LinofDe Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Hi, We are planning a 6 month trip to the USA next year and are planning to use a buy back scheme for a small camper van. Has anybody had any experience of this? We would welcome any information, hints or tips. We have visited the US before but only for a short stay with a rental car and a tent (we need our creature comforts now we ware older!) Thanks LinofDe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 When we were in the states last year we went to a Cruise America depot. They do buy backs but their smallest van was 19ft. We were on a fly drive, Washington DC to Orlando saw loads of places to boon dock as the Yanks call free camping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 We bought a 30ft motorhome from Cruise America in 1999 on their buy-back arrangement. The deal was that you could return the motorhome after no more than 12 months with no more than 12,000 miles added. The vehicle was obviously an ex rental and had about 90,000 miles on it but it had been fully refurbished and came with a 12 month power train warranty. The motorhome cost about $24,000 including Arizona state sales tax. The deal was that they would buy it back for 60% of the sales prices after deducting the sales tax, which should have been about $13,000. This was a fair old rate of depreciation but I wanted to take some of the risk out of the whole process and it provided some piece of mind. The motorhome was in great condition and the only problem I had during the 11 months we toured in it was a dodgy cooling fan clutch which did not cost much to fix. I took really good care of it during the year and when I returned it to Cruise America they said it was in better condition then when they sold it but the deal was still 60%. I only had a week left before we had to return home but I took a chance and stuck a for sale sign in the window and was very lucky to find a buyer the next day in a supermarket car park. She paid me $17,500 which was a good deal really. The cost of the motorhome for the year was therefore $6,500 or about £4,000 at the time. Sourcing the motorhome this way was a good idea as we came across some people who had just turned up with cash and bought something from a dealer which turned out to cost a fortune in repairs. I would thoroughly recommend doing this if you have the time. We were lucky to have the time and money to do this in our mid 40s and the plan is to do it again when we retire. In the meantime we tried a caravan for a couple of years and have just ordered a new panel van from Vantage so look forward to doing some touring again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Just re read what I posted and realised that when I said near the end that - "I thoroughly recommend doing this" it sounds like I recommend going over with a bunch of cash and buying from a dealer when I really meant that I would recommend using the Cruise America buy back deal. The advantage is that it is all arranged before you go and you have a buy back safety net. It can take some time to source a good van at the beginning which just eats into your holiday and will likely cause stress and trying to sell it privately at the end might be difficult as you are moving around and need to time it with your flight home. I reckon a dealer will try to stiff you if he knows your situation so the guaranteed buy back cuts the risk. Anyway, whatever you do, have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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