New vs Used RV: Honest Math From a Family Who's Done Both

People ask us all the time which way to go — new or used? — and we've learned to answer with a question of our own: what are you trying to optimize for? Lowest total cost? Cleanest warranty story? Newest tech? Maximum confidence that you know what you're buying? Each of those points to a different answer. Almost none of them point to "new from the dealer" if the only thing you care about is cost.

This post is the math we've personally lived. We started full-time in 2017 in a used Winnebago. After our first kid we traded for a new Coachmen Pursuit. A couple years after that we traded into a new Alliance fifth wheel that gave us 135 documented defects in its first year. We've now done both ends of this market and we have opinions, with receipts.

The depreciation cliff

RVs are depreciating assets, and they depreciate faster than cars and trucks. Typical curve:

• Drive off the lot: 20–25% drop.
• End of year one: 25–30% off MSRP.
• End of year three: 40–45% off MSRP.
• End of year five: 50–55% off MSRP.
• End of year ten: 65–75% off MSRP (curve flattens).

These are general industry patterns; specific brands and unit types vary. Class A diesel pushers depreciate slowly compared to entry-level travel trailers. Boutique or "luxury" brands sometimes hold value better than mass-market builds. But the rough shape is consistent: most of the value disappears in the first five years.

The practical implication: the person who buys a 3-year-old used RV is paying roughly 60% of what the original buyer paid for an RV that has 70-80% of the original's useful life remaining. That difference is the buyer's discount — and it's enormous on six-figure rigs.

Our three rigs

Rig #1: 2014 Winnebago Class C, purchased used in 2017

We bought this one with maybe 30,000 miles on it from a private seller. It was 3 years old. We paid significantly under what the original buyer had paid new. It had cosmetic wear and a couple of minor mechanical items, all of which we identified during inspection and either fixed up front or factored into the price.

What we spent across 2 years of ownership: the purchase price, regular maintenance (~$1,200/year), a new house battery, replacement awning fabric, two new tires, and roof resealing once. No catastrophic failures. No warranty fights — because there was no warranty.

What we sold it for, 2 years later: we recovered roughly 80% of what we'd paid, because we maintained it well and the used market was strong. Total cost of ownership for two years: probably around $5,000 all in, including the depreciation hit. That's about $200 a month for the lifestyle.

This was a great experience. It's the rig we look back on most fondly. We didn't know any of this was unusual at the time.

Rig #2: 2019 Coachmen Pursuit, purchased new

We traded into this one because we had a new baby and we wanted more space, better appliances, and (we thought) the reassurance of a warranty. We bought new from a regional dealer. We did a quick walk-through, signed in the F&I office, and drove away.

The unit looked beautiful. It also spent more time in the service department in its first year than in our driveway. We had a litany of issues — slide-out alignment, fridge cooling unit failure, persistent water entry around a roof penetration, an electrical fault that took three visits to diagnose. The "warranty" technically covered most of it, but each claim required us to drop the rig off, wait weeks, fight for parts, and lose camping weekends.

Net cost of two years of Coachmen Pursuit ownership: the purchase price, the warranty work we paid for out-of-pocket because the dealer hedged on whether it was covered, the lost vacation time, and the depreciation hit when we traded out. The dollar number was substantially worse than the Winnebago. The emotional number was worse than that.

This was the purchase that started turning us into a watchdog brand. Not because the unit itself was unsalvageable — plenty of Pursuits work fine — but because the whole transaction felt like an industry that didn't expect us to push back.

Rig #3: Alliance fifth wheel, purchased new

We knew more this time. We thought we'd solved for the previous problems by going to an "independent" brand — Alliance was independently owned at the time of our purchase. We bought new again, with more care during the PDI than we'd taken with the Pursuit. We thought we'd done it right.

What we got: 135 documented defects in the first year of ownership. We have the log, the photos, and the work orders. Some were small (a switch that didn't work, a cabinet door that wouldn't latch). Some were major (slide failures, repeated water entry, electrical faults). All of them, individually, are the kind of thing a manufacturer can dismiss as a "one-off." Collectively, 135 of them in 12 months is not a one-off in any meaningful sense.

We learned a lot from that unit. We also lost a lot to it. The dollar number, including warranty arguments, depreciation, lost income from travel-day disruptions, and the emotional toll, was the highest of our three rigs by a wide margin. That experience is the reason CrappyRV exists.

What the three experiences taught us about the new-vs-used math

The reason this post isn't called "Always Buy Used" is that the math really does depend on your situation. Here's the honest framework:

Buy new if:

• You have the financial cushion to absorb depreciation and want the newest available floor plan, technology, and component generation.
• You're willing to spend significant time and energy managing year-one warranty work — and you've researched the dealership as thoroughly as the brand.
• You intend to keep the rig at least 7-10 years, amortizing the depreciation hit across a long ownership horizon.
• You're buying a brand and unit class where new is materially different from 2-3 years used (rare — most components are very similar across model years).

Buy used (2-5 years old) if:

• You want the best dollar value per dollar spent.
• You're comfortable with no factory warranty (or a remainder warranty) and can budget $1,500-$3,000 a year for maintenance and repairs.
• You can do — or pay for — a thorough independent inspection before purchase.
• You see the missing factory warranty as a known cost rather than an unknown gap.

Buy lightly-used (1-2 years, remainder warranty) if:

• You want most of the warranty without most of the depreciation.
• You can stomach the fact that someone else's year-one defects may be partly papered over by the time you buy.
• You're prepared to do extra-rigorous inspection because cosmetic prep can hide a lot of year-one history.

