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Buying a Prevost
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Test drove the new Liberty Elegant Lady today. Nice 60 mile drive climbing the same hill as in the Marathon.
Liberty Coach uses a retarder vs. a Jake Brake. It is a lever on the right side of the steering wheel that has six settings, seemed to work well.
I like the sewer set-up better on the Liberty Coach which is slightly more manual vs. the Marathon has an automatic hose the jumps out really fast. I would be concerned that the Marathon sewer hose would hit the ground which would cause a shorter life of the hose itself as they are just plastic around a slinky wire.
Anyway, I asked Liberty Coach to spec me out a new coach to check on price with the many options that we discussed.
MM.
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As you can see from my signature, we purchased a 2015 Liberty Coach.
I met with the owner today to go over the new floor plan as we are having a full bath in the back with a half bath in the middle. He moved a couple of things around so that we could have an additional closet in the bedroom by shortening the half bath. It will be perfect!
Liberty Coaches come with two type of horns, an air horn and a train whistle. I heard the whistle today, sounds just like a train! So far, I’m enjoying the communication with the owner and salesman as we all seem to be on the same page.
MM.
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Mark,
MY wife and I arrived back at MCC and we toured the show coach they had there and talked with Frank for a few minutes. It was the first time we were in an Liberty… very nice… Frank said we just missed you by a couple of hours… Congrats on the new ride…
Bill
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Hi Bill,
Eventually, we’ll get to meet other Prevost owner’s. Frank and Larry were at the MCC today showing the Liberty Coach…. hopefully, they will sell it this weekend!
In the 25 yrs. we’ve been coming to Palm Springs, I have never, ever, seen the town as busy as it is this season. I think the big Marilyn Monroe statue (Norma Jean) has been really popular. The restaurants downtown are packed! It takes at least 45 minutes to drive from Palm Springs to Indio to the MCC. People will NOT move out of the way! LOL!
Have fun at the resort!
MM.
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As I get more and more into the details of the Coaches for Sale and look at the spec sheet and the price the owner wants for the Coach I am finding questions related to “is the selling price correct or high or low”. How does a potential purchaser determine an offer price? I have read a great deal about “zeroing” out a Coach. I seem to have determined that to zero out a Coach one should figure 10% of the selling price. Now should that be first in consideration before anything else. I also know that there are a lot of Coaches for sale out there and as others have said a limited number of buyers.
Tell me if my thinking is correct. I am leaning to an H3-45, non slide. I don’t intend on spending a season in the Coach, but use it for side trips back and forth from our home in AZ and our place in Wisconsin. Maybe a month on the road at a time. Non-slides seem to me are less maintainence to worry about and quieter with less chance of water leaks. With just the two of us seems we can pass comfortably in the hallway and are leaning away from the Slides. I think non-slides are priced better than 2-3 slides. How much does milage come into the mix; a Coach with 144K an acceptable if you Zero out the Coach? I like the H3-40 or 45, and starting to zero in on these. What am I missing in my thinking. Thanks to all who will give me suggestions.
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IFR Driver,
The easy questions first. Your thinking appears very reasonable. Slides add weight, complexity, cost more, and if not properly maintained can be a source of leaks. If you do not need them (or want them) you are better off with a non-slide coach. In fact if you spend a lot of time driving compared to having the coach sitting in one spot you really will not fully benefit from slides. The only comment I disagree with is the one regarding noise. We bought our first slide coach almost three years ago and I expected it to creak and groan like Tom and Al do when those two oldsters walk. But it turns out the coach is completely noise free as far as the slides are concerned. On rare occasions if the pins do not fully engage one will engage with a bang after we hit a bump, but I cannot attribute any noise to the slide.
As to pricing, there is no “Blue Book”. What you can do to get a sense of what is reasonable is spend some time listing all the Prevost coaches for sale that have asking prices within 5 or 10% of your budget. Then sort them out, eliminating those that are not going to work for your purposes. If you gather enough examples you are likely going to see some patterns emerge. For example you will see some conversions have asking prices on average higher than others. You are likely to see mileage has an influence on asking prices. You may see converters asking more than dealers and dealers asking more than private individuals.
From your compilation you will at least see the total range. Obviously the asking price is unlikely to be the selling price, so only a serious buyer and a serious seller who negotiate are going to end up coming up with a real price. Some buyers will not buy anything unless it is “cheap” or whose price represents a “steal”. Some are willing to pay more than the lowest asking prices to get a coach that more accurately refects what they want. Only you can determine ultimately how much you want to pay. But you do have to do your homework.
