I may need t learn a new language

[Rex Mac]

Hi everyone,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read what may be a long and tiresome post.

I have a simple question to ask – How on Earth do you manage buy a motorhome?

I have read the guides here and in other locations, but I have yet to find myself in a position to utilise the information they have provided me with.

A little background information for you – We opted to buy a motorhome on my retirement in order to travel around the UK and Ireland. During my working days we were fortunate to have been able to visit many countries and furthermore we were always able to incorporate extended breaks in these places as an extra curricular holiday. We have visited so few places in our own country it seemed quite right to explore a little more at home.

We initially decided to set our budget at 70k ((GBP) inclusive of kitting out) which, to us seemed to be a reasonable starting point.

To date we have visited three dealerships, (I will not name them since they may not have the ability to see this post and as such will have no right of reply.) Here is where I am clearly going wrong.

Dealer #1 – We identified two vehicles of interest from their website. Each on the same chassis but just a slightly different layout. We called and booked an appointment to view both options at an agreed time.

On arrival (at the agreed time) only one of the vehicles was available for viewing. The Salesperson I booked the appointment with was in the building but too busy to see us immediately and would talk to us as soon as he was able to. 45 minutes later we left. The Guy who I booked an appointment with was probably still playing “virtual golf” or some other game and simply couldn't drag himself away from his fun.

Dealer #2 – Once again we identified one vehicle of interest. We booked an appointment to view our chosen chariot.

Guess what? - The guy we booked the appointment with didn't show up. No explanations given, nobody knew where he had gone. It seems he just evaporated and no-one else was interested or even cared that we might be interested in putting some cash into their pockets.

Dealer #3.

As before, appointment booked in advance. We turn up in a timely fashion. The sales guy has gone AWOL and nobody knows when he will be back. The rest of the team really are not interested at all that I might want to buy something.

Obviously, I am clearly lacking in my communication skills. How on earth do you talk with motorhome dealers?

 

[TerryL]

Hi Rex Mac and I'll also add my .

Let's just wind back a bit here (and ignore all that off-the-point nonsense). You've given us an idea of your budget and also inferred that you think you've found the motorhome you'd like. Have you yet had an opportunity to actually examine one in the flesh? And more to my point, have you looked at any others?

The first thing you need to sort out is the layout, and I'm with others who say a caravan is quite different to a m/h. You really, really need to have a good look at as many different layouts as you can before saying "this is the one" - I know that this is currently quite difficult and your experiences with the "trade" are very unfortunate. But until you've thoroughly researched the market you run the very real risk of spending a considerable sum on something that, in 6 months time, turns out to not quite be what you wanted - it's a well-known fact that it can take 3 vans before you get it right (although it is possible to get it right first time, we did**). It takes the shine off the motorhoming experience and can lose you a lot of money.

You are obviously looking at buying new, and I won't go into the pitfalls (and there are many!) but have you seriously considered buying pre-loved? There are a number of advantages - for a start any bugs have probably been ironed out, then it will almost certainly be cheaper and finally if you do find it's the "wrong" van you'll likely not lose as much and maybe not anything given the current market. There are still some gems about.

Try to visit as many dealers as possible, unannounced and with the view that you are "just looking" and have a good look at as many different layouts as you can - you'll quickly eliminate quite a few but I'd suggest keeping a written record of each one you look at. Yes, the choice is not as good as it used to be but don't fall into the trap, or be "persuaded" by a dealer, of being panicked into a rush purchase. If you'd give us an idea of your location (we don't need your address, postcode and bank details ), which you can put in your profile by the way, then we can recommend some of the better dealers as well as those to avoid.

Once you are clear what you want, don't forget to have a look at what's available from private sellers, obviously taking care about the source (Ebay has lots of scams but some great deals too). Then when you have your eye on a specific potential purchase ask again on here for opinions.

Wishing you a long and happy motorhoming retirement and good luck in your search.

**PS - read our story about how we got it right first time in one of the magazine articles.

 

[Puddleduck]

6 years ago we had a similar experience at one dealer and I wrote to the manager giving details of date, time and the name of the member of the sales staff. I also sent them a copy of the invoice for the vehicle we did buy from another dealer to show just how many £s they had missed out on due to apathy.

We did get an apologetic letter back but they had by then lost the sale.