Don't buy at all (yet) if:

• The only path to financing is a 20-year loan at a stretched monthly payment.
• You don't have a savings buffer for repairs, regardless of warranty status.
• You haven't actually used an RV yet — rent one for a long weekend before you buy anything.

The warranty illusion on new RVs

One of the assumptions that drove us to buy new — both times — was the idea that a warranty would meaningfully de-risk year one. In our experience, this was not how it worked. Here's why:

• The warranty is honored by the dealer, not the manufacturer. If the dealer's service department is overwhelmed or unmotivated, the warranty's existence doesn't help you.
• Warranty claims for component issues (fridge, AC, slide motor, awning) are typically routed to the component manufacturer's warranty, not the RV manufacturer's. See our deeper post on this.
• Wait times for warranty work are routinely measured in weeks or months. A "covered" repair you can't get done in the actual camping season is functionally not covered.
• Repeated claims for the same issue are sometimes met with "we've reached the end of warranty coverage for that item" before the warranty term itself has expired — and resolving that requires escalation we have a separate post on.

None of which makes the warranty worthless. It just makes the warranty less of a comfort blanket than the brochure suggests. If you're buying new specifically because of the warranty, factor in the actual mechanics of how that warranty will work in your specific situation. Question 5 from our questions list — "what's the service department's current wait time?" — is part of how you stress-test this before signing.

The hidden costs of buying used

For balance: used buying isn't free of risk, and we don't want to romanticize the used market just because we had a good experience with our Winnebago.

Things that can bite used buyers:

• Hidden water damage. By far the #1 issue. A unit with a year of unaddressed roof seal leakage can have rotting wall framing, swollen subfloor, and mold — none of which is visible from inside. A certified inspector with a moisture meter is the only real defense.
• End-of-life components. The fridge, the AC, the water heater, the slide motors — these have lifespans. A 7-year-old unit may have all of these approaching replacement. Replacements run $1,000-$3,000 each.
• Tire age. RV tires age out at 5-7 years regardless of tread. A used RV with original tires is shopping for a blowout. See our tire post.
• Generator hours. Generators have hour counters. Over 1,500 hours typically means major service. Over 3,000 means replacement is on the horizon.
• Previous warranty repairs you can't verify. A used unit's warranty history is often available from the manufacturer if you have the VIN — ask for it before purchase.

The fix for all of these is rigorous inspection. The cost of inspection on a $40,000 used rig — say $500-$700 — is trivial relative to the cost of finding hidden problems after the fact.

The 2-year-old "sweet spot"

If we were buying a fifth wheel today, knowing what we now know, we'd be looking hardest at units 2-3 years old, with the original owner's records intact, and ideally with most of the factory warranty period already past. The reasons:

• The biggest depreciation hit has already happened, but you still have most of the useful life ahead of you.
• Year-one defects have either been resolved by the previous owner (with paper trail) or are by now visible as patterns you can inspect for. The quality tells in 2-year-old resales are revealing.
• The component generation is current enough that parts and service are easy to find.
• The original buyer absorbed the warranty fight; you get the unit on the other side of it.

The trade-off: you have to do real diligence. You can't rely on a warranty to backstop your inspection. The whole purchase rides on what you and your inspector find — and what the seller can document.

The total cost of ownership worksheet

If you're trying to compare a specific new unit to a specific used unit, do the math like this:

1. Purchase price (including all dealer fees, taxes, and out-the-door charges).
2. Financing cost over your expected ownership period (use a loan calculator; multiply monthly payment by months you'll own it).
3. Expected depreciation over your ownership period (use NADA Guides or similar — depreciate the new unit to its expected resale value at sale; for used, depreciate from purchase price to your projected sale price).
4. Expected annual maintenance and repair costs. Budget $1,000-$2,500/year for new (under warranty), $1,500-$4,000/year for used (no warranty).
5. Insurance. Newer units cost more to insure but the difference isn't enormous.
6. Storage. Roughly equivalent across new and used.

Add it all up over your ownership horizon. Divide by months. That's your true monthly cost of ownership. We have run this math for dozens of comparison cases now in consulting, and the used unit usually comes out lower by 20-40%, even with higher repair costs baked in.

What we'd do today, knowing what we know

If we were starting over with the same family, the same budget, and the same lifestyle, we'd probably:

1. Rent a couple of different RV classes for full weekends before buying anything. The cost of the rentals would be among the most useful money we'd spend.
2. Buy used, from a private seller with documentation, in the 2-4 year age range.
3. Hire an NRVIA-certified inspector before signing anything, regardless of how the unit looked.
4. Skip extended warranties and dealer-financed add-ons.
5. Finance through a credit union with a 7-10 year term.
6. Budget for repairs as a known line item, not a surprise.

This is the path we wish we'd taken instead of the new-Pursuit-then-new-Alliance arc. We don't begrudge anyone who buys new — there are legitimate reasons to do it — but if we could send a note back to 2019-us, this would be the note.

What this means for you

"New or used?" is the wrong starting question. The right starting question is: what am I trying to optimize for, over what horizon, with what tolerance for warranty work? Once you know the answer, the new-vs-used decision becomes much more obvious. For most families with most budgets, used in the 2-4 year range with a real inspection is the best math. For families who want bleeding-edge tech, long ownership, and the willingness to manage warranty work, new can make sense.

Whatever you choose, choose with the math in front of you, not the brochure. The RV you live with is going to be the same RV in a year regardless of how you bought it. The question is how much it cost you to get there — and how much it'll cost you to keep going.

If you'd like help running these numbers on a specific deal you're considering, that's exactly what our pre-purchase consulting is for. Until then: rent first, inspect always, and Good Luck Out There!