Re: On Wednesday I'm Looking At 2003 Country Coach Allure ( Cascade
Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 110976
I agree with everyone else. We bought our coach as a second owner and the coach was IMMACULATE on inspection and almost everything worked. We paid "about market" for the coach. I watched prices for a year and created a database to track the market. We did get a discount, but primarily because there wasn't a middleman or broker on the sale. We did pay a motorcoach "coach" to help us vet finalists and feel that what we paid was worth it. If you want, I will pass on his name. He's located in FL. He'll probably travel for inspections at your expense.
My advice after looking for almost 2 years and doing a lot of research is this:
- Don't be in a hurry, you will pass on more coaches than you will buy! We looked at dozens (online). Engaged in 3 and bought 1.
- Do your internet research. Track coaches similar to yours (length, age, mileage, engine, slides and "quality -as to fit and finish). Don't expect to get your coach more than 20% off the average "asking price" and don't pay more than 20% over the average asking price. When discussing with the seller, ask about the pricing rationale. Why is it priced as it is priced?
- Records.. Responsible coach owners keep every service slip and log their service. Seller should supply maintenance records or copies of receipts.
- Pictures.... before seeing the coach in person, get pictures of everything. Including hi-resolution pictures of carpets and corners of slides (where water would get in).
- Get pictures of all of the storage bays, the engine compartment, the undercarriage, the wheels (to look for grease leakage, etc).
- Best advice I got was: First decide on the manufacturers you want to look at. Country coach is one of the best, but there are others. Then decide on an age range. For us it was 2005-2008 and under 100k miles. Then decide on your major criteria. We wanted neutral colors in/out, a CAT C-13 Engine, 4 slides and a Tag Axle.
- Have a diesel mechanic go through the engine. Go to a dealer (CAT or Cummins) - or have the seller take it there. Tell them you will pay for a oil change and then CALL the dealership and explain that you want one of there mechanics to look it over and change the oil and call you back with their impression on the health of the engine and there subjective impression if the coach has been maintained.
- Expect to pay a couple thousand dollars "vetting" finalists. This is not the place to be cheap. Spend the money to avoid nasty surprises.
- Expect that you will pay $10,000 - $20,000 in the first 24 months, fixing stuff that breaks after you buy it. Expect that your annual repair / maintenance cost will run (roughly) about 5% of what you paid for it. If you pay $175,000 for a really nice mid 00's coach from a high end mfgr, with
We've owned our coach for about 16 months and have spent about $6,000 in repairs and maintenance and another $10,000 in body work and upgrades to equipment. We expect that maintenance will level off to about $3,000 to $5,000 per year going forward.
Owning a high end coach isn't super cheap, but for as long as we own it, we will never, ever come even close to 50% of what the previous owner paid when we drove it away from the factory.
Feel free to email me with any questions you might have on purchasing.
Jim and Jona Seifert
jim.jona.seifert@... 2007 Country Coach Intrigue Ovation 530 42' Coach #12150
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