CA Mom
California
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Bumpyroad wrote:make a reasonable offer, perhaps both the owner and firm will take a little less money, when I had one on consignment, I gave a little. I told the firm the minimum I wanted in pocket and they dropped their cut a bit to be able to make a deal.
bumpy
Thanks for the advice. I spoke with the dealership owner late last week. He told me that since there is a loan on the unit, the owner won't budge on his price of $46K. In the meantime, the website now lists the unit for $3K more than it was listed for last week! The salesman told me today that it is being returned to the owner since they cannot sell it for such a high price.
I don't know who to believe, but I think we have decided to avoid that dealership in the future!
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Bumpyroad
Virginia
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CA Mom wrote:Bumpyroad wrote:make a reasonable offer, perhaps both the owner and firm will take a little less money, when I had one on consignment, I gave a little. I told the firm the minimum I wanted in pocket and they dropped their cut a bit to be able to make a deal.
bumpy
Thanks for the advice. I spoke with the dealership owner late last week. He told me that since there is a loan on the unit, the owner won't budge on his price of $46K. In the meantime, the website now lists the unit for $3K more than it was listed for last week! The salesman told me today that it is being returned to the owner since they cannot sell it for such a high price.
I don't know who to believe, but I think we have decided to avoid that dealership in the future!
why are you holding this against the dealer? the seller set his terms.
bumpy
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CA Mom
California
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Bumpyroad wrote:why are you holding this against the dealer? the seller set his terms.
bumpy
Good point. I suppose we would go back there if there was something else we saw that we liked. However, it would have saved a lot of time if they had written "firm" next to the price, or consignment unit. Then we wouldn't have taken the time to drive it, like it, and not buy it. But obviously they want to bring customers in to buy any unit, not just the advertised one, so I can understand their business model.
Oh well, we aren't in a hurry. Another one will come along.
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pnichols
Santa Cruz Mountains
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Joined: 04/26/2005
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You've been given some excellent advice in many posts above.
Notice that my rig is a 2005 Itasca 324V on the E450 chassis that we bought in early 2006 new after looking all over the US for over a year for just the right short Class C motorhome.
I agree most with what tatest said on the first page of the previous responses. Here's some extra inputs on how we made our decision:
- We did not want a Ford V10 earlier than 2005 to ensure that we would get the 5-speed Torqueflight computer controlled tranny with the Tow/Haul mode.
- We wanted the E450 optional chassis over the E350 to get a wider rear stance for improved side to side stability, larger brakes, better tranny cooling, hydraulic power brakes instead of vacuum, larger torsion bars, and unlimited (with respect to a 24 footer) excess cargo carrying capacity.
- We wanted a single piece molded and crowned fiberglass roof with rolled front and rear end caps.
- We wanted to start with the dual coach battery option, which we easily upgraded later to AGM technology for each battery and a larger size for each battery. With the huge excess weight carrying capacity of the E450 and a 24 footer, we can add all the battery capacity we want as needed to improve upon our current 200 amp hour capacity.
- We wanted the largest stock grey water, black water, freshwater, and propane tank capacities we could find in a 24 footer. Winnebago and Itasca had the largest capacities with respect to all four tank types taken in compromise combination - including Bornfree, Bigfoot, and Lazy Daze. (For instance, Bigfoot had a larger FW tank, but smaller grey and black tanks.) With the huge excess weight carrying capacity of the E450 and a 24 footer, we can add all the freshwater capacity we want as needed to increase our stock 46 gallon capacity.
- We wanted as small a step up height as possible between the cab and coach commensurate with reasonable outside basement storage capacity. Bigfoot had a very large step here (but with large outside storage cubic footage), Jamboree/Tioga had almost no floor height differential, hence no step (but with minimal outside storage). Winnie/Itasca in their 324V had pretty good outside storage spread across their six outside storage bins - with two of these storage areas going clear across the coach laterally for shovels, fishing poles,etc.. Our 324V cab/coach floor height difference, at around 5 inches, is about one half that of the Bigfoot 24 foot Class C.
- We wanted a high capacity engine alternator for occasional chassis engine charging of possibly a large coach battery bank .... this ruled out a Chevy chassis because Ford's alternator (at 130 amps in 2005) was larger.
- We wanted twin queen beds with one always ready on the coach floor because my DW has a bad back and likes quick naps in the afternoons. We each use our own queen bed at night because she constantly needs to spread out and move to minimize/relieve her aching back. The moderate (but not too high) floor height of the Winnie/Itasca coach relative to the cab floor (and roof) makes use of the cabover queen bed pretty reasonable for young and old alike.
