Comparing quality and price

kb0zke · January 13, 2023

How would you rank the quality of these brands?

Airstream, Arctic Fox, Mesa Ridge/Open Range, Reflection? We're looking at mid-2000's 30-34' Airstreams, 2010 and newer 30' and longer for the others. Looked at a new Reflection yesterday, and will look at other brands next week.

Also, what's the typical reduction from MSRP before any trade-in? The Reflection we saw yesterday was a 2022 with MSRP of $84,000 on "sale" for $64,000. I thought I remembered something about 30-35% off of MSRP is pretty typical, but I may be wrong.

2gypsies · January 13, 2023

From what I've seen of Airstream is that the price is very high for the quality. A friend had one and hated it... lack of storage and lack of good insulation. It was always freezing in winter.

Kirk W · January 13, 2023

Like most things, opinions of RVs varies widely depending upon who you ask so I'll give mine but with the caveat that it is just my opinion, even though I have been RVing for many years.

Airstream is about the highest priced production RV around (Bowlus is higher.) At least some of that is justified by the way they are constructed as the process is expensive and, if well maintained they probably last longer than any of the other brands you mention. Most aspects of the construction are of very high quality and long lived but the rounded design leaves very little inside storage and is the main reason that we would not want one. New ones of 30' length have an MSRP of $150k and up.

Arctic Fox is one of the most highly rated of the more conventionally built RVs and one that would be very high on my list if I were shopping as you are. They and Nash are products of Northwood Mfg. and both have great reputations. While I have not owned either of their trailers, I have known several who did and all have had positive things to say. A new one of about 30' in length will probably have an MSRP of about $65k.

Mesa Ridge/Open Range is one that I probably would not buy, as I have known 3 couples who purchased an Open Range and none were happy with them and all had traded for something else in under 5 years.

Reflection is one that I would consider as I have known 3 owners, 2 of them very happy and the other satisfied but has reservations. They seem to be of reasonable quality but I don't think that they compare to the Arctic Fox line and definitely don't to the Airstream.

3 hours ago, kb0zke said:

Also, what's the typical reduction from MSRP before any trade-in?

You will hear a lot of figures for discounts from MSRP but it is very important to realize that there is no requirement of dealers to share the factory MSRP with buyers and very few do. What most of them supply is a sheet made up in the dealership that has additions that are made at the dealership and often use inflated prices above what the factory would have assigned. Unless there is an MSRP on the manufacturer's website, such as with Airstream has, you have no way to know that the true factory price might have been. When we bought our current travel trailer, we looked at the very same trailer at a dealer in east TX and another near OK City and the OK City dealer showed that he was giving us a 32% discount, while the east TX dealer made no such claim but when asked said it was about 15% below factory suggested retail price but also said that it didn't come with a paper MSRP. Even so the east TX dealer with his 15% discount was priced at about 80% of the price quoted by the OK dealer who claimed to be giving me a 32% discount. The only way to really know what price is best is to look at a lot of dealer with the same or similar RVs.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Kirk W
correct typo

rynosback · January 15, 2023

Don’t give yourself a headache that you don’t need. Pick one that suites your needs. Contact 3 dealers with what you want (a specific list) and have them give you a price. A good deal is a state of mind. You could have stolen the rig, but if your mind thinks you got screwed, then that’s how you’re going to feel. Read a crap load, research and go look at units on lots. Understand the build differences. As some people value things differently. If there was one clear winner, there would only be one manufacture making RVs. I spent 2 years reading and researching before I bought my rig for fulltime. I will spend more for better materials and build quality.

Edited January 15, 2023 by rynosback

2gypsies · January 15, 2023

I agree with RYNOSBACK: We researched a lot and when we decided what we wanted we sent our specific specs with many customs to 10 Newmar dealers and went with the one that gave us the best price. We didn't care where we bought it because as full-timers we weren't going to be near them anyway, if needed, and it was easy to go to another Newmar dealer for help. As it turned out, we never had any issues so didn't have to return.

Kirk W · January 15, 2023

9 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

We researched a lot and when we decided what we wanted we sent our specific specs with many customs to 10 Newmar dealers and went with the one that gave us the best price.

When we bought our fulltime RV I visited the nearest dealer and went through the process of making up an order form listing the make, model, and each option we wanted with everything priced out and their final price at the bottom. I then contacted the manufacturer and I got an address and phone number for every dealer in the 3 adjacent states. I picked out 10 of them that were within our travel range and called each one, speaking to the sales manager and asked if they were interested in bidding on my purchase. I then sent copies of the order form with all numbers covered to 9 of them and 8 responded. We then visited 2 of the bidding dealerships and that process saved us about 12% over the local dealer's best offer. Much like gypsy, but with less travel and the same result. It is difficult to compare RVs that are in stock at different dealerships because no two are configured quite the same.

kb0zke · January 19, 2023

Thanks for all of the help here. We've had to revise our budget upward, which puts at least some of three brands within reach new. Airstream is still far too expensive to buy new, at least for us. Last week we looked at a Reflection, and next week we'll see the Arctic Fox and Highland Ridge dealers. We've been looking at RV Trader daily and have a long list of used trailers. So far none of what we've seen online or at the one dealership has jumped out and said, "BUY ME" but several look very interesting.

We have someone who is very interested in our Foretravel, and some money should be arriving soon, so we're probably going to have to buy something within the next week or so.