Depreciation?

[Jaymacgee]

Hi after a week in the wilds of Scotland in a rented motorhome, we're thinking of buying one. Looking at good condition lowish mileage two/three year old six berth end lounge low profile models ( a 2015 Bailey 765 with 10,000 miles on it is the front runner), which seem to be in the £40-45k range. We are mindful that we may find we don't manage to use the motorhome enough - or the novelty might wear off - and we'd like to know roughly what it would sell for this time next year if we decided we should sell up. I appreciate no-one has a crystal ball, but could anyone give us an idea of what the vehicle's value might be in a year's time. I'd guess we'd use it for maybe ten weekends and four weeks of holidays in a year, maybe 3,000 miles in our first year. Thank you.

 

[EuroTrotters]

Buy the right one and it will, usually always sell.

Buy Winter, sell summer. Not usually as good a tip as caravans but often the best times.
Buy something rare and desirable. Buy a Swift 630L, many Brand Name variants and ten a penny, harder to sell on.
Buy with A/C and Automatic gearbox and you may have a better chance of selling at the end.

In almost 12 years and 4 Motorhomes, barely lost £10k in depreciation.
First Motorhome, as an example. Purchased a Eura Mobil 716, Mercedes SprintShift from ebay seller in December 2005 for £29,000, just 8,000 miles on the clock, 3 years old. Four years later, 45,000 miles Traded it a dealer for £28,750.

I hope this helps?

TM

 

[Dan and Jan]

Hello and welcome from Scotland it's easy to say, but buy right and you will love it, buy wrong and you will regret it.

Don't buy on a whim, do your research. It's a great budget use it wisely. Good luck.

 

[Jaymacgee]

Thank you both. Obsessing over this - taking our time is the key, I think!

 

[Chipster]

I buy a van to use. Not sell. Van must work for us first and foremost.

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[MC 55 FUN]

Hi after a week in the wilds of Scotland in a rented motorhome, we're thinking of buying one. Looking at good condition lowish mileage two/three year old six berth end lounge low profile models ( a 2015 Bailey 765 with 10,000 miles on it is the front runner), which seem to be in the £40-45k range. We are mindful that we may find we don't manage to use the motorhome enough - or the novelty might wear off - and we'd like to know roughly what it would sell for this time next year if we decided we should sell up. I appreciate no-one has a crystal ball, but could anyone give us an idea of what the vehicle's value might be in a year's time. I'd guess we'd use it for maybe ten weekends and four weeks of holidays in a year, maybe 3,000 miles in our first year. Thank you.

This may be of use to you :

https://www.practicalmotorhome.com/reviews/motorhome/31403-bailey-approach-autograph-765

As for depreciation, or cost of usage, we've seen examples of £120k Moho's being sold for £80k at just 2 years old & many others that seem to defy depreciation.

 

[Jaymacgee]

I buy a van to use. Not sell. Van must work for us first and foremost.

And there is our dilemma! Will we use it enough to justify it or will we decide after a year we don't or can't use it enough so choose to sell it and spend our hard earned money on other things? We need to be sure that if we decide it's not for us we won't be financially ruined!

 

[Chipster]

Well we are in a similar boat. We have a new A class van, are not yet retired so in other people's eyes, won't get value out of the van as we can't use it as often as they think we should. Thing is, this van is what we want and works for us. Unfortunately this is an expensive hobby and as we know we will suffer depreciation as the van was bought new. Maybe if you hope for 50% back at trade in time on a used van, and can swallow that, any extra will be a bonus. I'm in the camp that life is too short and get out there and enjoy as everything "nice" will cost a premium.

 

[MC 55 FUN]

And there is our dilemma! Will we use it enough to justify it or will we decide after a year we don't or can't use it enough so choose to sell it and spend our hard earned money on other things? We need to be sure that if we decide it's not for us we won't be financially ruined!

Agree that a Moho should be bought to use, however most get sold on at some point, or there would be no secondhand / used Moho's for sale, those with desirable layouts, useful payload, good provenance & in good condition will command a decent trade in or sale price in our experience.

