If you were buying a small Class A??

Moving up from a 31' Class C, would you buy a Thor A.C.E.? I have read several reviews where owners had all sorts of issues. And, then again, several that love their ACE. I know new vehicles can have "bugs" to get worked out. But, the wife & I will be buying as lightly used as possible, so hopefully will have the new bugs cured. So, no older than 2012 and fewer than 35,000 miles. I am pretty good at diagnosing & fixing issues, so that will help. We really like the floor plan of the 29.2 for our plans of taking out a couple grand kids at a time. Anybody with nuggets of wisdom concerning the brand/model will be much appreciated. 
Pat

Most of the people here will tell you floor plan is a more important factor than make/model. If you like that floor plan, then its a good choice. Thor seems to be a name that pops up often, on the positive end of the spectrum.

I would also suggest you extend your age horizon back a few more years, say 2006 or 2007.  The RV industry took a major hit in the economic meltdown of 2008/2009 with many players going bankrupt and others just barely surviving.  So models from those first few years post collapse tend to have every price cutting corner to be found cut and as a result it seems quality generally suffered across the industry.

The ACE isn't the only smaller Class A, so don't get hung up there. Winnebago & Tiffin have similar sized units.

Anything by Thor would never be my choice. Too many problems.

moisheh said:

Anything by Thor would never be my choice. Too many problems.

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as a Thor owner.... I might tend to agree..... but then again I'm not all that convinced that they are really any worse than others.

There are a lot of folks with those Vegas/Axis models active over at the Thor forum and I see a lot of them on the road.  Folks seem to like them. 

While not for us, I looked at a 30' Winnebago Vista in 2014 and found it a really spacious nicely constructed small A class. Seems you could get a new closeout model ATT for around $95K

Thanks for the input guys. What type of advances/amenities would we miss out on by buying something from 06 to 2011ish? My wife is a "bell's & whistles" gal. 

Gargantuan TV's... LOL

Personally I want big windows and small TV, but the newer the rig the bigger the TV it seems.

I find I want more manual features and less automatic, as it's less things to go wrong. Now here's a twist, I've seen a lot of older Class A's that had far fancier attributes than the newer ones. Go figure...

I had a friend with an old RV and it had this fancy stove top plus an eye level oven with a built in rotiserrie. He also had  a built-in self draining ice cooler in the floor behind the drivers seat. His was old but had all these nifty gadgets. It came with a builtin vacuum cleaner. The counter top had one of those old fashioned Nutone appliances and he had all the parts to it to blend, grind, mix, chop etc. He alos had a small fold-down ironing board.

Of course the decor was retro too, plaids and shag carpet.  ;D I loved all the nifty gadgets his came with. Shame they don't put some of those in now.

Of course the decor was retro too, plaids and shag carpet.  ;D I loved all the nifty gadgets his came with. Shame they don't put some of those in now.
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Plaids and shag carpet are retro?  When did that happen?

99dart said:

Thanks for the input guys. What type of advances/amenities would we miss out on by buying something from 06 to 2011ish? My wife is a "bell's & whistles" gal. 

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I don't think you'll see too much difference, other than the flat screen TVs kind of came in around 07 (at least in ours).  You might see some brass/oak in 06.  At least for Winnebago, 2011 was the last year for the good slide systems before they tried Schwintek.

Also remember that many of these 10-15 year old motorhomes  that you may be looking have been updated, ask yourself, do you still have the same TV in your livingroom that you had 10-15 years ago?  I have a 2002 model and sure the two tone brass and chrome bathroom fixtures are looking a little dated, but those are easy enough to update, though it does have a 28 inch flat panel TV installed in place of the original 19? inch tube tv by the previous owner a couple of years ago, along with new carpet, new leather seating including a modernish J sofa with built in recliner .  Then there is the Seelevel 709 tank monitoring systems and LED interior lights I installed last month, it  will probably also be getting a new GPS nav system before summer.  Older motorhomes are not all time capsules with mustard yellow appliance and knotty pine cabinets anymore than older sticks and brick homes are.

