New or pre loved (1 Viewer)

[Julie and Charles]

New, we both said. We'll have a new one. Why wouldn't we?

We even knew it was going to be a Globecar

However, due to the price tag, our budget, hating debt, loans, HP and, having the debt put a dent in the touring and travelling experience and, the pre loved Globecar market being less than buoyant. We have decided not to buy new. To buy pre loved

When we joined this forum, we never expected so much advice, so many suggestions and so much information. People have really been incredibly helpful.
So our search continues
Making the decision to buy pre loved also means we can look for and buy soon. We need to get touring and travelling. We sold our caravan at Easter and we need holidays
Armed with all the information from MH owning experts, and the resources from the Motorhome Fun forum, we're looking forward to owning a MH soon.

As for the new Globecar, well that is for when we save and trade in. It will happen.... Eventually.

 

[WynandJean]

Pre-loved has to be the sensible choice for reasons of cost and also having had the 'new build niggles' sorted out.

(Having said that we've just bought a brand new Bailey ....doh! )



Wyn

 

[MC 55 FUN]

We're always content to let someone else take the initial depreciation hit, so pre loved, or pre adored, has worked very well for us twice. ( digits x'd )

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[Northernraider]

I don't think I'd ever buy new even if money was no object, there's always an abundance of well maintained pre loved motorhomes out there and as I'm one who is prone to changing vehicles like my socks it makes more sense to me.

 

[Julie and Charles]

Thank you everyone.
We feel happy with our decision, we feel there will be more choice for our budget.
Less debt can only mean more relaxing holidays.

 

[The Dudess]

We've always previously bought used and I said that I would never buy new because of the depreciation, however ............................... the van that I really wanted, dreamt about, lusted after and couldn't get out of my mind was a new model and therefore there were no used ones on the market. After a several months of "we really shouldn't". "it's just too much money", "I can't justify it" we went ahead and bought our new Frankia i740 Plus and I am totally made up with it - no regrets at all.
I should point out though that this is our 4th van, so we really, really knew what we wanted.

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[Langtoftlad]

I bought "pre-loved", even though I could have bought new. I'm totally non practical so I wanted reliable hence I really was looking for new.
I'm not persuaded by the let someone else take the deprecation hit argument, nor let the first owner deal with the snags.
But buying used at about 50% of my budget allowed me confidence that I could afford major repairs if necessary.
(The temptation though is to spend your budget getting a 'better' used model)

After much research I came to the conclusion that the priority was not brand, style, model of motorhome but the dealership. A good dealer and any problems can be sorted but a bad one and you're in for a whole load of pain.

Anyway, after 18 months of happy use of my pre-loved, I knew what really was important to me, what I discovered wasn't & what might be an acceptable compromise.
...and then I bought new .

 

[Jands]

Buying in 18 months time, know what I want and not compromise on.
Very few things are in stone but try to get used with those.
Central bed
Garage to fit motorcycle
Separate shower and toilet.
Max 7.5 m long.
Any ideas?
The only MH that fits this is a Pilote P740C with 4400kg chassis.
Never seen this as preloved so will by new.
Any other MH's that would fit this bill?

Just a thought are newish used MH's other people's mistakes?

 

[Julie and Charles]

We don't have a long list of wants. The Globecar layout ticked all our boxes and more. Air conditioning a must, facilities a must, room for mountain bikes in garage or on the back. 6/ 6.5 metres to fit on the drive.
We've camped and toured on bikes and, still love doing this. We've had two caravans (new) I feel sure we will find a pre loved, we have both had many pre loved cars and been happy.
The most important thing for us is to get something and get travelling. We are already going to miss going away in autumn, as we did in the caravan. I can't see us under canvas in November really.

I guess some newish MH for sale, are sold by people who maybe just can't get along with them. My friend did a down size to a camper from a big coachbuilt. Within six months they changed back.
I guess we are lucky enough to know what size unit we want, a small wish list, after having the caravans we know we love this type of holiday. We hate hotels.
If we can't find a lovely pre loved, we will just buy a new caravan while we save for a Globecar. The possibilities are endless and exciting.

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[MC 55 FUN]

We don't have a long list of wants. The Globecar layout ticked all our boxes and more. Air conditioning a must, facilities a must, room for mountain bikes in garage or on the back. 6/ 6.5 metres to fit on the drive.
We've camped and toured on bikes and, still love doing this. We've had two caravans (new) I feel sure we will find a pre loved, we have both had many pre loved cars and been happy.
The most important thing for us is to get something and get travelling. We are already going to miss going away in autumn, as we did in the caravan. I can't see us under canvas in November really.

