I'd like to throw my hat in the ring regarding my experience with Cruise America.
I bought one of the last available 2003 Four Winds 23P's. It has 101,000 miles on it, and I paid $18,000 for it.
Here's what I see so far:
The rig is in surprisingly good shape, considering what must have been near-constant use by a variety of renters in the last few years. Exterior is excellent, with new paint; the interior appears only slightly worn, and is very clean. The floor in the house is linoleum, not carpet, and the cab interior is all tough plastic, so it has worn well. There are new tires all around, and new brakes.
It runs like a top. I drove it 250 miles home, not a hiccup. I have not tested all the wehicle systems yet, but everything that I have tested seems to be working fine.
There are a couple of fairly unique features that made me purchase this particular model. One is that the RV is mounted on a true pickup chassis (F350). I liked that at first because I didn't want to have to deal with the doghouse that is part and parcel of the van chassis that is the structure of most C's. It cramps both the driver and the passenger, and emits an uncomfortable amount of heat. In this configuration, however, the engine is up front in the engine compartment, where it belongs. That also enables the front bench seat to seat three, if desired. Another feature, which I freely acknowledge some people will HATE, is that you can't get into the house without exiting the cab; there is only a small pass-through where the rear window of the truck cab used to be. This will drive some people nuts, in that you can't get back into the house while the rig is in motion. I am a solo traveler, though, and rarely do I want to walk back and use the bathroom, or get a soda, while the vehicle is still in motion (even if the road IS long and straight). But here's something I didn't anticipate: vision to the right side of the rig is greatly enhanced. Sticking out that much farther from the house, as opposed to the van chassis, really makes a huge difference. I don't have to "crab" the rig over to the right when preparing to make a left turn across traffic, just to see far enough down the road.
So overall, this is a VERY driveable setup. I had, and have, some concerns about the high mileage, but the vehicle HAS been regularly maintained---oil changes every 3K miles, that sort of thing--and cars/trucks nowadays, even American-built ones, are designed to go 200,000 miles, not 100,000, with regular maintenance. For the $$$, getting a newer unit with high mileage seemed better than an older unit. For one thing, I've got ABS brakes, airbags, a CO2 alarm system, and I'm sure some other safety features that wouldn't be on an older rig.
The actual process of buying was very smooth and hassle-free. I will now be taking it on an extended trip of about a month, having sold all the gold in my teeth to pay for gas.
Glad you had better luck than we did. We ended up with a rig that had major leaks and rot damage in the cabover. No satisfaction trying to get them to pay for repair. Purchased at the Orlando franchise in 2004, brought to Maine. I think we were just too far away for them to really care about our experience. After we rebuilt the entire cabover and fixed the leak, it worked well for us. Just traded it last summer for a new, smaller class c. It did get us into rving at an affordable price, and also showed us what we liked/didn't like about that floorplan and size. Best wishes with your new purchase.
Current NADA gives the 23P with 101K an average retail value of $18,550. As long as you got some type of warranty with it, it sounds like you paid what you should have through a dealer. Enjoy!
That rig will give you lots of trouble free travel, 100K is not that much now days, so enjoy.
We do about 6,000 miles per year, so at that rate, the next 100K will only take you about 16.6 years. Have fun.
2001 27' Four Winds Class-C E-450 V-10.
Buick Park Ave Ultra, Ford Ranger PU, JD 500 backhoe.
1941 Farm All "A"
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