COVID and the housing market

Priller said:
We're in the market for a used small travel trailer, and I'll tell you, RV prices haven't dropped as much as I'd like. Sure, they're down from peak Covid insanity when you'd struggle to find a new one, but they've been pretty flat over the past couple years and are still well up from pre-Covid prices. Like houses, they're still selling steadily but not being snapped up instantly like they were.

If you could find anything you could actually live full-time in for $12k, you'd be laughing. The price of motorhomes is so high that I struggle to understand the business model. Just how many people are out there who are dropping $150k plus on a badly built campervan?
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No idea where you live, but if you're in the west end (or don't mind the drive) go see Calvin at Ruston RV in Burlington...family owned business since 1968 and we had a great experience when we bought ours back in November 2023...we picked up a 2019 for $19,999 while there were three exact same units at other dealers for $5-10,000 more...Calvin spent two hours after they closed with us and then Ethan did a fantastic job with the walk through...no issues at all other than some minor wear and tear inside...
 
Scuba Steve said:
I paid under $100000 Canadian for ours new in 2022 Winnebago solis 59P. Bought it new flew to New Mexico picked it up and drove it home. Couldn't find a used one in Canada for close to the same price.

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I've checked US prices on Pleasureway's. We get a better deal up here. They are built in Saskatchewan.
Plus I want the warranty.
 
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AllistonGT said:
I've checked US prices on Pleasureway's. We get a better deal up here. They are built in Saskatchewan.
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Similar for the Canadian-built trailers. We've looked at Safari Condo (best in the business, but pricey, especially when you option them out), Prolite (interesting designs, extremely light and reasonably priced, but a bit small for us bar one model nobody carries), Escape (nice fibreglass units but no dealers), and General Coach (too big for us). There's also the super old-school Taylor Coach from nearby Millgrove who do custom units. All are light years ahead of the Indiana brands, some for not much more. Unfortunately for us, that reputation for quality also translates into high resale, so deals are a lot harder to find.

ifiddles said:
No idea where you live, but if you're in the west end (or don't mind the drive) go see Calvin at Ruston RV in Burlington...family owned business since 1968 and we had a great experience when we bought ours back in November 2023...we picked up a 2019 for $19,999 while there were three exact same units at other dealers for $5-10,000 more...Calvin spent two hours after they closed with us and then Ethan did a fantastic job with the walk through...no issues at all other than some minor wear and tear inside...
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We've actually been to Ruston a few times as they're just across the bridge from us, and seen them at a couple RV shows. We've also rented RV's bought there, and you're not the first to speak highly of them, which is unusual in an RV business that seems to specialise in disappointing people. Unfortunately, they haven't had anything that was a fit used, and the Coachmen lines they carry new haven't ended up being our first choice.
 
@Priller actually, there are a few good dealers around who have a good reputation...Niagara Trailers, Smithville RV and Keith's Trailers (but they're north of Erin) are some other places we visited and had they had what we wanted, would not have hesitated to buy from...we (well I) actually found ours on Marketplace (Ruston had it posted Saturday around midnight, and I messaged right away, then called first thing Monday to set up a time to go see it)...the brands you chose are great Canadian builders and we're looking to hopefully get either a Northlander or General Coach park model in a few years once we retire...good luck!
 
Priller said:
We're in the market for a used small travel trailer, and I'll tell you, RV prices haven't dropped as much as I'd like. Sure, they're down from peak Covid insanity when you'd struggle to find a new one, but they've been pretty flat over the past couple years and are still well up from pre-Covid prices. Like houses, they're still selling steadily but not being snapped up instantly like they were.

If you could find anything you could actually live full-time in for $12k, you'd be laughing. The price of motorhomes is so high that I struggle to understand the business model. Just how many people are out there who are dropping $150k plus on a badly built campervan?
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Google RV delamination and you get lots of hits. A friend has a trailer / RV and his supposedly "Higher end" one was delaminating in a few years. He shrugged it off as an acceptable evil and does his own fixes by pouring epoxy into the wall and squeezing the wall back together.

It came with an undersized axle that stranded him in the USA until some good old boys bailed him out.

IIRC he bought his in the USA because the Canadian dealer was either messing up or thought that having that line was a license to print money.
 
nobbie48 said:
Google RV delamination and you get lots of hits. A friend has a trailer / RV and his supposedly "Higher end" one was delaminating in a few years. He shrugged it off as an acceptable evil and does his own fixes by pouring epoxy into the wall and squeezing the wall back together.

It came with an undersized axle that stranded him in the USA until some good old boys bailed him out.

IIRC he bought his in the USA because the Canadian dealer was either messing up or thought that having that line was a license to print money.
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Might as well continue the full derail at this point...

They're mostly all built like crap, especially the volume brands out of Indiana, which is 95% of the models out there. It used to be there were a few brands that stood out, e.g. Winnebago, Airstream, Grand Design, but consolidation and the ravages of Covid greed have meant that even those brands are now junk. Cheap-light-good is an impossible Venn diagram. Azdel in place of luan has helped delam somewhat, or at least it makes repairs a bit easier, but

The light-good ones (Safari Condo, Escape, Oliver, Casita, General Coach, etc.) are 3-6x the cost, so definitely not cheap. That adds up fast for something we'd only use 5-7 times per year, especially when it takes us from paying cash to having to borrow with the associated interest, even at HELOC rates. At the moment, we have our eyes on a pre-Covid 2019 Winnebago Micro Minnie 2106DS that seems well maintained, is up for <$20k and ticks all our very specific boxes (tandem axle, <4000 lbs, sofa, 7' wide). Definitely not a top-drawer model, but as long as it has been and will be maintained, should do what we need it to do...
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