Part 2: Buying a new RV. Our steps to success!

Continuing on from Part 1 – narrowing down the options for a new RV

After a little more research on buying a new RV, we worked out that we preferred Tiffin because of their layouts and the interiors were just a tad nicer. [John: Intagibles – the styling/layout ‘fit’ us better – Newmar is amazing, but Tiffin was a better ‘fit.’] We narrowed it further down to the 33AA and 37PA models. I preferred the 33AA (shorter) and he preferred 37PA (longer). The 33 had a lot less basement storage and a smaller engine. The living space worked in both. The 37 had a huge bathroom that looked awesome. But, I was still stuck on the length! I really wanted something 35 ft or less.

As John had an alert set on RVTrader for both models, and received an email about a new listing for a 33AA a couple of hundred miles away and started negotiations (just to get a sense of what they’d pay for our trade etc). The offer was low on our trade, and they wouldn’t budge off the listing price for the 33AA. Over the course of a week, they came up minimally on the trade, but still didn’t budge on the 33AA. I found one down in FL, so figured I’d reach out to see what they would do. Kind of a similar deal… low on trade. No budging on the new RV.

How did we know what our trade might be worth?

We used the services of the great folks who manage the Facebook Group: RV Pricing and Values. It is a minimal cost for a pretty accurate report on the value of your trade and also the RV you are interested in. They saved us thousands! It is definitely worth the small investment!  [John: They’re awesome, and _very_ responsive.  Highly recommended.]

GOOGLE IT!

I kind of wanted to show John I could find some other options for us. So I did a Google search. Just for yucks. And shazzam – a Tiffin Phaeton 36QA popped up. We hadn’t considered this model as the Phaeton line from Tiffin were a level up from what we budgeted. But as this one was a 2013, which put it in our price range. The layout was good. The engine was bigger than the 33AA AND the 37PA, more storage space AND it was “a Phaeton” as John kept repeating , over and over with a cheesy grin on his face. [John: =D]

So we placed the call to the dealership, who happened to be 5 hours away in Mocksville, North Carolina. It was a Saturday afternoon. They made an offer on our trade in that was pretty awesome. So we made the quick decision to hop in the car with our dogs and hightail it to Mocksville, NC, right there and then. (We drove our car as we were not sure if we’d buy the RV.)

So, did we buy it?

We did a tour and negotiated and bought it that weekend! It fit our requirements (almost) to a T. It was in a reasonable condition, and the interior decor didn’t suck TOO badly (see our post on our hatred for RV design!) We drove down the following weekend to pick her up and had an almost uneventful drive home. (There was a ‘check engine’ light popping up every now and again… so we’ll keep eyes on that).  [John: It was a ‘water in fuel‘ alert.  I _think_ I corrected that with full/new fuel, and draining the fuel/water separator.   Still, its on the watch list.]