- We wanted a 24 footer for getting into small NFS/BLM remote dry camp sites if necessary, getting around and parking in towns and shopping centers, ease of handling on the open road, slightly better gas mileage, extended coach battery life in cold weather because the propane furnace fan run time would be less with the reduced interior volume of a non-slide 24 footer, and increased air conditioning comfort in extreme heat with the reduced interior volume of a non-slide 24 footer. We also wanted a rig with distributed floor heating ducts and distributed ceiling air conditioning ducts - which the Winnie/Itasca 24 footers' had.
We found the above criteria extremely difficult to find in a used Class C, or in even a new non-custom-ordered new Class C. We lucked out in finding a desperate-to-deal dealer who had one Itasca on his lot that met these criteria. My theory on why he couldn't get rid of this 2005 rig until we came along in 2006 is that it did NOT have a slide (we didn't want a slide, anyway, for improved compactness, weight, and reliability) ... and of course slides were/are becoming very popular.
I hope the above will be of some help .... have fun in your hunt!
* This post was
edited 09/16/08 04:41pm by pnichols *
Phil, 2005 E450 Itasca 324V Spirit
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CA Mom
California
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Phil, thanks for the detailed post and the reasoning behind your 24V purchase. We drove an Access 24V last weekend and really liked it. It had the E350 though, with 500 CCC. So I want to find one with the E450 and see what it feels like.
With the stock market being all crazy this past week, my husband and I decided to low lay for a couple of weeks and see what happens. We'd rather buy a good used motorhome and pay mostly cash instead of financing a brand new one in this economy. The search continues, it is just more subdued. Thanks for your great comments!
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CA Mom
California
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So, we are thinking of taking a serious look at a 2006 Winnebago Outlook 24V on the E350 chassis. It sounds like it is in great condition and comes with an extended warranty for another couple of years. It does need new tires since the current ones are dry rotted and cracked, according to a recent service report.
NADA online lists low retail at $38K and average retail at $46K. The owner is not in a hurry to sell and says that he is firm at $43K. Is this way over-priced in this market, or a good price for a hard to find 24V? Do you think that the E350 will serve us well if we aren't planning to tow anything?
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Bumpyroad
Virginia
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CA Mom wrote:So, we are thinking of taking a serious look at a 2006 Winnebago Outlook 24V on the E350 chassis. It sounds like it is in great condition and comes with an extended warranty for another couple of years. It does need new tires since the current ones are dry rotted and cracked, according to a recent service report.
NADA online lists low retail at $38K and average retail at $46K. The owner is not in a hurry to sell and says that he is firm at $43K. Is this way over-priced in this market, or a good price for a hard to find 24V? Do you think that the E350 will serve us well if we aren't planning to tow anything?
is that service report from an outfit wanting to sell him new tires? and in the average price range for a retail unit, if in great shape with warranty, go for it. Yes, somebody will pipe up "its a buyers market, yadda yadda yadda, they are giving them away, yadda yadda yadda. and somebody else will get a nice unit.
bumpy
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CA Mom
California
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Bumpyroad wrote:is that service report from an outfit wanting to sell him new tires? and in the average price range for a retail unit, if in great shape with warranty, go for it. Yes, somebody will pipe up "its a buyers market, yadda yadda yadda, they are giving them away, yadda yadda yadda. and somebody else will get a nice unit.
bumpy
I had the owner fax me a copy of the service invoice from last week. He sent me photos of the tires and they do look cracked, plus he admitted to me that they need replacing.
Thanks for your input! Now if we can just decide to part with any money in this economy of cutting back on purchasing anything....
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Bumpyroad
Virginia
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CA Mom wrote:Bumpyroad wrote:is that service report from an outfit wanting to sell him new tires? and in the average price range for a retail unit, if in great shape with warranty, go for it. Yes, somebody will pipe up "its a buyers market, yadda yadda yadda, they are giving them away, yadda yadda yadda. and somebody else will get a nice unit.
bumpy
I had the owner fax me a copy of the service invoice from last week. He sent me photos of the tires and they do look cracked, plus he admitted to me that they need replacing.
Thanks for your input! Now if we can just decide to part with any money in this economy of cutting back on purchasing anything....
but you are only really affected by "this economy" if you handled things wrong over the past few years. If you are OK, you are in the driver's seat, so to speak.
bumpy
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quark
Hillsborough NJ
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Bumpyroad wrote:but you are only really affected by "this economy" if you handled things wrong over the past few years. If you are OK, you are in the driver's seat, so to speak.
bumpy What's that suppose to mean? If the small company I work for fails due to "this economy", does that imply there was something I handled wrong in the past few years to cause it to affect me??
About the only way to be truly insulated, is to be retired with enough to live on in a savings account and even that doesn't protect you from inflation.
MH: 96 Ford E350 7.5 Fleetwood Jamboree Searcher
TV: 1995 Nissan Quest
VTT: 16' 1963 Yellowstone "Canned Ham"
Controller: Tekonsha P3
Hitch: Equil-i-zer .
http://www.vintage-yellowstone.com/
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