One Man's View of the Market

Do you remember all those comments during Covid that once people started taking holidays abroad again then there would be a surfeit of stock available at bargain prices?

Well, that was pie in the sky thinking. If you bought a new/ish Motorhome for £80,000 in 2021 you were not going to sell it back to the dealer for a whopping loss just because you wanted to go to Greece by plane.

I've been tentatively keeping my eye open for a small MH or PVC with a view to changing from a caravan. The second hand prices for decent looking stock are ridiculous. They'll have to fall some more before I part with my money.

Maybe it's me that's out of sync but that post Covid bonanza hasn't materialised.

Wherenext

Because I have a Bailey motorhome I keep an eye on a Facebook Group for the buying and selling of Bailey motorhomes. It does seem that most of those listed, even if 6/7 years old are being advertised at or near their original manufacturers price. Obviously I have no idea what they actually sell for it seems low mileage, good condition motorhomes, be they coachbuilt or PVC's do seem to be maintaining their price as the new replacements have gone through the roof. What went out the window with the advent of Covid was the "economy models". Because of the general shortage of base vehicles, manufacturers concentrated on the more upmarket models. There are a few signs that some economy models are being reintroduced but they are still way higher priced than they were in 2020. I am not sure prices will come down as everything that goes into a motorhome has also gone up and I suspect the vehicles used to base motorhomes on are in themselves going to start getting more expensive. Perhaps we are about to, or at least in the next five years, see major changes to our hobby I suspect we may be.

David

I sold my 6 year old Eriba caravan early last summer for £16.5K, eventually to a dealer.

The market for caravans was severely depressed, overstocked with new and nearly new vans. I could have realistically sold it privately in the summer of 2022 for about £21K,

The dealer who bought my van advertised it at £22K and took over 9 months to sell it.

The up side is I was buying a new caravan, and realised a discount of about £7K.

It would appear from stories I'm hearing personally, not just in the media, that the campervan and motorhome market would appear to be the opposite. Prices are still high, so a good time for moving from camper to caravan if the thought was there.

Colin

I really don’t know why people are prepared to buy motorhomes at  the £80,000 price which has been mentioned. Nobody I know does it. Everyone I know - family, friends and neighbours, is well aware that these days there are cheap flights anywhere- like those to southern Spain next week at £42.return. Flying is so cheap.  That’s departing right now.  No booking ahead. No capital outlay. No ferry across the Bay of Biscay in a storm. Just sit in a plane for two hours and rent accommodation when you get there. Postcards have arrived here in the last 12 months from Madeira, Montenegro, Jordan, Copenhagen annd Greek islands.  The ones who went to Iceland didn’t send a card. Everyone I know travels like that. Motorhome prices seem madness to them as well as to me.

ET

Maybe not in your circles but I would have thought where you live you only have to observe what is happening on the main roads to see hundreds if not thousands of motorhomes and caravans over the course of the holiday season. For some the sort of holidays you and your friends enjoy are not always an option, especially if they want to take pets with them or perhaps want to be within easy reach of getting home if they have elderly relatives. There are all sorts of reasons why people choose the holidays they do and for many being stuck in an airport or having flights cancelled is not one of them? Of course, many will have both types of holidays, as they say variety is the spice of life.

David

It depends on what you enjoy ET. We have always taken camping type touring holidays. Initially with tents, then a caravan and now a MH. Fortunately purchased in 2019 before the rapid increases in prices.  Perhaps if we couldn’t of afforded a MH things would be different, as we are a bit old for a return to tents and a caravan and replacing the tow car and caravan not a lot different in cost to a MH. However we can, and enjoy the type of holiday it provides.

eurotraveller/SteveL,  I can see both sides of the argument. However I don't believe it is one type of holiday or the other and both can be enjoyed in the same year.

Whilst we do use our 2018 caravan as much as possible, we also take many holidays abroad whilst we can. Having just returned from a 6 week holiday to Australia/New Zealand, we are definitely of the mindset of see as much abroad as you can before old age and the inevitable health problems it will brings reins in our gallivanting abroad.

Although we have not decided either way, I cannot see us replacing our caravan for another and I do think we may have missed the boat in moving to a motorhome. One reason for this is the necessity in my mind that, to justify the expense, we would have to spend more time in the MH than we probably would like to. 

I'm not surprised that Elddis have laid off staff, their quaity control is atrocious.

At the Caravan Show at the NEC last October, I went into one caravan and the drawer unit at the front came away completely....it hadn't been fixed in place.

If they don't check caravans that are display models at shows, what chance does the consumer have?

I reported it to a member of staff on the stand and they locked the caravan..not good for a show

An interesting post David. Personally I think in the short term there will be a correction of the market, perhaps not as much as we were hoping. However, whilst I agree that the component parts of our outfits have increased which have helped to drive prices up, I do wonder about the longer term. If the economic outlook persists, I could envisage people being reluctant to part with their savings for large discretionary purchases like motorhomes. Perhaps there will be a situation where a number of motorhomes will sit on forecourts until a clearance discount is offered. Whilst caravans are reliant on ICE vehicles to tow them, it will gradually dawn on owners that the impact of the ZEV legislation will gradually remove ICE vehicles from the options list. Electric tow cars are severely compromised in terms of range and do not offer the same flexibility of the ICE powered units. In some of the wider caravan fraternity, there is a hope that electric vehicle range will substantially improve. Unfortunately, hope is no substitute for a plan which seems to be missing. Could we see a switch to motorhomes in the near future with the attendant price increase? 

I thought the video was more focused on Elddis rather than the market in general. According to a report I have seen, it appears true the caravan market took a hit in 2023 with declining sales of 5 percent. However, the motorhome market did not and it grew by 3 percent. This seems to support DaveT's view that the switch is to motorhomes rather than caravans.

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