2008 Monaco Camelot

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00RoadKing

Active member
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Posts
29
Location
Dexter, NY
Hello everyone, I am looking for some expertise and advice. I own a 2000 American Eagle and am looking to upgrade. I have found a 2008 Monaco Camelot 42PDQ at what seems to be a pretty good price. My question is simple I guess, I dont have any experience with the Monaco line. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts positive or negative. If anyone owns this particualr coach I would certainly appreciate any feed back. Thank You!
 
We have a 2003 Camelot and it's a great coach. A year or two later, Monaco removed the Windsor (next higher coach) from their line and upgraded the Camelot to fill the gap. The 42PDQ is a nice coach, and I don't think you'd have any regrets.
 
We have a 2009 Camelot 42PDQ. We really like the coach. Prior to this we a 2000 40ft Windsor which served us very well.

ken
 
You know the more i research different brands of coaches the more I realize that there are negative comments out there about all of them. I just know that I am not rich enough to buy a $200,000.00 lemon. The 2008 Camelot 42pdq i am looking at has 36,000 miles which is a lot really for a 2008. But it looks well cared for and I think I can pick it up for 165k-170k which is well below book value. Have you had any issues that required Monaco warranty work? If so, how was Monaco to deal with? Would you reccomend an extended warranty/repair insurance? Any preferences on these packages. Thanks again
 
We've had warranty issues taken care of at two different Monaco service centers, and the treatment was outstanding. But that was before Monaco went into bankruptcy. The newly emerged Monaco may not be as generous with their treatment, and they probably won't honor a pre-bankruptcy warranty.
 
Thanks Tom for the info. Perhaps I could indulge your knowledge once again. I would like to have a pre-purchase inspection done on this RV before I write the check, the problem is that I can't find one in my area. The coach is in Albany NY. I have found several inspectors in states like Florida, Texas and California but nothing in NY. ANy thoughts?
 
If there are any RV dealers or repair shops in the area, you might ask if they'd be prepared to allow one of their techs do the inspection and bill you for the time. Alternatively, talk to one of the techs directly and ask if they'd do it after hours. I'm not sure how you'd know you were getting someone competent though.

We have checklists in our library that will go a long way to allowing you to do the inspections yourself, or maybe use them as a checklist for whoever agrees to do the inspection for you.
 
Hi 00Roadking

We have had our Monaco since September '09 and have been full-timing in it ever since.  It has had it's share of "issues" since, but we are hoping that those who warned us that we would have them for the first 20K, or so, and that after that, they would settle down, were right.

As you know, there is no warranty from Monaco on your coach.  I understand that Cummins and Allison have manufacturer's warranty still in effect, but we have had no warrantiable problems with either, so who knows.  What I wanted to add about the new Monaco Corp (read Navistar) is that, even though they guaranty nothing on coaches they didn't build, their factory customer service line has been extremely helpful with me in resolving problems that have come up.  As an example, we broke a tile in the bathroom, and the folks at Monaco CS researched the vendor, found the tile and arranged to have it shipped to us so I could replace it.  I had to pay for the tile, of course, but without Monaco's help, it might have been impossible to locate.

Hope this helps
 
Good point Bob. I too called Monaco  service for a 3rd party part a few months ago. Monaco took my credit card number and placed the other with the vendor. Unfortunately, the vendor shipped the wrong part, but Monaco refunded my money and gave me the direct number for the vendor. That ended up saving me a large Monaco markup on the part.
 
I am going to have an inspector look at this coach before I pay for it. Here is the bottom line I guess. I ran a "CarFax" on this coach and it was purchased new in December of 2007. It was owned for about 2 years and was reposessed. It has sold twice since then at auction and now is in the hands of a guy who owns a heavy equipment company and has been rv'ing for 10 years and for the past 5 years he has been buying and selling RV's basically at wholesale prices. This coach has a retail book value of between 205K to around 230K. I can probably buy it between 160K and 170K. One of my concerns is that the fellow who had it reposessed could have done anything to it when he knew they were coming to get it, but my gut tells me that someone who buys a coach of this caliber isn't going to be like that. I suppose another concern would be that he had so many problems with it and had no warranty so he let them repo it. But again I have not heard of anyone with extreme problems with the Monaco Camelot. Am I crazy to buy a reposessed coach from a manufacturer that has been through bankruptcy and will offer me NO warranty repairs? Honestly there have been so many bankruptcy's in the past 3-4 years it is hard to keep track of them. I mean I was looking at an '07 American Eagle and frankly I would be in the same boat with the warranty on that too, right?
 
Hard to say whether a repossessed coach, per se, is any more risky than any other used coach. I suspect it isn't.  It's tempting to think that having had a coach repossessed insinuates an irresponsible or neglectful previous owner, but in this economic day and age, we all know that this is probably not even frequently the case.

I think you're on the right track by concentrating on the condition of the particular coach and, particularly, by having a knowledgeable, experienced third party inspect it.  I think this is critical.  I had some RV experience 15 years ago with a gas-powered motorhome when we bought ours, so I thought I could figure out myself what condition it was in.  Now that we have been in it for 6 months, I realize how lucky we were that there was nothing seriously wrong with it.  These latter-day coaches are so complicated, and so sophisticated, that they are difficult, if not impossible, for the average RVer to evaluate.

In our case we had a very honest and ethical dealer who sent each coach out to a professional service for a complete inspection of all major systems prior to delivery.  He does this because he knows how hard it is to get a good picture of the condition of a coach  otherwise.
Best of luck on your search 
 
Hey everyone,
Looks like we have decided on an 07 American Eagle 42' from Lazydays. A little more money than the 08 Camelot but everything we were looking for in a coach. Probably pick it up by the end of the month. See ya on the road.
 
Thanks Gary,

Hey I see that you are based out of Ocala Fl. any thoughts on RV communities down there, we looked at a few when we were down there last week and were particularly impressed with Mt Olive in Polk City and Citrus Highlands near Clermont. Both seem to be very well kept and the prices seem to be very good at this time.

Ed
 

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