I guess some newish MH for sale, are sold by people who maybe just can't get along with them. My friend did a down size to a camper from a big coachbuilt. Within six months they changed back.
I guess we are lucky enough to know what size unit we want, a small wish list, after having the caravans we know we love this type of holiday. We hate hotels.
If we can't find a lovely pre loved, we will just buy a new caravan while we save for a Globecar. The possibilities are endless and exciting.

Here's our second experience of buying pre loved - our current Moho new is £48k - we paid £35k for a two & half year old, 1 previous owner, low mileage, immaculate provenance, pre adored example, from a highly respected family owned dealer, 6 months of the base vehicle warranty left in addition to a 2 year dealer warranty - so a £13 k saving over new certainly persuaded us to buy pre loved.

The original owner probably took a circa £13 - £15k depreciation hit in just two & a half years

 

[Jands]

Why did you change your last one, any depreciation on that exchange?

 

[Rob Hammond]

Defo going pre-loved.It will be are first.

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[Julie and Charles]

MH 55 Fun,
Wow!! What a deal.

We are not seeing anything like this. At the moment we are seeing much older, like 6 years for our budget.
We saw one advertised the other week for 35,000 auto sleeper symbol. 6 years old.
This seems to be the youngest so far.
I constantly look above our budget, believing that we could could get a decent discount on the window price. So I've been looking at 35,000 MH. Hoping to get at least four off. Is that realistic?

 

[tonyidle]

A

MH 55 Fun,
Wow!! What a deal.

We are not seeing anything like this. At the moment we are seeing much older, like 6 years for our budget.
We saw one advertised the other week for 35,000 auto sleeper symbol. 6 years old.
This seems to be the youngest so far.
I constantly look above our budget, believing that we could could get a decent discount on the window price. So I've been looking at 35,000 MH. Hoping to get at least four off. Is that realistic?

At this time of year you're in with a good chance.

 

[Neckender]

@Julie and Charles have you looked on autotraders web site there are 33 Globecars and a few preloved, there's a 16 plate for just under £36000
Broken Link Removed

John.

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[Julie and Charles]

Thank you John.
Going to look now.
It would be great to get a pre loved Globecar.

 

[MC 55 FUN]

MH 55 Fun,
Wow!! What a deal.

We are not seeing anything like this. At the moment we are seeing much older, like 6 years for our budget.
We saw one advertised the other week for 35,000 auto sleeper symbol. 6 years old.
This seems to be the youngest so far.
I constantly look above our budget, believing that we could could get a decent discount on the window price. So I've been looking at 35,000 MH. Hoping to get at least four off. Is that realistic?

Our current Moho was our second purchase in 15 months from the same dealer & not a p.v.c., most of which seem to hold their value very well, discounts will depend on the dealer & how much profit they have at windscreen sticker price & of course the desirability of any trade in vehicle.

Due to an excellent trade in value we were content to pay the advertised price knowing that, apart from 9k miles, a virtually indistinguishable new model would be £13k more.

 

[mikebeaches]

Whether to buy new or used is always a difficult choice because there are pros and cons of both options.

Personally, if one required me to finance a loan and the other didn't, then I'd definitely go down the 'used' route.

We had previously owned a couple of caravans; first one was brand new and the second - although used - was almost new.

We're now on our third MH/camper. The first was a small 6-year old Rapido coachbuilt. Pretty much got our money back when we traded it in, but the next two vans we bought were brand new. Again, we got a very fair price for the second one when we traded it in - depreciation cost £6,500 over five years and 30k miles, which I thought reasonable. And we'd had the pleasure of owning a brand new van.

No right or wrong answers, but given the circumstances you've described, I think used (pre-loved) is probably the sensible way to go to begin with.

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[Richard n Ann]

I think second hand vans are over priced, perhaps not private sale ones but dealerships want silly money. Put 5 grand to what the dealership wants for a ten year old van and you can have new. We buy new, sort the niggles and keep it a long time.

 

[Northernraider]

I a

I think second hand vans are over priced, perhaps not private sale ones but dealerships want silly money. Put 5 grand to what the dealership wants for a ten year old van and you can have new. We buy new, sort the niggles and keep it a long time.

I agree some of the dealer prices on second hand vans are ridiculous and often they have botched repairs on them, I've only ever bought second hand and privately, I viewed quite a few at dealers this time though and couldn't believe some of the junk they were selling.
But I've always done it with cars too, I always Preffered to buy a one owner 2 or 3 year old higher end car than a new lower end one
I always buy something with only one previous owner 2 at the most as they paid the big bucks for it so they tend to have looked after it better.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

I think a big question is how long you intend to keep it.

