Selling a motorhome to a dealer: 9 good reasons

A frequently asked initial question when selling your own used motorhome is something like this: Should I sell my motorhome to a dealer or would I rather sell it to a private individual? Another question is: Will the dealer pay me a good price? Or this question: Why should I sell to a dealer when a private individual will pay a higher price?

Is that really the case? Most guides and articles on the Internet say that a dealer would offer a lower price because he has to earn money from the resale of the motorhome. If you have patience, you should sell privately and make a better deal in the end.

The common practice of recent years, especially from the beginning of 2021, shows a different picture. In times of supply bottlenecks for new vehicles, thinned-out stocks of used vehicles in motorhome dealers' yards and a veritable boom in the entire caravanning industry in Germany and Europe, more and more dealers are actively looking for used motorhomes, for which they are also paying very high prices. Have you ever heard your trusted motorhome dealer say the following?

"The market for used motorhomes is empty, there is nothing!"

For you as a motorhome owner, this is definitely a good thing! Here are 9 good reasons for selling your own motorhome to a dealer.

The dealer is a diverse species. For example, there is the "motorhome buyer", who systematically buys all types of motorhomes and attracts attention through intensive advertising. Then there is the classic brand dealer, who exclusively represents one or more brands and specializes exclusively in these. There is the "crossover dealer", who is experienced and professional, but is open to all brands. There is the "luxury motorhome dealer" who only sells high-priced motorhomes from brands such as Morelo or Concorde. Then there is the dealer who mainly only sells panel vans. Or
the dealer who specializes in sales to other European countries (see also reason 3).

There are very different dealers throughout Germany with different business practices and resulting purchase profiles. Example: A motorhome dealer with a special brand representation is usually interested in young used motorhomes (up to 3 years old) of his brand, which have a not too high mileage (e.g. up to 30,000 km) and where the maintenance and leakage tests have been carried out according to the manufacturer's instructions. Such a dealer can usually pay an above-average purchase price for such a motorhome.

Another example: An independent, non-branded dealer who does not specialize in any particular brand and tends to deal in motorhomes in the entry-level price range up to €30,000. It may not be important to him whether the maintenance booklet has been kept in full and when the last leak test was carried out. This dealer also buys motorhomes with minor or major defects, which he can repair cheaply in his own workshop.

Another example of the much-discussed topic of "trade-in": You currently own a 6-year-old Knaus semi-integrated motorhome. You would like to upgrade to a larger motorhome and have looked for a brand new fully integrated motorhome at a Dethleffs brand dealer. You don't want to have a lot of trouble with your "old one" and ask the dealer for a trade-in offer. In some cases, they receive a subterranean price, in other cases the recommendation to market it themselves via mobile.de. The real question behind this: Why are you offering a vehicle from Group B (KnausTabbert) to a dealer from Group A (Hymer Group)?

You're now thinking - "That's obvious, I wouldn't do that anyway!". Let's change the example a little. What if it had been a 5-year-old Dethleffs and not a Knaus? That might not give you an advantage either, because perhaps this Dethleffs dealer specializes exclusively in new vehicles and has no interest in used vehicles - and for this reason is simply the wrong contractual partner for the purchase of your used motorhome.

What does this mean for you? There is no such thing as a dealer. Depending on the type of motorhome on offer and the given condition of the motorhome, you will approach different dealers when selling. Dealers sometimes pay significantly different purchase prices because they have a different business philosophy or serve a particular customer or vehicle segment.

How many motorhome dealers do you think there are in Germany alone? Not easy to answer, but the caravanmarkt.info portal gives us a good indication. It counts no fewer than 818 dealers. That's a lot. And each one is somehow different.

A frequently asked initial question when selling your own used motorhome is something like this: Should I sell my motorhome to a dealer or would I rather sell it to a private individual? Another question is: Will the dealer pay me a good price? Or this question: Why should I sell to a dealer when a private individual will pay a higher price?

Is that really the case? Most guides and articles on the Internet say that a dealer would offer a lower price because he has to earn money from the resale of the motorhome. If you have patience, you should sell privately and make a better deal in the end.

The common practice of recent years, especially from the beginning of 2021, shows a different picture. In times of supply bottlenecks for new vehicles, thinned-out stocks of used vehicles in motorhome dealers' yards and a veritable boom in the entire caravanning industry in Germany and Europe, more and more dealers are actively looking for used motorhomes, for which they are also paying very high prices. Have you ever heard your trusted motorhome dealer say the following?

"The market for used motorhomes is empty, there is nothing!"

For you as a motorhome owner, this is definitely a good thing! Here are 9 good reasons for selling your own motorhome to a dealer.

Markets are becoming increasingly global. You may be familiar with this phrase from the business section of your daily newspaper. And it also fully applies to the caravanning industry. For years now, motorhomes have also been enjoying increasing popularity in our neighboring European countries. In its latest publicly available study from 09/2020, the KnausTabbert Group forecasts annual growth of 5.7% in the motorhome segment. In 2020, our neighboring country France was the leader in new motorhome registrations after Germany (+16.5%). Unfortunately, no current figures are available for 2021 at the time of writing. However, it can be assumed that the coronavirus must have only strengthened the trend towards individual travel in your own motorhome.

In other words, a German motorhome dealer in the north may have a wealthy customer from Sweden or Finland who is looking for a special motorhome and will pay a hefty price for it. Another German motorhome dealer in the south might have a customer from Italy, Switzerland or the Czech Republic who is looking for a motorhome that you are currently offering. You can imagine that customers from other European countries like to buy in Germany. Why? In our neighboring countries, (German) motorhomes are even more expensive.

