[Mike]

Sebrite Financial was going to finance by 1998 until they discovered I was a full timer. You might give them a try.

[Bill]

We found that no one wanted to finance a 22 year old coach, there limit was 20 year.Now the but with a sizeable down payment not a problem. Good luck ,alot depends on your credit history.

[glen]

I spent my career in the mortgage and banking business and knew a few of the consumer/vehicle/boat/RV lenders.

Age and ignorance is the deal killer.

A 20 plus year old motorhome is looked at as having outlived its useful life (and most conventional RVs have!). Many boats and yachts after 20 years don’t have much life left in them.

BUT … a quality boat or yacht like a quality airplane like a quality Prevost conversion that is reasonably well taken care of will last a very long time. I’m thinking 30 to 40 years.

Your/our challenge is to convince a banker or CU lender that a Prevost motorhome is a reasonable piece of collateral for the risk of a loan.

A boat/yacht or an airplane is pretty easy to survey or inspect. But there are many fewer Prevost motorhomes than there are nice older boats/yachts or airplanes. And there are many fewer people who know how to inspect and rate one, let alone appraise and value one.

Another thing going against us is that there isn’t a NADA Used RV or Blue Book for Prevost motorhomes (at least that I’m aware of). Back when I was on the periphery of the airplane business the FBO I hung out at was buying military surplus DeHaviland Beavers and Piper Super Cubs (PA-18/135) and converting them to civilian use with US and Canadian airworthiness certificates. Everytime they made a sale they were quick to “report it” so the “blue book” reflected their sales which were at the top of the market. I think they bought and sold eight or nine Beavers and reports 10 or 12.

I have thought for sometime that if the sales of Prevost coaches were reported to the NADA system or Blue Book system or there was a database of private, dealer, and broker/consignment sales that lenders and insurance companies could access to see that there is real value in an older Prevost motorhome just like there is value in an older, quality boat/yacht or airplane we all would benefit when it came time for financing or insurance.

[Dick]

All good but if your running a 800 up credit score, and have for years, and know your lender, won’t be much of a problem.

[Archived]

I agree Glen. Especially if you have equity in things … house, second home, nice vehicles, ranch, retirement funds etc.

If you want or need a loan on an older coach, be prepared to educate the banker/lender on what a Prevost exactly is. Show them the websites with the coaches for sale, let them know there is an active market. Show pictures from the Prevost Expo in WPB of the parking lot of Prevosts, the parking lot at the recent Prevost Proud rally in Nashville, the parking lot at East Tennessee Luxury Coach, and Prevost Row at an LSU home game.

Besides getting a loan on the coach, consider getting a loan on something you have equity in; like your home with either a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or a second mortgage. Many people have options beyond a loan directly on the coach that are available to them.

[Bernard]

I’d advice against financing a ’96 Prevost. Agreed value insurance will be expensive if you can get it. In addition, you can easily spend 20% of your acquisition cost on maintenance in the first couple of years just on consumables (batteries, tires, air bags, shocks, etc, etc).