Motorhome Prices

[haganap]

Just an observation and an opportunity to chat.

I was looking through some motorhomes at the weekend as I am trying to help my friend sell his burstner and buy a new van. What struck me was not the price of motorhomes, we all know they are over priced and over here, but the seeming increase in values.
AS seasoned Motorhomers running around in our 6th last van we will ever buy, I looked at some of our previous models' for comparisons.

I'm not proud so will share some prices and maybe you may do the same.

Back in 2005 we got our first ever van. A CI Carioca 2003 reg and paid 19995 for it. We loved it and so did the kids. It was 3 years old and we took it for it's first MOT. Got it privately. We sold it after 3 years of ownership for 17995. Buying that same van today at 3 years old would be costing 50k

Now the same van as that on a 2005 model is currently on ebay for sale at 19995.. SO basically we got our 3 year old model for £19995 and a 16 year old model is now the same price..

Our second van we purchased for 23k adria coral and it was a 2005 model and just 4 years old (i think) it was just at the time of the 2008 financial crisis and everyone on here was telling me I would be on bread and water and we would all be sleeping on the streets by 2010. It was a great van, had bunk beds for the kids.
The most similar van I can find on a 2004 plate is up for sale at £26995 and that's basically what I sold it for some 4 years after buying it!!! When I sold it in 2011 it was 7 years old and now the one for sale is 17 years old and at the same money. Today to buy similar is £54995

We sold the Adria and purchased a Besacar 2007 reverse juddering UK built piece of poo for 32k. That same van (yes exactly) is now 14 years old and for sale for 29k. If I were to buy the replacement at the same age ie 5 years old I would be set to spend 53000.

So eventually I managed to sell the Bessacar with it's rotten floor for 23k after 4 years of owning it and we loved the van to bits, and it was well known for hosting many a funster party. If I tried to buy that van today I could buy it back for 27995, but if I was to purchase a 5 year old one today it would cost close to 50k.

We bought a 2009 Rapido which was a lovely van for 37995 had it just two years and it returned 32k - the same van today is 46k and to purchase a van which is 7 years old as was the rapido when we got it is 69k

When we eventually got rid and purchased our N&B after 2 short years it was advertised at 65k and was 6 years old. A 6 year old N&B now would cost you nearly 100k to buy. After nearly 4 years I swapped this year to an N&B Flair and the Arto got me back nearly what I paid for it.

My flair is invaluable, but if I went back to where I started and wanted a 3 year old one I would be having to fork out 200k. !!!

I won't be. Morale to this story, is never look back.. prices are just crazy even when you factor in inflation.

 

[nicholsong]

Interesting.

I can only lob in one purchase as it was and still is our first MH.

I bought a 2003 N&B Arto 69GL in 2009 privately for £27,600.

I have no intention of selling but looking at other prices I reckon I could get something over £20K, so not much depreciation for 12 years.

Geoff

 

[Dramfineday]

The motorhome man on Youtube does a regular update on motorhome prices for those interested . Nov update here:

 

[Bailey58]

I can only post on my two, a 2007 Autocruise Starspirit bought from DMG in Poole for £32245 in 2010 and part-exed for a new Bailey 740SE in 2013 at Becks for which I paid £45780 with various extras and a £25000 allowance for the Starspirit.

A quick look shows several Starspirits from 2002 onward from £22k with plenty over £30k including a 2011 model at £35k.

A few 2012 Baileys priced from 36k to 40k. My local garage sold an old van recently for £11k, more than he paid four years earlier and reckoned I'd get at least £30 for mine. It's only money, I'll keep the van for another trip to Norway one day!

