RV For Sale

Part 2 – Internet, Dealer Visits, Manufactures Sites

Welcome to Part 2 of this four-part series of posts featuring our attempts to find a new rig. In our first post, New RV Search we ran down the reasons we wanted to make the move. We also found out that the journey was going to be a rocky road. The surge of RV sales brought on by COVID-19 diminished inventories at the dealerships. The manufactures were having difficulty keeping up with demand. Undaunted, we forged ahead with our plans.

Start The Research Journey

Armed with our list of RV specification priorities along with our size parameters off we went to find the perfect RV.  We had heard back from LazyDay’s buying department and now understood what we could expect to hear from other dealerships with regards to trade-in value. The trade-in value was certainly a surprise in many ways, let me explain. When you are looking into this there are a couple of resources to at least begin the process. The first place we headed was to the J.D Power NADA Pricing. Plugging in a handful of options that we had added gave us high and low retail. Next, I did a general search for 2017 347RES Open Range Roamers on RV Trader and Dealer sites.

The results were minimal, there were very few if any 2017’s for sale. Seemed like a very good sign, there was little competition for our rig. This also made it a bit more difficult to fairly price out our rig for Private sale. I was in the early stages of planning to list the rig on RVTrader. This seemed to be the logical marketing vehicle for a private sale. They offered various marketing levels at a fairly reasonable price and reviews had me believing they were effective. During normal times I would say this would have been my first choice. During a pandemic, that all seemed a bit risky. Did we want to invite folks from around the country to our house to view and check out our rig, we eventually thought not.

What Brand and Dealership

Grand Design

I needed more information on what Grand Design was offering. We have been looking into the Grand Design brand for several years. I followed a couple of RV bloggers, Changing Lanes, and Keep Your Day Dreams, both owned Grand Design Rigs. The folks from Changing Lanes are brand ambassadors. They have both had very good experiences with GD on a service level and that was a very important component with our next RV purchase.

After joining a handful of Facebook Grand Design Groups and The Grand Design Forum page I started to do my homework. I was looking for owner reviews, comments, issues, and complaints to fill in the blanks on the Solitude that I had. The two things we have learned over the last four years is, you want to have a responsive corporate culture at the builder level and a strong relationship with your dealership.

I had a couple of weeks of the blog and online content under my fingers and decided it was time to reach out to Grand Design. I was looking for the latest information on the Solitude and ordered their sell sheet. The site immediately took me to the three closest dealerships in my area. Cookeville RV in Cookeville, TN, Northgate RV Center in Ringgold, GA, and Lazydays RV in Knoxville, TN. Knowing that Lazydays was going to open a location in Nashville made them my first choice.

LazyDays Sell or Consign Program

Clean, simple, and fast is the only way to describe this process. The thing that amazed me about this process was the buyer gave me very little value for the upgrades on the rig we had made. Generator, slide toppers, washer/dryer combo, and suspension seemed to only move the dial another $2000. The next stop would be to Knoxville, TN to have the rig inspected and settle on the price quoted depending on the inspection.

When we first starting looking four years ago at RV’s our first stop was the Lazydays Tampa location. A close friend had several transactions with them over the previous years and gave them a very high recommendation. We were in Florida for some vacation time and dropped by the location. We were blown away by the facilities and the general vibe of the business. We almost drove out of there with a new Class C. After Ginny brought me back down to earth and clammed the purchase impulses I had we decided to buy local. More on that decision and why in a bit.

We Need To Go Face To Face

Getting back to the used buy-in program they had I was feeling “in for a penny in for a pound” and decided to visit the website to take a look at their fifth wheel inventory. A quick online review of Open Range and Grand Design revealed a very limited inventory in our length range of under 36′. The Grand Design Solitude was on my Top 5 list possibles and we had no issues with Open Range. I requested a quote for a 2021 Grand Design 310GK-R listed at $93,082 and the 2021 Grand Design Solitude 390RK-R listed at $104,356. The quotes came back with a 25% discount and $4,000 under what I was quoted for my trade-in by the used buyer a week earlier.

Neither of these numbers was going to work for us. We knew that there was plenty of room for them to move south on the discount to at least 30% and north on the trade-in. I got on the phone with the sales team and the dance began. This was when the full impact of the seller’s market started raising its ugly head. Inventory was moving fast, so fast that by the time I called about the 310GK-R it was sold. More inventory was on the way and they would have a few more 310GK’s coming soon. The list prices on the incoming inventory were similar to the original quote. I decided it was worth taking the first pass with the sales staff, they were pretty firm with the numbers. The sales staff could not reconcile how the used buyer got to his number and said they would look into it. This was going to take a face-to-face in Knoxville to get the pricing we wanted and the trade value.

Time To Look Elsewhere For Better Pricing

I was now laser-focused on Grand Design and the Solitude 310GK. Knowing that these dealers always like to start the dance with, “we have done a search of the internet for pricing on the model and we are competitive or better priced” I set out to see what I could find. Inventories were very low and finding a 310GK was daunting. I got a good feel for the pricing across the country with discounting ranging from 15% to 26% listed on their sites. These prices of course were not rock bottom but it got the dance started.

Not having any luck finding inventory locally, I broke my cardinal rule and decided to look outside of Nashville. My first stop was a dealer in Ringgold, GA. This was about a 2 1/2 hour ride from our house and I felt that it was manageable although at my limit for a service run if needed. The online reviews for the dealer were good and they appeared to have a very good service department.

