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After years of shopping, we finally settled on a 2000 Country Coach for some of your same concerns; primarily pre-EGR and no slides. While overall condition was important, we didn’t mind spending money after the purchase on deferred maintenance and upgrades. Floor plan and bones were our primary concern. We’re 2 years in and slowly making improvements.
I recently called a service provider and was quoted $5,000 for an “annual maintenance” service. Best of my recollection, that was servicing the engine and transmission, HVAC filters, Aqua Hot (or Webasto in our case) and cleaning all holding tanks. I’m sure there are people who love the convenience, but that is far more than we spend. Our truck shop services the engine and transmission as well as tires, brakes, and shocks. It’s not white glove service, but they understand all the parts and I trust their work. The same service provider shop also quoted $12,000 for 8 new Michelins which my truck shop can do (did do) for 1/2 that. Note that we have 315s not 365s. As far as filters and cleaning tanks, we do that ourselves. We have also learned to fix little things as needed like water pumps and solenoids.
We have a few necessary repairs coming (Webasto, bushings, glass dash to Silver Leaf) that will be expensive and are beyond our ability to do ourselves. Then there will be interior updates. Everything inside is original and dated, but still works (except the dash). Could we have spent $30-50,000 all at once on it? Certainly, but I prefer researching each issue and making an informed decision over time. This forum has been a life saver from the years of shopping to the maintenance and repairs!!
As with homes and cars, costs vary greatly depending on how handy you are and individual service providers. We snowbird in a large RV park in FL and talk to a lot of Class A owners who spent substantially more on their purchase and still spend a lot more money and time on repairs than we do not to mention time in the shop. I don’t regret buying this old bus at all.