How much will a motorhome depreciate?

forestfern

forestfern

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I realise this is far from an exact science and is subject to supply & demand. But having agreed to buy our motorhome last weekend, hubby is now wondering how much it will depreciate in say, 5 years.
Is there a % guide? Roughly? Or any personal experience you can draw on?
(The MH we’re buying is a 3 yr old 4 belt 4 berth Rollerteam)
 
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I reckon diesel prices will seriously reduce the price of our MHs in the next few years. I have literally just gotten a year old one. The seller made a profit. However, down here there is often 30p per litre difference vs petrol. Unless an alternative diesel fuel is released soon-ish, diesel will become very very expensive and people won't use it, killing our vans dead. HVO (Biodiesel) could provide a short term stop gap, but diesel is dead. We can't farm vast swathes of land to produce veg oil, it's not sustainable. Just what the Government want. Hauliers will still get by as they simply increase their prices which is passed on to us.
 
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andysam said:
I reckon diesel prices will seriously reduce the price of our MHs in the next few years. I have literally just gotten a year old one. The seller made a profit. However, down here there is often 30p per litre difference vs petrol. Unless an alternative diesel fuel is released soon-ish, diesel will become very very expensive and people won't use it, killing our vans dead. HVO (Biodiesel) could provide a short term stop gap, but diesel is dead. We can't farm vast swathes of land to produce veg oil, it's not sustainable. Just what the Government want. Hauliers will still get by as they simply increase their prices which is passed on to us.
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I don't see it as a problem with people paying upwards of 60k for a budget Motorhome and plenty paying over 100k a few hundred quid a year more for fuel is not going to worry us.
 
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Our from new, 5 year old roller team (690) appreciated £5 in 5 years and part exchanged it for a new roller team (685) which cost £15K more.
From my point of view the roller teams when purchased new were of equivalent value (about the same price just different style) in that we were in the same position 5 years ago as we are today.
The dealer had no issues putting the van up for £8K more than we paid for it and it went quickly though I obviously dont know what they got for it
If we were to buy the 685 again today (purchased 1 year ago) it would cost me £13K more than we paid
Although our current van is a year old now, I have had to fork out for an alarm, extra solar, lithium, blinds, gas, tracker and would suspect we would get about 7 or 8K more than we paid for it (on a private sale) owing to the 5K ish of extras we put on it.

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Correction to the market is correct, the Covid factor saw sales soar most of which probably spend more time on a driveway or in storage rather than on a campsite. Now that travel abroad has returned pretty much pre-covid sooner or later there will be a glut of second hand vehicles which logically should affect the price being asked by dealers. Manufactorers of new MH's have had their glory days price wise in my opinion and with the Cost of Living thrown into the mix will at some point have to revise their profit margin's
 
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Elddis have closed their order books for 2023. If a buyer doesn't opt for what the dealer has specced for the forecourt they'll need to wait until 2024.
A few of the manufacturers are beginning to turn away from the Stellantis built vans due to cost & availability and are increasing their use of Ford which are cheaper to buy and have longer warranties. Wont be long before we see the first A Class built on the platform.
All of the premium Chausson are now Ford only and the mid range Roller Team-the Auto Roller is now on a Ford too. Hymer have recently signed an 8 year deal with them meaning more of the premium German brands will begin to sport the blue oval.

There seems to be no end in sight.

We paid £52k for our motorhome back in June 2020, same van now is £72k. A preloved same specced, same age, same mileage F Line is currently sitting on a well known forecourt for £63k, a full 10k more than what the owner paid for it originally... and this is traditionally the slowest time of year.
 
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Lenny HB said:
Same here ended up spending £20k over our max budget & had to pay quite a bit more the wrong side of £100k it's price protected and it was offset by the higher trade in price. At the rate they are going up in price it would have been silly to wait.
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Similar story here. Ordered at Birmingham show, excellent trade in price, spent more than we were going to but fixed price for new van for delivery next year.
 
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Lenny HB said:
I don't see it as a problem with people paying upwards of 60k for a budget Motorhome and plenty paying over 100k a few hundred quid a year more for fuel is not going to worry us.
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A tank of fuel cost £150-£170 for the average van currently. If that doubled overnight, I guarantee people would consider whether "popping away for the weekend" was practical/affordable...it would concern/bother me. When that happens, demand for vans will decrease dramatically, together with their value.

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Our last MH was a 2016 model which we brought second hand for £54k, used it for 3.5 very enjoyable years. Traded in for a 2019 model last September and guess what, we got £54k trade-in. So, you could say we had 3.5 years of use for £Nil. Other than servicing, maintenance, tax and insurance. so probably £1kpa.

Incidentally my car lost over £17k for the same period, although, I did put 75,000 miles on it.
 
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andysam said:
A tank of fuel cost £150-£170 for the average van currently. If that doubled overnight, I guarantee people would consider whether "popping away for the weekend" was practical/affordable...it would concern/bother me. When that happens, demand for vans will decrease dramatically, together with their value.
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So what will people with vans do? Not use them? Same will apply to diesel cars I suppose. Doubling overnight? Not too sure about that.
 
