That sweet spot

Grianan

Grianan

Joined
Feb 18, 2018
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South Ayrshire
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52,460
MH
Globecar Campscout
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Since 2018
Seeing posts of people selling their vans after a relatively short period makes me wonder .... is there a ‘sweet spot’ for minimising how much you lose when selling on a van bought from new?

Just for clarity, I’m not thinking of selling ours on ... I had thought we’d think about it in 3 years time when my son (hopefully) goes to uni ... just to see if another van makes more sense then.

But we don’t do our first trip abroad until August ... who knows what we’ll be thinking after that ?.
 
I bought mine with the intention of keeping it. Have had it five years now and got no reason to sell it. I know it’s loosing value but what ever you buy will. You only live once just enjoy while you can. It’s a 2010 and I still see me having it in ten years time.
 
I wish I knew the 'sweet spot'! If we buy the yacht we're looking at on Tuesday our less than one year old PVC will be up for sale. It wasn't the way we intended things to go but hey ho :whistle:
 
I bought ours just over a year ago, after being without a motorhome for 7 years. We thought it was everything we wanted, similar layout to our last van (rear lounge). We used it a lot during the year, and identified a few things that could have been better. Our van, although similar in layout, was a metre shorter, didn't have the over cab bed (where we stored our bedding), the bathroom was smaller (so we've never used the shower), and had no cabinet in the centre of the 'U', so nowhere to put your beer! We've just traded her in for our 'forever van' and lost £4000 in the year. Hopefully now we have the last van we'll ever need, but who knows ;-)
 
Grianan said:
Seeing posts of people selling their vans after a relatively short period makes me wonder .... is there a ‘sweet spot’ for minimising how much you lose when selling on a van bought from new?

Just for clarity, I’m not thinking of selling ours on ... I had thought we’d think about it in 3 years time when my son (hopefully) goes to uni ... just to see if another van makes more sense then.

But we don’t do our first trip abroad until August ... who knows what we’ll be thinking after that ?.
Click to expand...

We did similar to what you're thinking, when our daughter started Uni 4 years ago we downsized from a 7.5m coachbuilt to a 6.4 pvc. Our main reason for this was so Lorraine could drive it on her own to visit Sophie if I was working the weekend, our intention was to change back to something slightly bigger but we're quite happy with what we have just now.

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lorger said:
We did similar to what you're thinking, when our daughter started Uni 4 years ago we downsized from a 7.5m coachbuilt to a 6.4 pvc. Our main reason for this was so Lorraine could drive it on her own to visit Sophie if I was working the weekend, our intention was to change back to something slightly bigger but we're quite happy with what we have just now.
Click to expand...

Ours is a 6.4m PVC so can’t imagine downsizing again ... but we chose this model as my hubbie can just manage the longitudinal bed length wise and my teenage son fitted in the 3rd bed ... though that’s a ‘just’ now too!!
 
Grianan said:
Ours is a 6.4m PVC so can’t imagine downsizing again ... but we chose this model as my hubbie can just manage the longitudinal bed length wise and my teenage son fitted in the 3rd bed ... though that’s a ‘just’ now too!!
Click to expand...

As we both still work fulltime and until this month I was a shift worker so we found the PVC was ideal for quick getaways, we might change it when we retire as we plan to head overseas for 6 months at a time so bigger van might be better but who knows.
 
lorger said:
As we both still work fulltime and until this month I was a shift worker so we found the PVC was ideal for quick getaways, we might change it when we retire as we plan to head overseas for 6 months at a time so bigger van might be better but who knows.
Click to expand...

We’re in same boat. It’s been great for quick weekends away. We’ve got another 9 years till retirement ?. I’d be happy to go in 4 but think we need to see son through uni. Then, longer trips abroad beckon for us too.
 
We expected to swap after 3 to 4 years but 5+ years on we expect to keep it a while yet. The "sweet spot" for depreciation is the longest you can go before feeling there's something quite a bit better at a price you can afford!

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After successfully buying our "perfect" van first time 10 years ago we've never seen anything else that would make us want to dip into our savings and replace it. Yes it's depreciating but not at an horrendous rate (as tends to happen in the first couple of years) so unless it develops a major problem, we're sticking with it.

We've got a good idea of it's current value as we did take a serious look at a possible replacement and had got as far as negotiations before we spotted a potential problem.
 
I do not know about a 'sweet spot' but I (before we were 'we') bought our N&B Arto at 6 years old 10 years ago as a first MH. No reason to sell, but an almost identical Arto was advertised recently for £1,000 more than I paid.

May that 'sweet spot' continue for many years.

N.B. seem to retain their value due to quality build, no damp etc., so may not apply to other marques.

Geoff
 
Just a comment but I can tell you when the “sour” spot is
I believe a 12 month old van is worth very little less than a 12 day old van

1 day or 365 days is stratospheric depreciation, and then 1 to 5 years is a gentler slope
5 to 10 years is even gentler, although Euro level my be a bigger influence in the medium term

Only My opinion and others may have experienced differently
 

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