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Former Liberty Coach Owner?
Did any PC member formerly own this coach which was a trade-in at Liberty? Looking for knowledge on use and maintenance records.
http://www.starlightmotors.com/inventory/view/8284770/1999-Prevost-Liberty-45XL-Aubrey-TX
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23 Replies
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Tim, that bus has been for sale for about 3 months now and is currently on ebay with no reserve
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Tim,
I don’t know the coach or Starlight Motors but they mention Mr. Oliver’s on their site and seem to share at least 1 employee. I believe Mr. Oliver’s has a decent reputation and usually has older coaches. I do know owners who have purchased from him and used his service department and were satisfied.1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
Tim…
George is right… Mr Olivers has been in the RV business for years… he had our 2005 Navigator for a few months and wasn’t much of a go getter… takes lots of great pics and I think has a decent knowledge of Prevosts but I would do a PDI unless you buy really cheap…
The coach looks really nice… he will probably tell you anything you want to know.. I do believe he’s honest.
Good luck… Diane
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Tim,
We looked at this coach early August, and quickly decided it was not a coach for us. For starters, it had not been cleaned up very well, and it did not please my DW’s sensitive nose. -
Tim,
Here is the E-Bay link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1999-45-ft-Prevost-Liberty-45XL-Sat-amp-Nav-Mirrow-Ceilings-Power-Shades-/171954129467?_trksid=p2054897.l4275
Here is the Mr. Oliver’s link: http://mrolivers.com/RV_05Desc.html
Knoweldge is power.
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Per,
Could you elaborate more on specifically what was wrong with the coach or turned you or your wife off? Did you conduct a PDI or drive it, etc.?
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Tim,
We have a philosophy; if someone does not bother to clean the interior of their coach, we have real doubts about their interest in keeping the mechanical aspects in shape. Once a coach stinks, we see no use in going further in any investigation. Can’t tell you the details, but we saw several flaws inside. If you do a full inspection of the coach, you may find it would work for you, but we have seen too many clean Prevosts that impressed us more than this coach. On the same trip we saw a 1998 Marathon (since been sold) that impressed us a lot more than this coach.P.S. Besides, we have our eye on a coach, but I ain’t telling where!
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Per is correct in a couple of ways. First, photos on the internet do not reflect the true coach condition. Only a first hand look will reveal a pattern of carelessness or abuse of a coach. There are many subtle ways our eyes can determine if a coach has been well cared for or if it has been abused or neglected.
But beyond the photos we have to see a coach in person to smell it. And we all smell a coach the minute we step into it. Some still retain the “new car” smell. Some reek of cigarette smoke, mildew, or animals. To my way of thinking the last three smells are deal killers.
I am not concerned about dust and dirt. I can look beyond that to look at the underlying condition of the coach. When a coach is traded for example there is a lot of in and out walking to empty clothes, food, and all the other stuff we collect. The floor gets tracked, the dust gets kicked up, and bugs fly into the open door. But there are signs of long term lack of care. I just don’t know if those signs always reflect lack of mechanical care. That is easily detected with some time and effort spent under the coach but is not easily seen otherwise.
A couple of years ago I looked at a couple of coaches for sale, and one of them had been deep cleaned, polished, and really looked sharp. But it was all superficial. Mechanically the coach had some significant issues. The tires had so much tire dressing the date codes were obscured on the 10 year old tires. The coach presented very well, but had truly not been taken care of. Some stuff has to be overlooked to evaluate a coach.
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Good points Jon & Per … and thanks for your replies.
In another week, I’ll be on the road full-time and able to see any coach so it will take some of the guess work on simply looking as pics over the internet.
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Tim,
We bought our coach from Tom Flood, who worked (he may still, not sure) at Mr Olivers. Starlight Motors seems to be tied into Mr Olivers just like Tom was tied in to them. I do know that Tom had a very long history and a good amount of experience with the Prevost market (worked with Liberty, Buddy Greg, etc.. since the late 80’s early 90’s).
Even with all that, I would suggest you have them deliver the coach to Prevost DFW and get a detailed mechanical inspection. I setup the appointment with prevost and had Mr Olivers bring the coach down there. I was able to spend 6+ hours with the coach while prevost did the inspection. I basically landed at DFW and drove to the coach at Prevost, allowing me to inspect it there rather then have a “sales” guy “show” me what they wanted me to see. It also allowed me to be part of the inspection and ask questions of Prevost as well as have them point out items that needed attention so my decision was an informed decision.
From there, spend the next day at Mr Olivers going through the house side of things. Run all the components. Make sure they run well, ask questions, etc. Get a list of items you would like addressed and negotiate with Mr Olivers (they may not negotiate on some or all of the items, it all depends on their margins on that coach I am sure).
As for the smell thing? Jon and others are right. I know we figured that out when we walked into a coach up at Olympia. From that point on, one of the first questions my wife made me ask was “does the inside of the coach smell like old people?”. Tom Flood actually laughed at that one when I asked him. Nothing insulting, just the one we looked at that Olympia had smelt like the nursing home my 105 year old grandmother is in. I think you get the picture 😉
I can’t say anything bad about Mr Olivers, just go into it with your eyes wide open and do a DMI at Prevost. It’s worth the money to educate you on the condition on the mechanics of the chassis side of things.
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Excellent post and, yes, I had Prevost Dallas on my checklist to conduct a PDI.
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We physically looked at dozens of used buses during our search several years ago. We looked at entertainers, small conversion companies, the major conversion companies and home builts. The closest we came to buying before we found the “one” was two different home built conversions on older highway coaches. They were very, very nice.
When we walked into a bus and my wife crinkled her nose at an odd smell, that was it. Pets and smoke are off limits to her and a cat is deadly. No sense looking any further at that bus. The hard ones were the clean, shiny and well kept or well cleaned ones. Those would capture our hearts and tempt us not to look as deep as we needed to look.
The one we actually bought, badly needed new carpet, new tires and a real good cleaning inside. However the engine, transmission and suspension seemed solid to the experts that examined it AND it smelled good!
Have fun searching. We did our best to buy our “last” bus first but I enjoy reading about folks searching now. It almost makes me want to look again but not quite.
Davy
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C’mon Davy, with an attitude like that you may single handedly put the economy into a tail spin.
Everybody needs to go out and get a new or newer bus. Tom and I love spending other people’s money.
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Per,
Please tell me you have found and are so inappropriately keeping to yourself a nice 45 and not the elusive 40 that I’m searching for?!? 🙂
Tim,
What exactly are you lookiing for? I’m looking plenty and if I find something that suits your needs I can let you know.
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Kurt,
We’re looking for a 45′ not a 40′. I’m looking to primarily stay with the converters still in business, but I haven’t totally ruled out other converters … just not really looking at them.
I don’t want to offend anyone, but if I had my way, I’d probably go with Liberty, Featherlite, and then Marathon and that’s really based on the fact we want OTR and there are not that many in the Marathon converters.
I’m open to H-3’s and XL’s, but am leary about the XLII unless it’s had the panels fixed by Prevost with the rivetless rivets.
I personally would like slides; however, my wife doesn’t think we need them. Go figure … but I’m sure I could convince her if we found the right coach or, more likely she’ll convince me we don’t.
We plan to full-time for the next few years and will be traveling the U.S. and Canada working for Habitat for Humanity, as well as doing all those bucket-list items … like all 58 NPs.
Good luck to you Kurt and if I come across a nice 40′ I’ll let you know. Starting after the Prevost II Seminar, we have the next 3-4 months to locate “our” dream coach.
ps – See you’re from Peoria. We spent 15 years in Tucson and had a great time raising our kids there.
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