What is the best time of year to buy a caravan?

In this article, we will answer the following question: What is the best time of year to buy a caravan? Buying a caravan is a perfect investment if what we like is the possibility of enjoying our own time during trips and having the independence of not being subject to strict schedules or plans. If you want to invest in a vehicle of this type, here are some tips.

What is the best time of year to buy a caravan?

The market for second-hand caravans and motorhomes does not work the same as that of new ones. In both circumstances, prices and models will be governed by the law of supply and demand, so the best time will vary in parallel with the buying and selling cycles.

If you plan on buying a second-hand caravan, the usual is that the peak season is concentrated just before and after the summer holidays.

The reason for this will be that the first owners will make the decision to sell quite possibly in one of those two moments: before the holidays, when they have decided to replace their old caravan with a new one with different features, or on their return, once they have discovered that the performance of your current model does not match your needs.

If you want to buy a new caravan, the motorhome market is usually renewed annually, when manufacturing companies launch their new designs with renewed features and styles. This renewal process usually crystallizes in the months of September and October and coincides with the best time to buy as the prices of their older models drop in order to get rid of stock.

Although there are some tricks to buying a motorhome, the ideal is that we take some time and search the market for the alternative that best suits our desires and lifestyle.

Should you buy or rent a caravan?

As always when we are going to make an investment of a lot of money, and without a doubt buying a caravan is, we ask ourselves many questions that are sometimes difficult to answer: How many days will I use it per year? Is it better to rent or buy a car caravan? Is a new or a second-hand caravan better?

There are many places to rent caravans, and although they have a high price perhaps if we are only going to go in summer for a few days with the children to visit places and beaches, buying it will not be entirely profitable. As much as we are going to buy a second-hand trailer, it is always a large outlay of money that we will have to make, since it may not be in perfect condition.

It is also essential to think about whether you have a place where the caravan can be parked since they are large vehicles and need a place protected from the cold and heat. Only then will it be in perfect condition when we want to use it. In the event of having to rent a place to leave it, it involves an additional outlay of money that must be added to the annual expenses that have a vehicle of these characteristics.

Types of caravans: which one to buy

It is essential to know how many homologated places your motorhome has both for day and night. The places available for road travel are not the same as those that can be used for sleeping. It is a piece of information that does not have to correspond, although normally it does. It is also important that you distinguish between caravans and motorhomes.

There are different types of motorhomes, study them and choose which one best suits your needs and those of your family:

Capuchin caravans: they are the most common. They have a ledge above the cabin that is normally used as a bed. The passenger compartment is separate from the cabin.

Profiled caravans: they are similar to the previous ones but without the overhang above the cabin, so they have a smaller cabin.

Integral caravans: they have no separation between the cabin and the house, everything is united. Some space is lost inside but it can be an advantage to have unique space.

Extendable caravans: it has lateral modules that extend and increase its capacity.

Tips when buying a second-hand motorhome

There are several things that are very important when buying a motorhome, either from a dealer or from a private individual, in order to avoid more serious problems in the near future.

• You have to take into account your needs and budget to find the one that best suits you and your family.

• Review the mechanical part of the vehicle as we would when acquiring a second-hand car. Although it may blind us that it has adequate dimensions or is aesthetically very beautiful, we must not forget that it must be in perfect mechanical condition, since it will be for you a means of transport with which you will do many kilometres.

• Check that all the documentation is in order before making the purchase, as well as the insurance, the technical sheet or the circulation permit.

• The exterior condition of the trailer is also important. Items such as the awning, the caravan mirrors, the sheet metal or the skylight for motorhomes must be in perfect condition, they are expensive accessories and would increase the investment in case of having to replace them.

• You can buy other accessories for the caravan online such as the bike rack or roof rack, but they will be expensive too.

• Inside everything is important since it is the cabin where you will live those days and where you will also travel on the road. Humidity is something to take into account: if it has it, it will mean that it has had poor maintenance or insulation problems. Pay attention to appliances, such as the refrigerator, because motorhome refrigerators are expensive and difficult to find, so you have to check that they are in perfect condition.

•  Consulting expert forums on the subject can be of great help in choosing a good make and model, and they can advise you when deciding which one to choose or what details to look for depending on which model of a motorhome it is. There are lists of the most common problems that each one has.

Other questions you may be interested in

Is living in a caravan cheap?

What happens if you exceed towing capacity?

What is a braked caravan?

