Cruise America

[livndisney]

Thanks for aksing for the larger pic, I too LOVE IT! when ever we stay at a Value I request the love bug section of ASMo!

Also thanks for posting it!
:

My 4 YO just came in and saw this picture and said "is that the real herbie"
while staying at ASMo this past Oct, we saw a woman and gentleman with what was said to be an "original herbie" my daughter say's the best part of the entire vacation was meeting the "real" herbie!

We met/saw one of the original Herbies at a VW show in Daytona last year and I thought were would going to have to pry DD out of the car. She even had me make her a Herbie outfit. LOL





PP-thank you for posting the picture

 

[Floridastorm]

We looked into buying a rental (not from Cruise America, but from a local dealer that rents) and decided against it. Here were our reasons.

1. The units are all stripped down. In an effort to keep them idiot proof, most rentals don't come with awnings, antennas, or anything else that a novice driver would overlook and drive off with not in its correct position. You'll either have to pay to have these options installed if you want them (adding to your overall cost), or do without.

2. The units are high mileage. Without complete service records (which our dealer could not or would not provide), you're taking a big risk. If it's been well looked after you might be okay. If not, you're going to be looking at engine problems and new tires ($$$$) in short order. The same holds true with the generators. If they've been used a lot, yo may need to replace. If they haven't been used hardly at all, you've got another set of problems getting it cleaned up and ready to run.

3. The interiors are worn. The units we looked at were all very worn inside. Carpeting/vinyl all would have needed replacing and there were dings in the walls, etc. Don't get me started on the mattresses. All can be fixed, but again it's adding to your base price.

4. The smell. You're not supposed to smoke in the rentals. Yeah, right. You're not supposed to have pets in the rentals. Yeah, right. All but one of the rentals we looked at smelled terrible. And then there was the one that I presume had been used on a fishing trip and the fridge never cleaned out.

5. People don't know what they're doing. Most of the units we looked at it was easy to see that the renters had no clue. The handles on things like the black tanks were warped or broken. The switches on the fridge to go from gas to AC looked like they'd been pushed a million times. The dinettes were almost always broken from people trying to put them up and down incorrectly. And on and on. I don't know how much of it was simple disrespect for a rental and how much of it was people just not knowing how to make things work and applying too much force when it wasn't necessary.

6. The roof. The units we looked at had some roof damage. I don't know how much of it was from the dealer not doing good maintenance and how much was from renters running into things or going up there in track spikes or what. But some patching would have had to be done.

We ended up buying used, but form a private seller who had all the records on the unit and had kept it in pristine condition. We still saved a ton of money over new, but had very few problems.

I have considered purchasing from Cruise America and have looked at their inventory and talked with their people. When their motor homes are removed from the rental fleet they normally have between 100,000 and 140,000 miles on them. The Motor home is totally refurbished, from top to bottom, by Cruise america and they give a 1 year 12,000 mile power train warranty for free. They will also sell you a 5 year additional warranty for about $1,400. If anything is going to go wrong it will happen within the first year. So, at least you are covered for 1 year. Considering that the same type 2008 25 foot class C can have a NADA value of $45,000 to $55,000 and with no warranty, it is worth it to consider the same motor home from Cruise America for $20,000 or under with a warranty. What is there to lose, really?

 

[KristinU]

I'll be the voice of dissent. Our class C is a previous rental. We're the second post-rental owners as a matter of fact. Ours was at a smaller dealer (who got out of the rental business), and was only in rental service for a couple of years.

We wanted the Winnebago brand and were willing to go with a previous rental so we could get the quality at a discount. I think fit and finish and "extra goodies" depends on the manufacturer and what the the renting dealer specs out for the rig. For us, we preferred that a rental would have more durable fixtures and some idiot-proofing. We've de-idiot-proofed a couple of things like the screwed down access to the water pump (a $3 piano hinge took care of that ) but left some stuff intact like the plexiglass over the lower portion of the screen door

We also made sure that the previous rental we bought didn't have a ladder - less likely that renters would have used the roof as a patio. Though Winnies have walkable fiberglass roofs, but still nobody should be up there unless they know what they're doing. We did have a ladder installed for our own easy access, though

We also have a slide, which seems to not be typical in the previous rental world. And the previous owner put awnings on both the door side and on the slide out, which I really like. Awnings can always be added, of course. Slides, no.

We were comfortable buying a rental since there were service records showing that it was maintained regularly and I'd also rather have something that got some engine and genny exercise rather than sitting idle in someone's field somewhere. The tires were replaced for us when we bought it, and it had something like 22,000 miles on it. So it was used, but not driven into the ground.

Fit and finish in our Winnie is head and shoulders beyond the Gulf Stream travel trailer we had. Real wood cabinetry with ball bearing drawer glides, much more durable upholstery, etc.

And as for people trashing them, I think some of that may be fact, but some may be myth. Look into renting - you pretty much promise your first born in exchange for any clean-up they need to do. I have to think that most families that are looking for a fun family vacation are being respectful of something they're paying hundreds/thousands to use. And I wasn't too worried about someone having done something awful to the E-450 chassis/engine since they're pretty idiot-proof themselves.

We've put almost 5,000 miles on it since we got her last spring and have had relatively little problems, except a phantom slide closure issue that we worked with Winnebago and the slide control manufacturer to resolve - it was a short in the slide control, highly unlikely that it was something a renter caused, unless they purposely broke the moisture seal on the unit

All that said, I think I'd be wary of buying from one of the high-volume places unless I really knew what I was looking for/at. But there are plenty of success stories out there as well.

Here's a good thread from the Class C forum at RV.net with actual owners of previous rentals discussing pros and cons:

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26035008/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1