 

[suavecarve]

My current Roller Team 690 was purchased 5 years ago for the bargain of 39,950 brand new. It would now cost 57K brand new. I recently P'exed it for 40K making a profit of £50 (less the extra battery, alarm, LPG, double reversing camera, extra locks, decent TV).
I can see it being on a forecourt for 47K.
I just have to wait for the new 685 to arrive.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[SteveRallye]

Looking at the price of a good range of new M/Homes today the prices has certainly gone into orbit. No wonder 2nd hand prices are high. Average coachbuilts are going for the price of what some Aclass were going for 2 years ago and mid range Aclass are going for the price of top end ones were fetching. For example the Chauson Platinums are now commanding mid £60k and the latest Mobilvettas are priced at £94k thats over £20k more than 2 years ago! The top German sellers are now getting to average house price range. It does make you think how much is down to the price of components and shortages and how much they are just profiteering. I think they are getting too expensive and the bottom will drop out of the new M/H market which may make good 2nd hand M/Homes even more desirable. The market certainly needs leveling.

 

[Two Rivers]

An ideal time to sell if your thinking of retiring from motorhoming, I suspect prices will come down once most of the overseas Covid travel restrictions are lifted and the people who jumped into time first motorhome ownership decide its not for them and will sell, lots of things were purchased during the lockdowns, Hot tubs, mountain bikes motorcycles etc.

 

[Coolcats]

An ideal time to sell if your thinking of retiring from motorhoming, I suspect prices will come down once most of the overseas Covid travel restrictions are lifted and the people who jumped into time first motorhome ownership decide its not for them and will sell, lots of things were purchased during the lockdowns, Hot tubs, mountain bikes motorcycles etc.

I nearly panicked then, there is no way we are selling the Hot tub, it’s part of the daily fitness routine. i will fight anyone who even remotely suggests we sell the Motorhome.

 

[mitzimad]

first was a rambler paid 5k and sold after 3 years for 5k next was a self build cost was roughly 14k had it five years and got 12k as a trade in for current van which was 27.5k saw one at a dealers recently marked up at 29kwve had it 5 years

 

[Orion]

An ideal time to sell if your thinking of retiring from motorhoming, I suspect prices will come down once most of the overseas Covid travel restrictions are lifted and the people who jumped into time first motorhome ownership decide its not for them and will sell, lots of things were purchased during the lockdowns, Hot tubs, mountain bikes motorcycles etc.

It’s an interesting conundrum that had us - looking to buy a MoHo after many, many years of ‘adventure’ camping with a fully equipped pickup truck - scratching our heads. Should we wait for one of those (hopefully) low mileage, ‘castoffs’, or bite the bullet and go new?

We live near the M5 Devon/Somerset border and have a proliferation of MoHo dealers within easy distance running north and south of us, so started looking there and privately online from mid this year. Have you seen the numbers of decent s/h units on their parking lots? More visible tarmac than vehicles at the moment, and possibly going to stay that way for quite a long time to come - partially due to a lack of new units being produced freeing up s/h through trade-ins.

And talking about production delays due to the effects of Covid, shortage of base vehicles, raw materials, etc., it became increasingly apparent that most of our preferred manufacturers/models were already well on the way to being sold out for 2022 delivery, (and in some cases beyond!).

Will there be an exodus of ‘staycationers’ from the MoHo sector next year? Looking at impending additional travel restrictions down to C etc., I have to say I doubt it will be a tsunami of disillusioned unhappy campers, some will give it up no doubt, but more of a trickle.

We have hopefully been lucky in our search as we found a new pre-ordered dealer stock Adria Compact Supreme SC at our most local dealership, that could have the specifications amended to our requirements for an April delivery, (we’ll see how close they can get to that!). We negotiated a small discount, not as much as I’d have liked, but hey it’s a sellers market at the moment.

As an addendum, one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb during our dealership visits: there were new unregistered vehicles from certain manufacturers available for immediate purchase, and not the odd one or two but numbers of them all in a line! From my brief membership of this forum, and searching the relevant subjects, it appears the owner dissatisfaction rates closely correlate with those marques - strange that innit!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Richard n Ann]

We payed £36,350 for our Elddis 105 brand new 14 reg.
Just looked up the new ones, prestige version same as ours... £54,000

What does that make ours worth now?! Glad we bought when we did because they aren't worth that in my opinion and we probably wouldnt be motorhoming now, maybe I'd have built our own camper van

 

[wanderer]

Interesting.