 

[iandsm]

Depreciation is rightly a pain in the rear bumper but I look at it another way. We bought our A class new in 2008 for 52K we have since visited lots of places in the UK and tour Europe every year. I have worked out we have spent around three years living and travelling in it when adding all our trips together. Now even with 73K on the clock it is immaculate inside and out having been looked after and it has a full service history. I know I could sell it and get around 25K or even a little more so in my book, bearing in mind all the places we have been and the enjoyment we have had it has been well worth the money. Of course I don't factor in diesel, servicing and fees but even so its money well spent in my view.

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[magicsurfbus]

Our first MH was bought new in 2005, and over the next 11 years we put around 5,000 miles a year on it. When we part-exchanged for a new one late last year we got close to half of its original list price, which I was quite happy with. However I imagine the bulk of its depreciation had occurred in the first few years.

Our 1975 VW Kombi, bought in 1997 for £3,000 and owned for 7 years had zero depreciation. We sold it for £3,000 in 2004.

 

[SpeedyDux]

Having hired one must be a big help in the decision process. Most first time MHers change theirs 3 times until they find one that suits them best. We kept our previous (first) campervan for 10 happy years, and I'm hoping we made a good choice again with our new replacement MH, which we chose after years of research. If you intend to keep it for 7 or 10 years, or longer, buying new can make sense especially if you choose a make and layout that always has a strong following in the used market.

The nearly new used MHs (up to 3 year olds) we also viewed seemed overpriced by dealers, because they were asking roughly the original list price. Obviously, there will be factory options and extra kit fitted by the first owners, but that isn't enough to justify the high asking prices. The likely explanation seems to be the used MH market is currently very buoyant and the average length of time of first ownership is still currently about 7 years so there is a shortage of nearly new MHs. If a 2015 MH has been traded in after only 2 years the first owners took the big depreciation hit, but it raises the obvious question: why didn't they want to keep it?

At this time of year the dealers need to shift their remaining 2017 new stock off the forecourt to make room for the 2018 models, so there are potential deals to be struck with big discounts, which would bring the new price closer to what you might pay for a similar 2 or 3 year old MH.

 

[peterc10]

Bought our first motorhome in July 2013. It was a 2008 Adria c class with a popular layout of 2 fixed singles over a large garage. Paid £30,000 for it. P/Xed it in November 2015 for £28,000 and the dealer sold it for more than I had paid for it.

If I had sold it privately I probably could have broken even on it.

Motorhoming has become very popular and depreciation is much lower than that for cars. Buy a well made secondhand model with a popular layout at a good price and you should be OK.

 

[Silver-Fox]

And there is our dilemma! Will we use it enough to justify it or will we decide after a year we don't or can't use it enough so choose to sell it and spend our hard earned money on other things? We need to be sure that if we decide it's not for us we won't be financially ruined!

If you used the MoHo say 3 times and with fuel and maybe camp sites you spent £600.

Now if you were to holiday here or abroad 3 times and the cost was a total of £7000

You have saved £6400

If you lose say £5000 on selling the MoHo you are still up financially even after paying for insurance etc.

Having said that if you are having doubts about buying you maybe better of not buying in the first place?

 

[CazPaul]

That's why you need to buy a second hand one to start with at 15k-20k, then you can sell it for no/not much loss.

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[pappajohn]

Biggest depreciation on a new van is the day you sign the purchase agreement.
It becomes second hand with a previous owner on the V5.

 

[Northernraider]

Personally I'd buy a slightly older higher end van..... I've actually never lost money on any motorhomes I've owned buy a good one at the right price usually near end of season look after it well and if you decide to sell it then aim to sell it at the start of season
You'll often get back what you paid.... Sometimes more

 

[irnbru]

Thank you both. Obsessing over this - taking our time is the key, I think!

Spending your money wisely and subscribing might be the best purchase you will make.

