My wife and I bought our motorhome in 2020. It had nothing to do with Covid, we’d been planning it for a couple of years. Now we’ve decided we want to sell it and get a trailer. Somehow I have made it to the age of 54 having never sold a vehicle in my life. I’ve always either traded them in or donated them. So doing it myself is too scary.
It’s a 2021 Thor Freedom Elite, which I understand now is pretty bottom-of-the-line. We bought it at Camping World, which I had no experience with at the time. Now I feel like there’s a sleaziness vibe with them - like they’re the Walmart of the camping scene. We owe about $60K on the loan, and from the research I’ve done, motorhomes comparable to mine sell in this area for $50K to $55K. So we’re hoping to not be too bad off after we sell the thing.
There’s a reputable dealer in this area, where we plan to buy the trailer. We went and talked to them about options about a month ago. Without saying it outright, the guy heavily implied that we would be fools to trade in the motorhome, and that we should sell it ourselves.
So I’ve been weighing two options: find a local broker, or try consignment at Camping World. (Our local dealer doesn’t do consignment.) I’ve read lots of bad stories about consignment at Camping World. While I was looking into this, I started hearing about a place called PPL in Texas. My impression is that they specialize in RV consignment sales, and they seem to have a very good repuation. Glancing through various RV forums, more than once I’ve seen someone state if they were to sell their rig, they would take it to Texas to sell it through PPL.
I’m in Portland, Oregon. It’s about a 2000 mile drive to Dallas. But I’m seriously considering doing this. I feel like I could take the motorhome down there and let them do the rest. Rather than going by what a few people on random other forums say, I thought I should ask here, and hopefully hear from the RV experts (such as @pullin): is this a good idea? Is this a dumb idea?
I’m flattered by the reference as an “RV expert”, but I actually don’t have much experience with motorhomes or consignments. I’ve sold a few campers and boats myself with decent luck, but never consignment. The only people I know who put a vehicle on consignment said it took a long time to sell. Despite my worries, I put my (large) boat on FB Marketplace last year and it sold in less than a week. I figured I might as well try, and was pleasantly surprised.
It sounds like the loan and the value are pretty close, so you do have choices. You didn’t say much about the planned trailer purchase, but if you’re looking at new ones I’d find out what the trade-in value would be at the dealer. This is always easier, and some states only charge sales tax on the difference. Not sure about Oregon, but that difference tends to favor a trade-in once the costs of advertising/tax/etc. are factored in. I don’t think either of your choices are “dumb”, just unsure which will work best.
As to Camping World, there’s a small crowd of you-tubers and others who delight in sneering at the company and their customers. I’ve bought from them, and they don’t seem any different than other RV dealers. I guess all vehicle dealers are skeevy in their own way, but CW gets more flak because they’re larger and national. FTR: our last purchase from CW was a new fifth wheel, and we approached with a firm idea of the price we’d pay for our chosen model, and the trade-in amount wanted. I was pleasantly surprised when they accepted my first (lowest) offer on the new camper, and after a week, they met my trade-in value.
One of the reasons we dealt with Camping World was they were the only dealer within 300 miles who carried the brand/floorplan we wanted. Interestingly enough, we were planning a trip to Pendleton Oregon (Thompson RV), but got a better deal from CW here.
I wish you luck in the purchase/sale, and hope you get what you want. I’m curious why you’re trading in and moving to a trailer instead (and what brands you’re considering).
Too bad it’s not a class B, as those sell really well. I just took the hit on all three of our motorhomes and sold them to a dealer as either a trade-in or, in the case of my most recent one, sold it to them for cash. The last one was a class B and I probably could have sold it online, but I had nowhere to keep it while waiting for someone to buy. The problem is that they’ve gotten so damned expensive that few people have the cash or are willing to take out a loan on a used rig.
Anyway, you’re probably best to look online for what your year/model is selling for at dealers and then go in with that information in hand and try to negotiate a decent price with the dealer. If it’s the same dealer you’re buying the new one from, they’ll be more likely to negotiate.
The local dealer we talked to looked it up, and said the trade-in value would be around $38K. That’s the part where he said without saying that we would be stupid to go that route.
As for the why, many reasons. We didn’t know what we were doing when we bought the motorhome. At the time, I was more inclined to buy a truck and a trailer, but the research got overwhelming. What truck to buy that will tow x amount of weight and so on. I started a thread about it here in fact. We’re looking to get a 22’ or 24’ trailer, nothing huge. Now I know if I buy a 3/4 ton truck it will haul anything like that just fine.
Anyway, the motorhome is too small. The “queen” bed is about the size of a twin mattress, so both of us cramming into it is getting old. And the way it’s set up, I have to crawl over my wife to get in and out of the bed. I don’t like the fact that the motorhome is a whole 'nother vehicle that has to be maintained. I’d rather that be a truck that I can use for other purposes. When we go somewhere, my wife has to drive separately, so that we’ll have a vehicle to get around in when we’re at our destination - unless we want to disconnect everything from the motorhome just to go to the store or whatever. (We don’t.)
We’re not sure about a specific brand. I do recall a thread somewhat recently, Pullin, where you listed reliable brands. But I don’t know how picky we’ll be able to be. We looked at a few trailers when we were at that dealer, and we could be quite happy with any of them. I don’t remember the makes and models. The beds were bigger and more accessible, the bathrooms were bigger, and the trailers as a whole were much roomier than our motorhome. Oh yeah, that’s another issue with the motorhome. The shower is way too tiny, and the hot water runs out in less that five minutes. With my very long hair, that’s a problem - I can’t do a shower that quickly. So we have a shower that we can’t even use.
This is where the wife and I ended up too. We have family that have fifth wheels, that are bigger then my first apartment, and that is the way to go. My Father went the other way, he has a Class C and tows a Jeep or a trailer with his three wheel cycle.
He is currently driving from Arizona to Key West towing the Jeep.