As to the comment about mileage, a coach with 144,000 miles on it as far as I am concerned is as valuable as a coach of the same age that has 40,000 miles, assuming both have been equally well maintained. That is low mileage for coaches with a life span no motor home owner will ever reach.
The prices can have a broad range, not only because of mileage (an illusion), converter or who is selling it, but because there are some factors that will have a big impact on cost. If a buyer has to buy all new tires and batteries that cost can easily approach $10,000 dollars. Add in some needed but deferred maintenance and a buyer has to make a big adjustment to the price offered to compensate. On the other hand if the buyer is looking at making an offer on a highly documented coach with new tires and batteries, all services current, all preventive maintenance items well within range plus the coach is highly equipped then the actuall selling price is going to approach the top of the range.
But in addition to your budget, you also have to establish your list of wants and needs and those are determined by how you intend to use the coach. If you spend a lot of time driving in the southwest during warm weather you really need to give serious consideration to Prevost over the road heat and AC system. If you don’t want to get a coach with the OTR system, at least consider one with roof air conditioners. If you are going to be parked a lot, then you will not really need OTR, and might opt for Cruiseairs because they are quiet and robust AC units, but do not work as well as roof airs when driving.
Buying a coach should not be an emotionally driven exercise. Do your homework and be patient. Your coach is out there. It may take some time to find one, but it is there.
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What a great post a lot of great suggestions and comments Thank you
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Michael,
That post just scratched the surface. The key to buying a coach is if you are happy with the deal. As a lot of others have posted you need to know what you are buying and when you have it narrowed down to the coach you want, you are just beginning. from that point on you carry the burden of any inspections to verify the condition and that process in itself can be very complex.
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I second Jon’s comments. Not just because he was one of the Prevost owners whose experience, expertise, and knowledge I relied on when we bought our Prevost in April of this year … but because I’ve found what he says to be very accurate.
New tires and new batteries will run right around $10,000.
Zeroing out all the stuff that has a limited life is around $20,000. Our 15 year old coach had literally no maintenace records other than some history I dug up on some fluid changes over the last five or so years. So the presumption was that break chambers, Norgren valves, air bags, etc. etc. etc. all need to be replaced which I had Jeff Rowe at Eastern Tennessee Luxury Coach do for us along with the tires and batteries.
As time goes on I’m expecting to replace some fluid lines that are more than 15 years old, probably dried out, and will eventually crack. Other small things will fail and need replacing. Right now I am reading the articles on refrigerator replacement with great interest as I know ours won’t last forever.
We hope this helps. Are you planning on attending the All Prevost Show in Tampa during early January? We were there in 2012 and learned quite a bit. Good luck with your search.
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One point that some new owners may overlook is our coaches may be big, may appear complex, but if you have any experience working on cars, trucks or equipment you will have no issues working on your coach.
I started doing all my own work around 20 years ago and at first viewed it as a reasonable choice because we were so far from a Prevost service center at the time. It started with oil and filter changes and greasing the coach. It was done on a barn floor and I used wooden blocks to support the coach. Then I changed air bags. Then I removed, rebuilt and replaced my Norgren valves, then brake chambers.
When I had a hub seal leak I figured I would try to fix that and the results were good, so when my brake linings started to show cracking I redid my entire brake system. During the time I was learning how to do work on the chassis I was also starting to do repairs on the house. I replaced toilet seals, HW tanks, light fixtures, then a Norcold refrigerator, etc.
Now with the internet being such a great source of information from forums to repair manuals anyone with the desire and a few tools can greatly reduce the cost of repairs or maintenance if prepared to do the work himself.
So buying a coach that does need to be zeroed out can have a relatively small cost associated with doing a lot of work if the owner is willing to invest a lot of sweat equity. I spead the cost and time invested in doing work to renew a chassis over a year long period because I have found that taking my time, doing things right and treating my work as a hobby I not only end up saving a lot of money, I really get to know my coach which is very important.
But no matter which option you take, I strongly suggest you never leave your coach if you decide to have others do the work.
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Great Post Jon and congrats on your willingness to do your own work. I too will try to do some of the thing you do only starting our slowly. I am wondering if trying to make contact with a “bus” company locally and maybe arranging to use some of thier expertise and facilities for a fee to do some of the work that might require a pit or lifts. Just a thought or maybe retrofit a small warehouse with a few other Coach owners to do it yourself facility like a Coach Condo for Repairs. I think out of the box too much. Thanks for the post Jon.
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