As to the bells and whistles found on recent motorhomes, do you really need 4 flat screen TV's in a 32 ft motorhome, well 3 inside and one in a special flat bay outside, or remote digital control light switches with color changing back lights that allow you to turn the bedrooms lights on and off from the drivers seat?

TV's never have been a priority for us,(we're game players). We like knowing things like temperature (inside & out) which is easily handled by a digital thermometer w/remote sensors. My wife says she wants a navigation that is built into the dash. That way she doesn't have to mess with her phone & the cord to keep it charged and that also draws data. I'm finding it hard to get her to go along with looking at anything older than a 2012, yet keep it under $65k.  We like a floor plan with the dinette across from the couch, but that seems harder to find in a class A. Ah, the search will continue. LOL

Tell her after market NAV systems are better, less dated looking and can be replaced when new models come out.

p.s. if you have not doe so yet check out ppl in Houston they are a big consignment dealer and have floorplans at a glance on their for sale listings http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/

p.p.s. think about how much freshening of the looks you could do with the $40,000 you would save buying this one http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/classa/2006-Hurricane-34071.htm

Tell her after market NAV systems are better, less dated looking and can be replaced when new models come out.

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They're also cheaper to update. Ford and Jeep have wanted around $150 for a one time update on the built-in models, while I got lifetime updates for my Garmin dezl 560 for less than that (I've updated quarterly for several years, now).

Also, you can get in-dash units from the after market. Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer and others offer these -- just google for "in dash GPS" (without the quotes) and you'll find all kinds of them.

We found on our last Ford Expedition that the Nav screen made a nice location for our Garmin Nuvi suction cup!   

That thing was pathetic - a $2,000 or so option back in 04, as said $150 every update, and no touch screen - it had to be driven with a joystick. 

Larry N. said:

They're also cheaper to update. Ford and Jeep have wanted around $150 for a one time update on the built-in models, while I got lifetime updates for my Garmin dezl 560 for less than that (I've updated quarterly for several years, now).

Also, you can get in-dash units from the after market. Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer and others offer these -- just google for "in dash GPS" (without the quotes) and you'll find all kinds of them.

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That's a good plan with the Garmin. Our smart phones work really well also. Just gotta watch the data charges.

Isaac-1 said:

Tell her after market NAV systems are better, less dated looking and can be replaced when new models come out.

p.s. if you have not doe so yet check out ppl in Houston they are a big consignment dealer and have floorplans at a glance on their for sale listings http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/

p.p.s. think about how much freshening of the looks you could do with the $40,000 you would save buying this one http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/classa/2006-Hurricane-34071.htm

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That's a nice unit! And, wouldn't take much to freshen up either. You did a good job finding a floor plan we like! I'll take a look at the ppl website.

Mile High said:

We found on our last Ford Expedition that the Nav screen made a nice location for our Garmin Nuvi suction cup!   

That thing was pathetic - a $2,000 or so option back in 04, as said $150 every update, and no touch screen - it had to be driven with a joystick.

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Too funny! Sad... but funny!

Mile High said:

We found on our last Ford Expedition that the Nav screen made a nice location for our Garmin Nuvi suction cup!   

That thing was pathetic - a $2,000 or so option back in 04, as said $150 every update, and no touch screen - it had to be driven with a joystick.

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My '07 F-150 has a touch screen, and is nicely integrated with the radio, etc. If it had the features my Garmin has (or even the Street Pilot I had when the F-150 was new), it would be great, but that $150 per update charge is ridiculous -- granted they have to send you a CD, but that's still waaaaay too pricey. And my Wrangler came with a Garmin (touch screen, of course, but reduced functionality, though) and though you can get the update online and put it on a thumb drive, they still want $150 per update.