 

[Wee Bold Davy]

Think yourself fortunate. If they can't be ar**d when you've got a considerable budget, just think the trouble you will have if you'd had a problem with the vehicle. We spent 2 years visiting dealers and shows, reading everything we could get our hands on, asking countless silly questions on here. We finally decided on the perfect layout before finding the dealership closest, checking out customer feedback. We had found the perfect van elsewhere which was 4 years old, but we wanted to buy new. We checked to see if they had a new one in stock which they did but we couldn't go in as it was awaiting collection by a customer but they did have one for sale which was 18 months old we could look at.
We went and looked at it, the only difference with a new one was the engine. It was the new Euro 6 engine which was important to us as emissions was the hot topic at the time and would help the vehicle hold its value. Half an hour later the dirty deed was done and 2 and a half trouble free years later we're still delighted with our purchase.
Some say you're on your third van before you get the perfect layout. We did some serious homework and I'm certain we got it right first time. Don't rush into it

 

[Carado]

I can personally recommend Chelston Motor homes at wellington I have bought two new motor homes from them and they are great to deal with

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[robert groves]

Hi everyone,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read what may be a long and tiresome post.

I have a simple question to ask – How on Earth do you manage buy a motorhome?

I have read the guides here and in other locations, but I have yet to find myself in a position to utilise the information they have provided me with.

A little background information for you – We opted to buy a motorhome on my retirement in order to travel around the UK and Ireland. During my working days we were fortunate to have been able to visit many countries and furthermore we were always able to incorporate extended breaks in these places as an extra curricular holiday. We have visited so few places in our own country it seemed quite right to explore a little more at home.

We initially decided to set our budget at 70k ((GBP) inclusive of kitting out) which, to us seemed to be a reasonable starting point.

To date we have visited three dealerships, (I will not name them since they may not have the ability to see this post and as such will have no right of reply.) Here is where I am clearly going wrong.

Dealer #1 – We identified two vehicles of interest from their website. Each on the same chassis but just a slightly different layout. We called and booked an appointment to view both options at an agreed time.

On arrival (at the agreed time) only one of the vehicles was available for viewing. The Salesperson I booked the appointment with was in the building but too busy to see us immediately and would talk to us as soon as he was able to. 45 minutes later we left. The Guy who I booked an appointment with was probably still playing “virtual golf” or some other game and simply couldn't drag himself away from his fun.

Dealer #2 – Once again we identified one vehicle of interest. We booked an appointment to view our chosen chariot.

Guess what? - The guy we booked the appointment with didn't show up. No explanations given, nobody knew where he had gone. It seems he just evaporated and no-one else was interested or even cared that we might be interested in putting some cash into their pockets.

Dealer #3.

As before, appointment booked in advance. We turn up in a timely fashion. The sales guy has gone AWOL and nobody knows when he will be back. The rest of the team really are not interested at all that I might want to buy something.

Obviously, I am clearly lacking in my communication skills. How on earth do you talk with motorhome dealers?

The way things are going,...Urdu will be the Language to learn !

 

[Coolcats]

Hi everyone,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read what may be a long and tiresome post.

I have a simple question to ask – How on Earth do you manage buy a motorhome?

I have read the guides here and in other locations, but I have yet to find myself in a position to utilise the information they have provided me with.

A little background information for you – We opted to buy a motorhome on my retirement in order to travel around the UK and Ireland. During my working days we were fortunate to have been able to visit many countries and furthermore we were always able to incorporate extended breaks in these places as an extra curricular holiday. We have visited so few places in our own country it seemed quite right to explore a little more at home.

We initially decided to set our budget at 70k ((GBP) inclusive of kitting out) which, to us seemed to be a reasonable starting point.

To date we have visited three dealerships, (I will not name them since they may not have the ability to see this post and as such will have no right of reply.) Here is where I am clearly going wrong.

Dealer #1 – We identified two vehicles of interest from their website. Each on the same chassis but just a slightly different layout. We called and booked an appointment to view both options at an agreed time.

On arrival (at the agreed time) only one of the vehicles was available for viewing. The Salesperson I booked the appointment with was in the building but too busy to see us immediately and would talk to us as soon as he was able to. 45 minutes later we left. The Guy who I booked an appointment with was probably still playing “virtual golf” or some other game and simply couldn't drag himself away from his fun.

Dealer #2 – Once again we identified one vehicle of interest. We booked an appointment to view our chosen chariot.

Guess what? - The guy we booked the appointment with didn't show up. No explanations given, nobody knew where he had gone. It seems he just evaporated and no-one else was interested or even cared that we might be interested in putting some cash into their pockets.

Dealer #3.

As before, appointment booked in advance. We turn up in a timely fashion. The sales guy has gone AWOL and nobody knows when he will be back. The rest of the team really are not interested at all that I might want to buy something.

Obviously, I am clearly lacking in my communication skills. How on earth do you talk with motorhome dealers?

Once you do get to speak with a Salesperson, and start working on the detail do everything in writing and keep your own spreadsheet with discounts etc, when we purchased ours the salesperson seemed to just have scribbled notes and wanted to charge a few £K more than had been agreed so I produced the spreadsheet along with dates of the conversations and emails to go with them. Good luck with what ever you decide to purchase