Advantages of buying a caravan

Freedom. You will not depend on the schedules of other means of transport, nor on the destination limitations that other alternatives may offer. Discover new places and go at the pace that you like. With your caravan, you will have FREEDOM written in capital letters. Go where you want, when you want and with whoever you want.

Multiple places to go. Wherever there is parking, you can park your caravan and spend some time there. It can be a parking lot next to the beach, a plot in a place with difficult access or a campsite. The road network is extensive enough that the sites you can visit with your caravan are almost unlimited.

You can plan your route. Connected with freedom appears the option of being able to make the trip as you want, this means that if in the middle of the road you see a city that you are interested in knowing first hand, you can make a stop and visit it. Knowing that you have a caravan many times the trip becomes a continuous adventure.

Family and friends. Having a caravan or motorhome allows trips to be massive. Instead of travelling one person or a couple, the whole family or a group of friends can travel. In this way, the trip takes on a new meaning, where the group will unite and a multitude of anecdotes will be produced. If you don’t like to travel alone or alone, you will love the environment this vehicle provides.

Nature. Being able to enjoy a night under the light of the stars or in a national park surrounded by vegetation are experiences that are difficult to achieve if it is not having a caravan. Bring out your most natural side and get in touch with the scenic beauty.

Adapted to your style. We all like to have things prepared the way we like. We have little hobbies and habits that make us feel good. Being able to decorate the caravan to our liking and prepare it with the materials that we find most interesting is a way of having our home anywhere. There may be more luxurious places to sleep, but it is difficult to feel as comfortable as when you are in a place prepared for your way of life.

You save on hotels. A caravan is not cheap and a motorhome is even less economical. However, after the initial expense, there is a great saving in hotels and pensions that makes it profitable if we like to travel a lot and provides us with guarantees such as being able to take our pet with us to enjoy the best pet-friendly routes.

Disadvantages of buying a caravan

It takes space. When not in use, a caravan needs to be stored in a spacious place. Discarding the idea of parking it in a public parking space, it is necessary that our motorhome has a place to sleep when it is not on the road. That means having to have a personal parking lot or a garden where to park it. If you don’t have such a place, you may have to rent it, which increases the cost.

Driving problems on narrow roads. If the width of the road you travel on is not wide enough, a caravan will have trouble cornering. For this reason, mountain roads or those in small towns where hardly a vehicle passes, are forbidden places for this type of transport. Fortunately, there are GPS that has the option of drawing personalized routes taking into account the size of your caravan.

Driving limitations. According to the traffic regulations, on motorways and highways, a trailer that does not exceed 750 kilograms can go at a speed of 90 kilometres per hour, which means a significant reduction in speed that can even be greater, because if it is heavier the Regulations require that 80 kilometres per hour are not exceeded.

Higher consumption. The greater weight of a caravan will make our vehicle use more energy to move it and therefore fuel consumption will skyrocket. On the other hand, a motorhome is not very efficient due to its poor aerodynamics. Legal requirements. Any car that has to transport a caravan must have a hitch ball, so it will be necessary to go through a workshop. 

Similarly, if the weight of the caravan weighs less than 750 kilograms, it is only necessary to have the normal driving license, B. But if this weight is exceeded, variables are needed that make it necessary to carry out a new driving test. drive.

Not being able to park in urban centres. Due to space limitations, a caravan will not be able to park in the most important parts of a city, having to do so on the outskirts. This means that if you want to visit this type of place it is necessary to need other means of transport.

Conclusions

In this article, we answered the following question: What is the best time of year to buy a caravan? We also gave you a few tips on what type of caravan to choose and the advantages and disadvantages of buying a caravan. 

To summarize, if you plan on buying a second-hand caravan, the usual is that the peak season is concentrated just before and after the summer holidays. If you want to buy a new caravan, the motorhome market is usually renewed annually, when manufacturing companies launch their new designs with renewed features and styles. 

This renewal process usually crystallizes in the months of September and October and coincides with the best time to buy as the prices of their older models drop in order to get rid of stock.

There are many pros and some cons when it comes to travelling by caravan. The decision depends on what use you are going to make of it and how and how much you like to travel. 

If you have any questions or comments on the content, please let us know!

FAQ on What is the best time of year to buy a caravan?

References

Motorhomedepot.com

Rvtrader.com

Escapecampervans.com

Tripsavvy.com

Cruiseamerica.com