offer as we didn’t want to drive another 4+ hours that day. It also gave us the opportunity to use and test every appliance just to make sure there were no problems. We also did another thorough inspection on the whole RV. We had one small request which was a five minute fix the next morning and we were on our way home.

After over 4 hours on the road everything checked out. The ride was great even pulling our jeep behind us. The only difference is that because this is a small RV I can feel the Jeep and the movements. Unlike the big rig where I would look at the cameras just to make sure it was still attached. It’s not an issue, just a different experience because of the size.

So how is this going to be different than before? We have acquired a 26’ class B+/C on a sprinter chassis. The most luxurious thing about this RV is that it has a Mercedes emblem on the front and the cockpit is really nice and comfy.

The living area is very beautiful, well designed and everything is seems to have a nice quality feel to it. However it is very small. This RV only has one small slide out for the bedroom area and the rest is very minimalist. Just enough room for two people to cozy up. Which was exactly what we were looking for!

Our goal is to have more reasons to be outside and less incentive to sit around inside. Having a smaller RV with less living area, fewer bells and whistles should help in that respect.

Additionally, having the ability to stay in smaller locations where we can enjoy a more natural environment will be a great reason to go outside. Hopefully we can keep the concrete parking lots to a minimum this time around. Unless we are splurging on some fancy resort as we are known to do from time to time.

Now the fun begins. Figuring out what we can fit in the limited space that is available. First we will get the necessities of life situated. Once that’s done we will see what’s on this list of personal things that we would like to have with us and prioritize them. Once we run out of storage space every thing else will go to our storage with the rest of our home goods or get sold.

We still don’t have a timeframe so there isn’t any hurry to get everything done right away. But things are definitely progressing. As soon as our house goes under contract it will be go time and the clock will be ticking.

Thanks again for your continued support.

Stay tuned……..

Joe

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