If you intend trading it in for a new one in 2 or 3 years like you might with a car then yes depreciation is an issue and you would be as well to let someone else take the hit.

If you're intending to keep it a long time or even permanently then the initial depreciation becomes steadily less of an issue each year until you get to the point where it's irrelevant.

We weren't intending to buy new but couldn't find anything, saw the one we've got at a dealer and did the deal. I'm not bothered because aren't likely to want to change it anytime and by the time we do it isn't going to owe me anything and will still have a value.

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[Julie and Charles]

We have just been talking about this, looking at all the replies on this site, we see people who change MH frequently and some who keep.
We tend to keep things we buy and look after them.
We have just had the debate about buying before winter.
We would like to think that, just like the caravans, we could keep it for many years. We know from the absolute rubbish for sale that we could get a long life from a new one.
We both would love a new one. Maybe the answer is to wait a bit longer and save like crazy.
We've already decided not to buy before spring. New registrations in March we hope will throw up more reductions.
It will be the first year in a long time that I will not have a leisure vehicle to look after over winter, I'm looking forward to that.

We intend to keep our eye on the stock refreshing, go and look around at new stock as it arrives, then we will be able to better spot the gem.

This forum certainly gives you food for thought. So much advice. So glad we joined.
Thanks for the feedback and things to consider. It's very helpful. Julie

 

[Jands]

Interesting that there are lots of manufacturers of MH's but once you start to to look for what you specifically want the numbers rapidly disappear.
At the moment we are down to one model. That is surprising seeing to amount on the market.
The 2 overriding issues are large garage for a small motorcycle and central bed.
Both within a van large and small enough to spend a month away in.
What other issues should I be looking at and possible manufacturers.

 

[MC 55 FUN]

We have just been talking about this, looking at all the replies on this site, we see people who change MH frequently and some who keep.

As you've no doubt noticed, it's a horses for course choice, different people want, or need, different Moho's & thank God for that !

Our first Moho was very much an experimental purchase to enable us to explore the U.K. with our little dog & not be tied to doggy friendly Inns & Hotels, after 15 months of ownership we viewed our experiment a success & as the layout worked for us, as did the payload, we decided to upgrade, it's replacement is very similar albeit low profile.
We'll be keeping this one for the foreseeable future.

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[tonyidle]

I think also the new / sh issue is affected by whether you enjoy working on a mh and are able to repair some of the issues that occur with any of them. To some a warranty is all important and offers peace of mind. I consider myself able to fix most things (I haven't ever used a vehicle or mh repair facility) but as l get older may choose to do so for 'heavier' jobs. One aspect that doesn't worry me is electrical faults as that is my hobby and working background so that faults that occur on my mh I see as opportunities for enjoyment. As opposed to abject terror .

 

[Jands]

I enjoy fixing and tinkering with things.
Is the electrics and plumbing accessible or built in?
My thoughts are to get the basic MH and improve on that.
Sat TV, refillable gas, bbq point, rear view/parking camera, solar panels, extra lesure battery, inverter, alarm/security system, improved locks, spare wheel, etc.
Some would love to do myself but a bit worried of mucking it up as such an expensive purchase.
If getting things done I think I will be a pain in the ass as want it done exactly as I would try to do it, sorry in advance Vanbitz.

 

[Happy1]

Went new to get the engine and auto box combination we wanted and a long warranty so no hassles for the five years we plan to keep van - least that's what the sales guy said

Put down a big ish deposit and the finance rates are lower for a new van, not got enough dosh to fully pay for old or new van

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[teddybear]

If you go the new route you could have a long wait.last van ordered end of July originally told delivery should be Oct.finally delivered to dealers in December. After PDI and extras was ready for us in January

 

[hilldweller]

What is it with the 21st Century ?

I've lived all my life buying "second hand". Maybe "used".

So what is with "pre-loved", are people too posh now to buy second hand ?

It's either new or it's second hand.

Second hand is the thinking person's choice, let someone else take The Big Hit and fix all crap QA problems.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

What is it with the 21st Century ?

I've lived all my life buying "second hand". Maybe "used".

So what is with "pre-loved", are people too posh now to buy second hand ?

It's either new or it's second hand.

Second hand is the thinking person's choice, let someone else take The Big Hit and fix all crap QA problems.

Don't forget "vintage" or "classic."

People often use those terms when they mean second hand