I requested a quote on the one 310GK-R they had listed on the lot. It was set up with 95% of what we wanted in options and had a list price of $92,027. There quote came in at $63,495 or 31% off MSRP. Now we are talking, let’s get in the truck and see this rig in person.  Much to my surprise when I called the sales department to set up an appointment to see that rig, it had sold even know they quoted me a price as if it was still there.

I was informed I could order a build similar to that rig and they would honor that price. As a side note, we did not discuss the fact that I would be trading my rig in. I wanted to keep that in my pocket until we met one on one. The build would take 8 – 10 weeks minimum. They also mentioned that the delivery costs were going up along with the cost of the rigs so I should lock in current pricing now. The problem with that was, we still had not set a foot in a Solitude of any model. Great pricing but we needed to see the build quality, floorplan, and dealership.

Where Going To Need See One

When I first reached out to Grand Design a dealership within an hour or so of the house set me a note asking if they could assist in finding the right rig for us. That was Cookeville RV and Marine. The sales rep was Bob Nicholes. I went on to their site and noticed that they did not have the 310GK-R in stock but he indicated that they had a few on order and expected them shortly. I filed that away, let him know that when they came in we would want to take a look, and left it at that.

A week or so passed and I was having little or no luck finding any 310’s available to see. I decided to reach out to Bob again and set up a viewing of one of the larger 41′ Solitudes the 390RK-R. This would give us a feel for the build quality, interior, exterior and I could get to know the dealership.

This was larger than we wanted to go but in general, 40 to 42′ was all that any of the dealers had on hand. I thought it would give us a good look at how these rigs are put together. I wanted to see the fit and finish, underbelly wiring, plumbing, and roof setup.

The trip to Cookeville was very informative. It was refreshing to meet a sales rep that had a great working knowledge of the line and was an RVer himself. We learned a new term that day, “Destination RV”. What did that mean I asked? That is an RV that does not give you access to your refrigerator, possibly bathroom, and dining area unit you push out the slides. That was not what we were looking for. We wanted access to the refrigerator and bathroom during our trips. If you are going to control your exposure during this pandemic, that was a must for us.

We learned a lot about the build of these Solitudes. There were a few shortcomings that were on our must-have list. However, the rigs had 80+ percent of the options we were looking for. This brand was now in or serious consideration category. I felt good about this dealership and the customer service explanations I was getting about Grand Design from our Sales Rep.

Don’t Abandon The Dealership You Know

Your Dealership and Service Department relationship is and will be your most important lifeline during your RV experience. They are your first line of defense during the warranty period for many of the issues. Your relationship and how you treat the service department manager can make a difference in how fast you can get back on the road. Our relationship with Dunlap RV has been exceptional.

We have been happy with our Open Range Roamer. It has as we found out later many features and options that in their price category can not be found on other rigs. The manufacturer support and has been very responsive. They were not on our top 5 list of rigs but our relationship with the dealership trumped that list and brought the brand into play. Highland Ridge Open Range is a part of the Jayco brand of RVs. Dunlap is a Jayco dealership that typically has Pinnacle and North Point represented on the lot. Like most dealerships, their stock was limited to the very large 40 – 45′ Fifth Wheels. We decided to take a look at what they had on hand.

Forty feet was going to be a big move up for us. We wanted smaller, not larger. We just spent the last few weeks surveying local state parks and campground to see if we could find a location that would easily accommodate our 37′ rig. Frankly, they were few and far between in the state parks and we only found a couple in the RV parks close by. Again what was I thinking, undaunted I pressed on reviewing where we had camped in the last four years. My conclusion was a 40′ rig would present small issues but nothing we could not overcome. Let’s take a hard look at a Pinnacle 36KPTS a 41′ foot they had on the lot.

Wow This Is A Big Rig

At 41 feet 2 inches and 16,500 GVWR, this rig was big and heavy. We can haul 18,500 so we had plenty of tow power but the length was a bit much for Ginny. We took a hard look at the rig, it had most if not all of the features we were looking for in an RV with a price tag of $104,097 to match. The price was about $10k above our comfort zone. This was not a “Destination RV” but certainly was designed for full-timers. The fit and finish were a bit off, we found numerous issues with the trim, walls, roof, and shower area to name a few. Some could easily be fixed during PDI some needed answers that could only be addressed by a tech. I wanted to find out what their pricing looked like knowing that they would need to fix several issues we discovered before moving forward.

Let’s Take A New Negotiation Approach

The dealers seemed to take little interest in the upgrades I had made so let’s take a few of them off and put them in the new rig. I had numbers from my original install on the Onan 5500 generator and Splendide washer dryer combo. I felt that we could get them moved over for about the same price or roughly $2,000. It was Sunday afternoon and much to our surprise the GM for the entire company was sitting in the sales office. The rep took requirements into the GM for his pricing. The comeback number was $78,879 or a 25% discount. They wanted $2,100 to move the Generator and Washer/Dryer and install. The trade value we $28,000 much better than Lazydays without the gen or washer. Given the trade value increase from Lazydays that brought the perceived discounted price to 30%

They certainly had hit our sweet spot on pricing but I wanted to drive a bit harder to see if they would move. The GM stepped in and made his final pitch. He would cut the install price down to $600 saving us another $1,500. This was the best he could do and frankly, I had to admit it was in my mind a good deal. The issues were 41′ and the fit and finish issues that needed addressing and answers. I stuffed my buy impulse back in the box and we walked away to give it an overnight conversation. The end result, 41′ was too big and the rig just had way too many issues to start with, we passed.