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I'm looking to buy my first Motorhome and i have some questions regarding this! Is the licence required based on weight or length of the vehicle, or both? Is it better to buy from a dealer or privately?
I'm also looking for my first second hand motorhome.
The advantages of dealers:
1. You normally get a warranty, and from specialist dealers this will cover the hab area.
2. Finance, Part-Exchange etc available.
3. The dealer will (normally) service it for you before you buy, and again this may also include a hab check/service from specialists.
4. Better choice - more people seem to trade in MHs, so the dealer network has a higher number for sale at any given time compared to what's available by private sale.
The advantages of private sale:
1. Price........its normally a lot cheaper to buy privately, around 20% cheaper in my estimation, but I am fairly certain this fluctuates depending on the season, For example, I have recently seen some dealers on ebay/autotrader offering very good deals, presumably to dump stock before the season ends.
The main draw back with buying privately is that you need to know what to look out for, for the van part as well as the habitation part. Be vary wary........there are a lot of very dodgy private sales, particularly on ebay. I have personally seen three vans that have definitely been "clocked". You also need to make sure that everything works (on both gas and leccy as appropriate). You would be surprised at the number of people who advertise vans as being "exceptional", when in fact they are complete turkeys.
However.......if you can find one with low mileage, a reasonable number of previous owners for the year, plus a full service history and lots of paperwork to back up the odometer readings (eg old mots, service receipts etc), you can get a bargain.
When you find one, dont forget to do an HPI check. You can also look up online the mileage shown on the MOTs for the last five years. Finally, its a big investment, so I plan on getting a full RAC inspection, and probably get a mobile MH mechanic to give it the once over too unless the owner has had a recent hab check.
Good hunting!
Edited to add: Never ever buy the first van you see, either in the dealers or privately. Visit as many as you can before you decide which one is right, even if it does end up being the first one you saw!
Last edited by dbar on Tue Sep 06, 2011 11:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Germany
