We are moving on!

[SargeW]

After having the Passport for about 1 1/2 years we finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't meeting our needs as we thought they were when we down sized from a Motorhome. After working out some bugs and doing several modifications to suit our lifestyle we realized that we just needed more room to entertain family and friends.

So quite by accident, we stumbled across a 33' 5th wheel that was a new left over 2023 on a dealer lot. We made the trek to look at it, and fell in love with the features. And thanks to the economy and stupid high interest rates, the dealer had marked the rig down about 50% to move it before the end of the year.

They offered me a fair price for my Passport, which together with the price reduction came out to us paying less for the 5th wheel than we did for the Passport when we bought it.

The new rig is a Starcraft 264GSL with 3 slides, 400 watts of solar, and a outdoor kitchen (our first one of those). So life moves pretty quick these days, especially at this age, so sometimes you just have to recognize an opportunity when it comes by.

Good luck my friends, and safe travels!

[NH_Bulldog]

Congratulations on the new fifth wheel! The first camper I ever bought was a used Starcraft popup. A lot has changed since then, but it is still a good brand.

Starcraft is under Jayco, which is itself a brand under Thor Industries (the parent of Keystone), so you are still a cousin and welcome to stick around if you can't find a suitable Starcraft owners forum

[dutchmensport]

Congrats on getting your new Starcraft. I hope you have great success with it.

No reason to move away from this forum site though. Here's an interesting fact:

Starcraft RV is owned by Jayco.
Jayco is owned by Thor Industries.
Thor Industries also owns Keystone.
So, "cousin" you're still in the family, you can't escape... even though you tried (hee, hee!) So, hope you come back and chime in from time to time!

[workinonit]

Yea and not sure about everyone else but I will be interested in your adventures with the new RV. Who knows, I may want to look at one of them one day. Keep us posted on the bells and whistles and what you add or modify.

[chuckster57]

Congrats. Enjoy your new rig, and as stated feel free to stick around. The appliances are pretty much all the same.

[SargeW]

Oh Yeah, I still will be hanging around the forums, I still love all of RVing no matter what you kind of rig you do it in!

[Raptor Dave]

Congrats....
Very similar opportunity we ran into when we came across our Raptor just a little while back.
The Raptor being brand new but went to auction directly from Keystone after the build. Supposedly because the dealer that ordered it went out of biz before taking delivery? (so we were told) But really didn't care as it was priced cheaper than anything on the internet at the time and they gave us a trade-in on our 2 year old '21 34 ft Winnebago 5th that was basically unheard of in the industry.
We settled at 84K OTD (out the door) for the brand new 2023 Raptor and they gave us 50K trade-in value for the 2 year old winny that we paid 55K for out the door bottom line and got to tool around with it for a couple years and put about 20K miles on towing it.
The only 2 things we ever did to it was change out the rubber and put a new battery in it.
(Just for the record, they still have that winny on their lot and have dropped their price from 52K to 39K and still can't find a buyer.

Anyway, like I say, congratulations on your find. The deals are out there but you just have to be patient and diligent in your research.

[jxnbbl]

Great purchase! Good luck with the new rolling home.

[SargeW]

Yeah, I was shocked at the find myself. And after going to look at it (the dealer kept it in pristine condition) and seeing all the features it had we had to try and make the deal. We did manage to squeeze a few more dollars out of the deal, but they wound up making up some of it with labor on our truck hitch install and moving some of our equipment we had installed in the Passport to the new rig, like the washer/dryer, lithium batteries, RV remote lock on the door, and the new mattress we had put in just a few months before. That wound up saving me a bunch of money not having to repurchase those items. And not having to carry some of that heavy stuff from one rig to the other was priceless!

So as it turned out taking advantage of a down economy, and high interest rates really made for kind of a "buyers market". The same would apply to someone looking to buy a car right now as dealers are desperate to make deals. I let them do their own financing and will put in my own money long before the first payment is due.

[curtiscapk]

Wow great find! Maybe I should look for my 250 a year early!

[Raptor Dave]

Originally Posted by curtiscapk

Wow great find! Maybe I should look for my 250 a year early!

Before covid hit my local dealer 3 miles from the tent pegs always had 7 -10 F250s on the lot. After those were gone I was told buy the salesman the only way to get one now was to put an order in and wait.
Now, this a smaller dealership compared to going into Phoenix or the surrounding east Valley berbs.
Fast forward to 2024....I get literature from them twice a month now begging me to come have a look at all of the F250's sitting on the lot and trade in my 2020 F250 that I no longer have.
They are now advertising they can beat anyone's pricing.
Typical car/truck sales talk out the side of their mouth but it's pretty common knowledge if you want the best deals on the lot start looking Oct for end of year sales. You may not always get the options you want but the OTD deal may make it worth it anyway.

[jxnbbl]

I don't fully understand it. I usually purchase and "hold" and then sell on my own...but since the fall of 2020 I've purchased a new 2020 Ram 2500 while my 1500 was in for service and then a 2023 Ram 3500. Mainly for two reasons:


1. The deal on the "new" was unbelievable (20% off sticker)
2. The the trade in was about $3-5k than I believe I could have sold the truck for on my own.


I did follow those trade ins and the dealer had bumped that up another $5k when it went on their used lot. With the 2020 trade in their pricing you could buy a new 2023 tradesman (lower end model) for the same price.


I just think that new trucks cost so much that it inflates the value of used trucks since it falls in the sweet spot of what people can afford.

[NH_Bulldog]

When we were shopping for our 2022, dealers were asking $10k OVER sticker and refused to honor my X-Plan or Ford PCO. I called dozens of dealers, but the story was the same. I told every one of them they had one chance to earn my business or I would remember how they treated me, but they stuck to their position.

We finally happened to get lucky with a dealer about an hour away when the owner's son latched onto a customer's cancelled order that had hit the lot which freed-up the truck that he had ordered for himself and was going into production that day. They accepted my X-Plan and PCO, and gave me stupid money on my F150 trade.

In the last few weeks, all the dealers that tried to screw me previously are now burning up my phone and email with sweetheart offers, telling me that they would gladly accept my X-Plan and Ford even sent me a new PCO. I was temped for a about a minute, but we love our truck and have zero interest in playing their games. I did a build-your-own just for giggles and my exact truck is over $10k more now than it was 2 years ago.

[Raptor Dave]

I was temped for a about a minute,

WOW, that long?

I would have made possibly 5-10 seconds at the max!