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No, misquote there! I'm not saying it will double overnight, it was an example that if it did would people still use their vans as much. I think the answer is no.
 
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andysam said:
No, misquote there! I'm not saying it will double overnight, it was an example that if it did would people still use their vans as much. I think the answer is no.
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Possibly, possibly not. My trip to Croatia this summer cost nearly twice as much as it did 2 years earlier in that summer 'gap' in covid. I know diesel prices were very low at that time, but it didn't deter me this time around. I just make cuts elsewhere, if I can. I don't know what my threshold is, but what's the choice? Stay home? Get on a plane? At the moment diesel is the only real choice motorhomers have, there doesn't seem to be many electric motorhomes on the horizon at the moment, Don't get me wrong, I think phasing out diesel/petrol is a good thing and if I could have bought an electric PVC this time I would have seriously considered it. I'm not a climate change cynic, far from it! At 62 I'll probably be in the last wave of diesel motorhomes, but who knows? At the moment motorhomes keep going up in price, but the bubble will burst. Anyway, there I go again, rambling off topic!

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Thank you 😊
All these posts have made for good reading and are food for thought
We are paying cash for our MH out of our savings and the other half has started having night sweats about our potential pension pot, (which for the first time in years would have returned more than 0.01% and actually made a little money) dwindling if we invest in a motorhome.
I say if because although we have paid the deposit, I would rather lose that than have him moaning and unable to sleep for the next X amount of years which would considerably reduce the fun we had planned in travelling in it.
I was unaware he hadn’t fully considered the impact of parting with our money, or what the other expenses might be,(yes it had all been discussed and we have been looking for some months) this is our first MH ever (we are in our late fifties) and “doing the deal” appears to have tipped him over the edge in terms of worry which he does quite well unaided
I guess I was basically looking for some sort of reassurance that our £53k might be worth at least two thirds of that in say 5 years when we plan to sell it when it’s about 9 years old.
Or before if we desperately need funds for something major, health etc.
really appreciate your comments and thank you again
 
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forestfern said:
Thank you 😊
All these posts have made for good reading and are food for thought
We are paying cash for our MH out of our savings and the other half has started having night sweats about our potential pension pot, (which for the first time in years would have returned more than 0.01% and actually made a little money) dwindling if we invest in a motorhome.
I say if because although we have paid the deposit, I would rather lose that than have him moaning and unable to sleep for the next X amount of years which would considerably reduce the fun we had planned in travelling in it.
I was unaware he hadn’t fully considered the impact of parting with our money, or what the other expenses might be,(yes it had all been discussed and we have been looking for some months) this is our first MH ever (we are in our late fifties) and “doing the deal” appears to have tipped him over the edge in terms of worry which he does quite well unaided
I guess I was basically looking for some sort of reassurance that our £52k might be worth at least two thirds of that in say 5 years when we plan to sell it when it’s about 9 years old.
Or before if we desperately need funds for something major, health etc.
really appreciate your comments and thank you again
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Look at it another way, look at the amount of enjoyment you will get out of it. Use it for say 120 to 150 nights a year and compare how much that would cost you in hotels, you will be quids in.
Just don't mention to him when you decide to upgrade in a year or two you will be spending twice that.:LOL:
 
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I agree that you get maximum benefit from maximum use. We travel a great deal not only in our MH. But without any doubt factoring in fuel, campsites, food it is the most economical way to see places that during your working life was not possible. if I sold our van today I am totally confident of getting my money back and I don’t expect things to change for many many months.
 
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We lost 10k on our last Motorhome which we had for just over 16yrs and did 70k miles in it.
£625 a year loss. Averaged 4.375k a year but didn’t use it for 2yrs because of covid.

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forestfern said:
Thank you 😊
All these posts have made for good reading and are food for thought
We are paying cash for our MH out of our savings and the other half has started having night sweats about our potential pension pot, (which for the first time in years would have returned more than 0.01% and actually made a little money) dwindling if we invest in a motorhome.
I say if because although we have paid the deposit, I would rather lose that than have him moaning and unable to sleep for the next X amount of years which would considerably reduce the fun we had planned in travelling in it.
I was unaware he hadn’t fully considered the impact of parting with our money, or what the other expenses might be,(yes it had all been discussed and we have been looking for some months) this is our first MH ever (we are in our late fifties) and “doing the deal” appears to have tipped him over the edge in terms of worry which he does quite well unaided
I guess I was basically looking for some sort of reassurance that our £53k might be worth at least two thirds of that in say 5 years when we plan to sell it when it’s about 9 years old.
Or before if we desperately need funds for something major, health etc.
really appreciate your comments and thank you again
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I fully understand your partners reservations. £53k is a big lump out of savings. If only you had a crystal ball. As you've got this far, I assume you've both set your hearts on a MH. The way to look at it is to say, yes, we're going to pay a large chunk of savings, but should you need to sell you'll get a good chunk of it back, whether its two thirds in 5 years who knows. A solution might be to buy something a lot less expensive, say half what you're looking at now, that way you've still got £20+k savings. and probably have just as much fun in a £20k MH as you can in a £100k one.
 