I can only lob in one purchase as it was and still is our first MH.

I bought a 2003 N&B Arto 69GL in 2009 privately for £27,600.

I have no intention of selling but looking at other prices I reckon I could get something over £20K, so not much depreciation for 12 years.

Geoff

We bought our Arto 2004 in 2008 for £30K sold it last year for £23.5K . Both private sales

 

[Chris Laing]

I was thinking about selling my Chausson 2017 model and buy a Mobilvetti k Yaught but even though I'm likely to get the 47k back for my Chausson the cost of the Mobilvetti is 10k more than they were a year ago now over 90k. To much of a jump so I'll just keep what I have.

 

[Clipgate]

Do you think it's only Motorhomes! Look at your utility bills food, fuel etc
When you digitally print money and it chases commodities guess what inflation, use a rear view mirror and it will tell you where you going and it's not a good place.
But few do and rub there hands and say what can I do!
Well I feel good my home has gone up in value, my motorhome is increasing by the day, but remember it comes from your pocket eventually.

 

[gus-lopez]

What does that make ours worth now?!

42k

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[RM_Marine]

I've got a 6 berth autotrail apache 700 on a 2014 plate which had 6k on the click with only one owner, paid 42k there are older ones going for more now and I've had it for 9mths

 

[Lenny HB]

All my vans have been personal imports so prices are a bit cheaper than the UK.

1st van a 2008 Hymer Tramp SL Special Gold Edition paid £47k, saved £10k on UK price, sold it privately for £36k after 6 years.

Next one 2014 Hymer Exsis A Class paid £58k, saved £12k on UK prices, traded it for £52k after 3 years.

Current one 2017 Hymer Dynamic Line paid £72k, did well on this one 20% discount on a factory order so saved over £15k on buying in the UK and got £10k-£12k more for my trade in on what UK dealers were offering.
Looking at current prices probably worth more than what we paid for it and it will be 5 years old in March. In Fun classifieds there is a 2018 Exsis up for £70k and they are £15k-£20k less new.

 

[Abgs]

. In Fun classifieds there is a 2018 Exsis up for £70k and they are £15k-£20k less new.

List price in 2018 was £69,610 for the basic spec ... that one was has got £20k odd of factory options on it. Ask me how I know ....!

Travelworld sold a couple of the same model, a 2017 and a 2108 over the summer, RHD admittedly but the sticker prices were around £80K.

 

[Lenny HB]

List price in 2018 was £69,610 for the basic spec ... that one was has got £20k odd of factory options on it. Ask me how I know ....!

Travelworld sold a couple of the same model, a 2017 and a 2108 over the summer, RHD admittedly but the sticker prices were around £80K.

No one buys at list price we have always got over 15% off, the Exsis I think it was 16% as I said the DL 20%.
Thats why I don't buy in the UK, my DL had €15k of extras on it and after importing only cost me £72k.

 

[the1andonly]

How do value a motorhome, check whats for sale on Autotrader gives you a clue. What happens when only 17 were registered over 2 years.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Brains]

Our model was £85k new in 2018.
There is a 2018 one for sale today. £85K! (8,000 miles, 4 years use, zero depreciation)

The 2022 spec is now £125k ! (basically the same spec.)
However the 2022 deliveries all sold out last summer, and 2023 deliveries will be gone soon (if not already).
You are now looking at 2024 delivery.