 

[Lenny HB]

Our first Hymer sold at nearly 6 years old depredation was 5% a year, the last one we traded at just under 3 years old lost 4% a year on that one but we did trade it in Belgium ad got 12k more than UK dealers were offering.
UK market thends to be a rip off we always import our vans.

 

[The Wino]

If you want to minimise the risk of losing on depreciation buy and sell privately or you are paying the dealer twice!!

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[Blue Knight]

Jay,

I would also take the time (lots of time) to shop around as we found that different dealers can offer PX deals which are much-much better than others.

Example: We bought our first MH late last year (an Autotrail) but realised soon enough that we didn't like it so we revisited the supplying dealer '9-weeks' later after purchase to be told that our van had lost £10,500 (or 23%) of its initial value against one of their new vans.

"Stuff that", we thought, so we spent the next 2-months visiting a whole load of dealers only to break even and get a really good deal on a continental van.

If you can be bothered to put the time in then it will save you thousands.

That being said it would be cheaper to make the right choice in the first instance

All the best,

Andrew

 

[Northernraider]

I'm biased of course but having owned quite a few different conversations I'd always buy a continental van these days.
There's one major difference usually and that is most of the continental builders are motorhome builders and always have been whereas UK manufacturers many were caravan makers who branched in to motorhomes and whilst some are better than others I've never seen the same quality build as the continental vans....yet many attempt to achieve the same premium.

 

[Lenny HB]

I'm biased of course but having owned quite a few different conversations I'd always buy a continental van these days.
There's one major difference usually and that is most of the continental builders are motorhome builders and always have been whereas UK manufacturers many were caravan makers who branched in to motorhomes and whilst some are better than others I've never seen the same quality build as the continental vans....yet many attempt to achieve the same premium.

Also worth buying LHD as you can sell or trade in any country.

 

[Northernraider]

Also worth buying LHD as you can sell or trade in any country.

Yeah I have to admit that's the one thing the van I've just bought isn't.... I'd have preferred lhd but just not many frankias around in the price range and there were no lhd
I'm hoping when on the continent that isn't going to cause me too much problems

 

[mikebeaches]

Yeah I have to admit that's the one thing the van I've just bought isn't.... I'd have preferred lhd but just not many frankias around in the price range and there were no lhd
I'm hoping when on the continent that isn't going to cause me too much problems

We, along with many Brits in RHD vans, tour perfectly happily on the continent. Really doesn't bother me at all.

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[Lenny HB]

We prefer LHD but wouldn't bother me driving a RHD its the fact that its so much easier to sell a LHD. Trading our last van got 12k more in Belgium than UK dealers were offering.

 

[MichaelT]

We prefer LHD but wouldn't bother me driving a RHD its the fact that its so much easier to sell a LHD. Trading our last van got 12k more in Belgium than UK dealers were offering.

Probably a lot less now with the exchange rate?

 

[beltsandbraces]

We bought without doing our homework and sure we paid over the odds going through a dealer, was beating myself up over it for a while. Could have bought privately for about 4k less but as the summer months loomed in the prices started rising, then take into account the options on our van satellite solar etc and the fact that it has been back under warranty for a new shower tray and fridge, I now think buying through a dealer was a good idea. And you don't buy something these days and expect to get your money back.

 

[Lenny HB]

Probably a lot less now with the exchange rate?

As we were trading wouldn't have made a lot of odds as it was only the difference & the VAT that were effected by the exchange rate @ 1.10 instead of 1.18 when we did the deal would only have made £1600 difference so would still have saved over 23k.

 

[Meander n Izzy]

Not sure if this will help as it is USA origins
Three years old – 26.6% depreciation (meaning 26.7% of the price you paid new is now gone)
Four years old – 28.4% depreciation (better than a Class A at this point by two percentage points)
Five years old – 37.6% depreciation (slightly worse than a Class A by two points)
Six years old – 39.54% depreciation
Seven years old – 40% depreciation
Eight years old – 44% depreciation
Ten years old – 51.69% depreciation
Thirteen years old – 64% depreciation
Fifteen years old – 69% depreciation
Twenty years old – 83% depreciation