Gas Guzzling RV's selling like crazy.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
25,104
Location
ON, Canada eh?
https://jalopnik.com/gas-guzzling-rvs-are-selling-like-they-havent-sold-in-d-1820797411

Quote:

The evidence is becoming increasingly clear that baby boomers are America’s worst generation. To keep the trend going they’ve turned to buying a lot of RVs.

It should be said that RVs aren’t as bad as some other things that baby boomers are responsible for, like Trump and Rolling Stone magazine, but RVs are also big and clunky and churn through a lot of gas and probably represent the opposite direction we want to go in as far as transportation goes. Which means, of course, that baby boomers can’t stop snapping them up.

Shipments of RVs in 2017 are expected to hit their highest in nearly four decades, according to data from the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. That would mark the eighth straight year of growth.

RV shipments are expected to hit 505,600 in 2017, a 17.4 percent jump from last year, and then hit 520,700 in 2018, according to the association. “Each and every month this year was the best on comparable record for that month,” said Frank Hugelmeyer, the RVIA’s president, speaking at a trade show in Louisville,
Over half a million RVs! Sheesh. Is there any good news here?

Low gasoline prices have helped fuel sales in recent years, as have low interest rates that have eased financing of items that range in price from $10,000 to $1 million. The vast bulk of shipments - an estimated 444,100 units this year - are so-called towables. The rest are motor homes.

So only around 60,000 are actual, you know, motor homes. Can you imagine 60,000 motor homes in one place? As Reuters notes, RV manufacturing “is heavily concentrated in northern Indiana, which produces about 85 percent of the U.S.’s RVs.” Indeed, drive Interstate 90 some time when you get a chance. Eventually, you’ll get an RV eyeful.
 
I saw that. Hopefully those in the biz are saving something out of this boom!

I saw or read about how some couples have turned to full time RV living, and follow work around, not being able to afford retirement. Not sure how much of a percentage they make up, probably not much, but strong sales could be more than just "the economy is doing great!"
 
Originally Posted By: supton
I saw that. Hopefully those in the biz are saving something out of this boom!

I saw or read about how some couples have turned to full time RV living, and follow work around, not being able to afford retirement. Not sure how much of a percentage they make up, probably not much, but strong sales could be more than just "the economy is doing great!"


We are saving for early retirement and thought about doing the living in an RV thing maybe down AZ way for the bad weather months of the year here in Canada and then come back and park it locally. (Have to come back ever 180 days to keep health-care intact and because that's the travel time permit we are given at the border as Canadian visitors to the US). We also want to see other places in the US so it would be nice to do the RV travel thing too!
 
If gas guzzling RVs are around in 40 years when the Millenials are retired, they will be buying them up just as the retired boomers are doing now. You can say "oh no, I would never do that" but attitudes, politics and a whole bunch of other things change as you age.

Many of our boomers were the ones back in the 1960's and early 1970's trying to hang Nixon in effigy, burning the flag, voting for laws to stop pollution and protesting against war and other rules in society. Nowdays theses same folks vote for trump and want to hang those not respecting the flag, a complete 180 degree turn from where they were 45 and 50 years ago. Something along these lines will happen to the youngsters today in another 40 years. You could take that to the bank.

The ability to afford an RV and the time to use it generally come after a life of saving and retirement.
 
Even better! I can be laying on the couch while the mobile home takes me to/from my destinations. Hahahahaha
 
People have short memories. Gas isn't going to stay cheap forever, and when the price goes back up, all of these gas hogging vehicles will be parked in everyone's front lawns with a for sale sign in the window...
 
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Even better! I can be laying on the couch while the mobile home takes me to/from my destinations. Hahahahaha

It's been done already.... 'till they run out of straight road....

I think one major manufacturer had to modify the auto-pilot section of the user manual....
 
What a stupid article.

Oh no, people are buying products they want, and people have jobs creating those products. We can't have that..
 
My aunt and uncle bought a motor home after they had been retired to a quiet hilltop in WI for many years...my dad claimed that his brother's wife had been bugging him about the idea for years and his brother had finally become senile enough to go along with it. They sold their nice house with lots o land after buying the RV so there was no bricks and mortar to retreat to if things didn't go well.
Their motor home was built in Indiana and they made many trips back to the plant...the #1 cause was not noticing a low overpass coming up and knocking the AC unit off the roof. I think it usually took about a month to get that fixed and they would stay in a hotel while waiting for their repairs to be completed. There were also numerous times my uncle would pass out at the wheel and end up driving way into a cornfield (they seemed to be in the Midwest a lot despite supposedly wanting to see the whole country), believe there were also repair trips from episodes like that. Can't believe he never drove into a bridge abutment or a semi while unconscious...
My uncle came to visit after several years of such shenanigans and my dad really gave it to him, saying he was stupid for selling his WI home and that he had to get rid of that RV pronto. Unc didn't care to hear this from his little brother and stormed out...this was the last time we saw him.

A few years later, the state police in WI found my uncle unconscious at the wheel of his RV in a cornfield again. He was in bad shape and passed away in a hospital without ever regaining consciousness...my aunt was found to be suffering from severe dementia and was placed in a nursing home, I don't believe she even knew who her husband was or that he had died. I don't know what happened to her, she almost has to be gone by now and I felt little attachment to her as a non-blood relative who was never decent to me even in the slightest way. She once made my family sleep in an unheated detached garage during a visit because a kid like me might mess up her house! (those two never had kids)

After hearing my uncle had passed, I visited my dad and told him I would take a day off work to drive him up for the funeral. Dad gave me a funny look and told me there was no way he was going to that...I guess he was still holding a grudge after their last argument. Shocked me because my uncle was probably closer to my dad than my mom was before that fight.

---> I don't like motor homes!!!
;^)
 
Last edited:
My grandparents just bought an RV.
lol.gif
 
Well you gotta bivouac the things at a KOA or similar camp ground usually, when on the road don't you? Fees for this fees for that, people partying all night in the spaces nearby when you're needing to sleep. I don't know, seems like that RV $$ would buy a lot of hotel rooms.

As I age I feel more the need to divest myself of large scale depreciable assets not acquire more of them. To each their own though.
 
How much does the average gas guzzling motor home cost?

Certainly a CHEAP house in a warmer climate has a better price tag. Obviously, one is (well.. could be) an investment whereas one is a depreciating asset.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: grampi
People have short memories. Gas isn't going to stay cheap forever, and when the price goes back up, all of these gas hogging vehicles will be parked in everyone's front lawns with a for sale sign in the window...


They might be dead when it does go up, so who cares!
 
Having 10 and 12 year old boys, we like to camp and bike and kayak. We have one of these horrible contraptions:

 
02SE
"Oh no, people are buying products they want, and people have jobs creating those products. We can't have that.."

Exactly. The writers left leaning political views/agenda were obvious even with his token Rolling Stone toss in. People trying to enjoy their lives by traveling around the country. Their time, preference and money...Worthless article
 
I don't see how it would make sense to sell the house and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new RV to live in and travel, unless you're extremely wealthy.

Because at some point we all get old, and mobility suffers. What happens if a hip goes bad and you need surgery? Can't climb up and down constantly in an RV like you could in a house.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top