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All I can say is that with over 13 years of use, due to my ill health I sold my Motorhome to a dealer for £11,000 les than I paid for it.

I could have got more if I had decided to go private but nasty Chemo was a week away and did not want the hassle.

A lot of pressure was taken off Yvonne, but funnily I got the same price offer from a dealer in Fareham as a dealer 3 miles away.

I went with the local dealer and I must say I had the money in the bank an hour after signing the sale.

Very pleased due to the situation we were in, sometimes money is not everything and it would have been in storage for over a year, depreciating as well as the tax, insurance, service costs and storage fees

Which would have come to around £3000 and that’s if nothing major occurred!

As I am now, we would not be using the van for at least 2 years so do the math, I now lost around around £6000+ so the van would have cost me £5000 over 15 years.

Not to bad I think
 
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People won't buy diesel at £2 litre or more ? I remember people saying that at £1 litre.

Going abroad for a holiday is not as cheap as it was, okay if you live near the London airports its cheap but for provincial airports its a lot dearer to fly.

B & B ? has anyone used one lately ? aren't their prices increasing ? look at the price of going for a coffee and cake nowadays !
 
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We began with our first van in 2012, a 20 months old auto trail and traded it in about 2 years later almost for what we paid for it against our burstner, which at that time was 6 months old. Traded that in after nearly 6 years of use for 10k less than we paid for it. (Got no consideration for extras we had fitted). Bought our carthago a year ago and that vehicle today new would cost about 10% more than we paid for it.
Depreciation hasn’t been huge over the last 10 years but demand has been at record levels and taking into account the amount of usage I consider motorhomes to be one of the better assets to put money into. The big conundrum is will that continue?
 
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I've had my 2016 Carthago for just over two years, having paid 62K. Just out of curiosity I rang one of those "we want motorhomes" advertisers a month or so back and, whilst there was no definitive offer, he indicated that a figure "starting with a five" was the likely outcome. Clearly I would not have got my money back, particularly having spent a fair bit on solar & lithium. Perhaps these magazine advertisers are not really representative of what is a likely price.

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Buy a piece of string, make it one length, then either make it longer or shorter, use that as your guide, that I would say is the best idea you can get in this day and age for a valuation. You just have to spend an hour or two looking online and will see there really is no formula to use, it is just supply and demand, and what individuals are willing to pay, dealers totally different animal.
We purchased our motorhome 15 months ago and recently was offered 7K more than we paid for it in 2021.
 
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What I would say is that you are a long time dead. It is literally a gamble. We recently went all inclusive to the med for 10 days for just £790 for 2 of us. I can't see our van dropping more than 50% (£25k) in the next 10 years, but we have agreed together no more holidays that do not involve the van. You pays your money and takes your chances. It's not as if I am oblivious as to what MIGHT happen.
 
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cyberyacht said:
I've had my 2016 Carthago for just over two years, having paid 62K. Just out of curiosity I rang one of those "we want motorhomes" advertisers a month or so back and, whilst there was no definitive offer, he indicated that a figure "starting with a five" was the likely outcome. Clearly I would not have got my money back, particularly having spent a fair bit on solar & lithium. Perhaps these magazine advertisers are not really representative of what is a likely price.
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When I advertised my last motorhome in 2018 (Sunlight T67 LHD 2014) I was targeted by quite a lot of the 'we want your motorhome' types. They were offering, frankly, quite insulting prices, so your assumptions about them are correct! I don't know what they are paying these days, though.
 
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forestfern said:
I realise this is far from an exact science and is subject to supply & demand. But having agreed to buy our motorhome last weekend, hubby is now wondering how much it will depreciate in say, 5 years.
Is there a % guide? Roughly? Or any personal experience you can draw on?
(The MH we’re buying is a 3 yr old 4 belt 4 berth Rollerteam)
Click to expand...
Before parting with any money check out the problems The Rolling Rucks had with a RollerTeam van, on You Tube.
((( Roller Team Void Warranty on a New Motorhome SOFT FLOOR ISSUES))
 
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Soycd said:
Similar story here. Ordered at Birmingham show, excellent trade in price, spent more than we were going to but fixed price for new van for delivery next year.
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Incidentally, the price of the same make/model/spec has now risen by 4.9%. It's the cost of the base vehicle (Fiat Ducato) that has increased, not the PVC manufacturers part. Just glad we got our price guaranteed. Something has to give at some stage, prices can't keep increasing at these rates........

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andysam said:
I reckon diesel prices will seriously reduce the price of our MHs in the next few years. I have literally just gotten a year old one. The seller made a profit. However, down here there is often 30p per litre difference vs petrol. Unless an alternative diesel fuel is released soon-ish, diesel will become very very expensive and people won't use it, killing our vans dead. HVO (Biodiesel) could provide a short term stop gap, but diesel is dead. We can't farm vast swathes of land to produce veg oil, it's not sustainable. Just what the Government want. Hauliers will still get by as they simply increase their prices which is passed on to us.
Click to expand...
If you have just Got a one year old one, as somebody else has commented, the cost of fuel for it should not be a great concern unless you intend doing huge mileages.
 
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