I think I could buy an old transit, bung a mattress in the back and double my money

 

[mofurt]

We bought our Tribute just over a year ago. We looked at new and nearly new, then decided to get something inexpensive to play with, decide what we liked and what we didn't, then trade it up with some knowledge behind us. If we lost a couple of grand it'd be cheaper than trading a new one in after a year if we'd made a mistake in specs.
We did get a very good price, but equivalents ones are now advertised approaching double what we paid. Meanwhile we've found our van actually does precisely what we want, so we're spending a bit of time and money on renovating rather than replacing and keeping the new van fund in the bank.

For the old Transit thing, my brother in law works for a big caravan place (they didn't have anything suitable when we were buying, so didn't go through him). He evaluates their trade-ins, and said they are getting a lot of iffy self-builds being brought in where the owner did it over lockdown and thinks they are sitting on a goldmine. He had to tell one guy who had (badly) converted a VW Transporter Shuttle (minibus) that he'd get more for it if he put the seats back in and restored it to original spec

 

[Googlebot]

We bought our Tribute just over a year ago. We looked at new and nearly new, then decided to get something inexpensive to play with, decide what we liked and what we didn't, then trade it up with some knowledge behind us. If we lost a couple of grand it'd be cheaper than trading a new one in after a year if we'd made a mistake in specs.
We did get a very good price, but equivalents ones are now advertised approaching double what we paid. Meanwhile we've found our van actually does precisely what we want, so we're spending a bit of time and money on renovating rather than replacing and keeping the new van fund in the bank.

For the old Transit thing, my brother in law works for a big caravan place (they didn't have anything suitable when we were buying, so didn't go through him). He evaluates their trade-ins, and said they are getting a lot of iffy self-builds being brought in where the owner did it over lockdown and thinks they are sitting on a goldmine. He had to tell one guy who had (badly) converted a VW Transporter Shuttle (minibus) that he'd get more for it if he put the seats back in and restored it to original spec

I have seen loads of self builds the last year, all of them using heavy timber and worktops. Some of the bodges I have seen don’t bear thinking about in terms of making them last years.

The weight just makes them unusable to any more than 2 people regardless and I wouldn’t touch the electrics in some with a barge pole. It’s a very attractive proposition to someone who hasn’t had a holiday for a year or more and they get sucked in.

Yet they try and sell them on with ridiculous money on top.

 

[Coolcats]

At the moment we all know it’s a sellers market, once the Covid storm has passed and people wish to go back to ‘normal’ holidays there will be a lowering of prices, it’s the way of the world what goes up must come down. There is no defying gravity.

 

[Brains]

At the moment we all know it’s a sellers market, once the Covid storm has passed and people wish to go back to ‘normal’ holidays there will be a lowering of prices, it’s the way of the world what goes up must come down. There is no defying gravity.

Agreed, however where is the top of the wave ?
Was it Summer of 2021? or will it be the summer of 2022 ?
Or possibly even further ahead.

I seem to remember the summers of 70-73 as peaking in the camping market with the mass production of decent quality large frame tents. They could not make enough of them and they were selling 2nd hand for the same price as new

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Coolcats]

Agreed, however where is the top of the wave ?
Was it Summer of 2021? or will it be the summer of 2022 ?
Or possibly even further ahead.

I seem to remember the summers of 70-73 as peaking in the camping market with the mass production of decent quality large frame tents. They could not make enough of them and they were selling 2nd hand for the same price as new

With back orders and shortages in production it may be 2023/4 then EV’s may be emerging it’s a guessing/ waiting game but it will inevitably happen.

 

[jako999]

We are still awaiting delivery of our new Niesmann which I know we are bound to loose on at nearly 150k but I’ve said that with all our vans over the years and yet on 4 of them we have either broke even or made a profit only time will tell. I’m just glad we ordered it when we did and at least stand a chance of seeing at some point soon hopefully.
Having driven an electric van (standard panel van) if we get pushed down that route with motor homes the price will stay high because trust me there isn’t enough power or range for what we need.
Its nice to think we can get a few years free use out of our MH’s but for me I’m happy to make a loss for all the happiness it brings us.

Thanks