The Sweet Spot

[MangoMike]

For us mid life crisis guys...

...Cheaper than a mistress. (and a horse - sorry Debi).

And a lot more fun


mm

[Alan__]

This is a great thread! How to rationalize our toys for boys. As an old engineer I look back over life and how I justified my first Harley to my last Gold Wing, flying, swimming pool and various vehicles which were far above what would be needed for basic transportation. Geez. The reason for da' bus in da' drive is because it is fun, relaxing and very fulfilling. There is no sweet spot on the buying curve. At this point on life's curve it is not the time to worry about the price of diesel--only if it is available while I am.

[Just Plain Jeff]

[Jerry Winchester]

Well somewhere in there this thread got hijacked. This was NEVER about rationalizing buying a coach. It was about the optimum time in the life of a coach to buy it where the value and deprecation curves flatten out.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

It is in a way because looking at the purchase of a bus at some point on its depreciation curve is a meaningless exercise because it is the buyers personal financial situation that motivates the purchase in the first place.

To add further to the confusion is there is that "eureka" moment that takes a person who woke up in the morning not even considering a coach, and makes new owners of them before bedtime. We looked at our first coach as a fluke, and ended up buying it. The purchase of the second one wasn't much different.

[Just Plain Jeff]

Well somewhere in there this thread got hijacked. This was NEVER about rationalizing buying a coach. It was about the optimum time in the life of a coach to buy it where the value and deprecation curves flatten out.

I agree. And can you imagine, not following a thread and keeping on topic. My goodness what the world is coming to.

Prior to about 1999, when A1 turned 70, the unspoken rule was that a quality Prevost conversion would never be worth <$200K, although the new prices were around $600-800K.

What apparently happened was that the supply of preowned coaches increased beyond the demand and prices dropped below the magic mark...and in addition, some of the late 80's coaches were too 'old' in the market to hold the $200K mark.

As the intervening years have passed, we've seen stupendous increases in the retail pricing of new coaches from those days and diminishing values on the older end, so that some of us who are crumbcatchers can gin up our paltry Mangobucks and get into a stainless camper.

Somewhere between the high flyers and the rest of us is not only an average or mean price, but probably a median price as well: The price most commonly paid for a Prevost conversion. I'd just guess that's likely a Series 60 coach (for demand considerations) a year or two after introduction, which would place it around 95-96-97, that range.

So this reinforces Jon's friend who also avoided working for as long as I did by going to school. Eggheads stick together.

Snort, snort.

[Denny]

ANOTHER REASON TO JUSTIFY BUYING A BUS


I was recently at a seminar and during the lunch break I over heard several people talking about the bus sitting in the parking lot (which happened to be mine) and how expensive they are and what a waste of money. I listened and said nothing.

Soon a friend of mine who knew the people in this group introduced me to them and told them that it was my bus in the lot. One so boldly asked me "How can you justify the price of that bus? I can buy a lot of airline tickets and a lot of hotel rooms for what you pay for it." My answer was " You are absolutely correct. But I can tell you who slept in my bed last and who sat on my toilet last and you can't tell me that about your hotel rooms." Her chin dropped to the floor and she turned and walked away never to be heard from again.

Isn't it nice that we can take our bed and toilet with us when we travel?

Denny

[Jon Wehrenberg]

We can laugh about this all we like, but deep in the inner self I would bet that despite our protesting to the contrary, buying an expensive bus actually makes us wealthier.

Back when I was employed I was driven because I aspired to owning and enjoying "things" like our bus or plane. The only problem was we were working so hard for so many years living a lifestyle that never changed because we never noticed we were succeeding. But when we finally figured out that we were doing OK we went nuts and we don't regret it. The bus has provided us with more fun and we've met more great people than we can count.

[Ray Davis]

Commenting on Denny's posting.

I agree with you 100%, but I still think in many cases, the bus can be cost effective. If you're looking at a vacation of any duration, like the 3 week trip I took last year to go to POG and to the Datastorm rally.

If you look at the cost of car rental or airplane tickets, and combine them with hotels and meals eating at restaurants for any period of time, the bus becomes (somewhat) cost effective, even at 6-8 mpg.

Granted you can find "deals", but generally nice hotels, in reasonable areas run in excess of $100 per night. Eating out at restaurants ain't cheap either. And with the bus, all people travel for the price of one. 2-4 people traveling on an airplane can get expensive.

Granted, you cannot work the purchase price of the bus into these calculations. I wonder if the same comment would have been made to Denny, if it were a 36-42 foot fiberglass motorhome in the parking lot?

ray

[jello_jeep]

To further echo Ray's and other's comments, as well as knowing who was in the bed etc, you also know that nobody smoked in your room! and nobody will be banging on your walls or stomping on your ceiling. You can't hear that your room is not yet available.

And the biggest plus over air travel, is YOU SET THE SCHEDULE! Plus no annoying lines, cavity searches, etc etc.

I have camped for years, but only had da bus for a couple months, but it is growing on us fast.

We were running home from AZ last weekend, and stopped at a truck stop in beautiful downtown Indio and went in for some delicious piping hot chow . We actually lived through it, and went out into the lot, I thought to myself how nice it would be to grab an hours shut eye then hit the road again. Fired the generator off, turned on all three cruise airs, closed the bedroom off to make it dark and had a great nap!

Then back on the road. Now thats what I'm talking about!

It obviously can't replace air travel for everything, but if you can take the extra time, its just great!