You have to admit - nowadays motorhome enthusiasts are prepared to travel many hundreds of kilometers to view or even buy a used motorhome from a dealer. However, most people would rather buy from a trusted local dealer where they feel they will be looked after competently and treated well. And who they can contact quickly if they have a problem. Who wants to drive hundreds of kilometers for a warranty claim?

What does this mean in practice? The prices of motorhomes vary considerably throughout Germany, depending on the region. A motorhome dealer from the Black Forest cares little whether a comparable motorhome is a few thousand euros cheaper at another dealer in the far north. The dealer from the south compares the prices in his region (e.g. within a radius of 100-200 km) and thus targets a prospective buyer from his area. A prospective buyer from the immediate vicinity of this dealer who wants to buy a motorhome for a high five-figure sum, for example, will in most cases think twice about traveling 600 kilometers to save a few thousand euros. And then possibly have to make the next 600-kilometer trip in a few months when the first defect occurs.

You might think that a motorhome dealer buys a motorhome from a private individual solely for the purpose of reselling it. Far from it! Many motorhome dealers maintain small to large fleets of rental vehicles to meet the high demand.

So what does a dealer do if he has a shortage of motorhomes for rental due to the manufacturer's delivery bottleneck? Right, he buys young used motorhomes that are easy to rent out. The dealer recoups the possibly slightly inflated purchase price by renting them out at rental prices that have been rising for years. After approx. 6-12 months, the motorhome is removed from the rental fleet, reconditioned and then offered on the open market again. A good deal for the dealer, even if he didn't get a bargain at the beginning.

Have you ever financed a motorhome or do you know someone who has? Then you know that the motorhome dealer is very happy to arrange financing, as he receives a handsome commission payment from his bank for this arrangement. Do you still need a service before you take delivery of your used motorhome or would you like to upgrade something? Do you still need camping accessories? Your dealer will be happy to do this for you or sell you the necessary accessories.

A motorhome dealer earns more than just from the sale of the motorhome. What does this mean for you? You may be able to expect a higher purchase price if the dealer knows that he can resell your vehicle to a customer immediately and the customer concludes a financing contract through the dealer, for example. And actually still needs a trailer coupling to tow his small boat. Full camping equipment wouldn't be bad either, as he's new to camping. And so on... You understand what we mean.

Most private prospective buyers want to purchase a motorhome that is free of defects. Only very few of them will seriously consider buying a motorhome if it has defects. The layman can rarely judge whether a defect is "minor" or "major", whether the defect is easy to rectify or whether it is even a cost-intensive repair. Here is a real-life example: A private seller made the following statements when selling his motorhome:

Slight parking bumps at the rear left and right, exterior mirror right housing slightly damaged. The ignition spark on the hob does not work, nor does the automatic retraction of the outside kick panel while driving and the automatic switching of the refrigerator to battery mode.

Probably 9 out of 10 prospective buyers will not be able to estimate the amount of the repair costs, will initially distance themselves from this motorhome and will continue their search.

A professional motorhome dealer (with an in-house workshop) has usually acquired extensive expertise through many years of experience, which enables him to quickly assess a defect and the resulting repair costs, even from a distance. In the example above, the dealer who purchased the motorhome knew immediately what the cause of the technical defects was (incidentally, the three technical defects only had one cause). The parking bumps, which were clearly visible in the photos, were also very quickly and easily taken into account by the dealer when calculating the purchase price.

What does this mean for you? Motorhomes with minor or even significant defects are much easier to sell to a dealer because they know what they are getting into.

Sometimes you hear that private sellers want to wait until spring to sell their motorhome. The general opinion seems to be that as temperatures rise, so do sales prices.

In the author's opinion, however, seasonality only plays a minor role. Prices are relatively evenly distributed throughout the year.

What you as a seller should know: Basically, demand from private buyers for motorhomes increases significantly from spring onwards, but at the same time the supply of motorhomes on the used vehicle market also increases. Greater demand meets greater supply. This means that waiting for good weather is not necessarily a sales advantage.

Professional motorhome dealers with large stocks of vehicles prepare for the season in good time. Among other things, they have three things: space, patience in sales and a good purchasing credit line with their house bank. It is important for a motorhome dealer to always have enough "good stock" in the yard. That's why he usually doesn't care whether he buys a suitable used motorhome in winter or in the off-season.

In a nutshell - it doesn't matter what time of year you sell your motorhome when you sell to a dealer. You just have to wait until the right dealer (buyer) comes along.

To put it simply: A motorhome dealer must be liable for defects for at least 1 year when selling a used motorhome to a consumer (liability for material defects, also known colloquially as a warranty). As a rule, a reputable dealer will therefore check the vehicle before the sale, carry out any necessary repairs and maintenance, renew the general inspection if necessary and ideally also certify a leak test. For good reason, the motorhome dealer can therefore also demand a higher sales price - and in most cases also enforce it, because many motorhome owners want one thing above all: to travel safely and reliably.

What's in it for you? A reputable motorhome dealer with a good customer base may be able to achieve a much higher price than you thought possible. Don't forget the additional services that a dealer offers for a fee (see reason no. 5).

Have our reasons convinced you? Would you like to try selling to a reputable motorhome dealer? Or would you prefer to keep trying privately? We are happy to leave this decision up to you. If you would like to take the easy and relaxed route, we recommend our guaranteed free online sales portal caravanmarkt24.

How the motorhome sale works

Simply create your free online sales advertisement in under 15 minutes and offer your motorhome or caravan for sale to over 250 reputable specialist dealers at the same time. Receive offers to buy your recreational vehicle during a maximum 24-hour bidding period and sell at the highest bid after the auction ends, but only if you are satisfied with the highest bid. If your minimum selling price is not reached at the end of the bidding process, there is of course no obligation to sell. Save time and nerves and do everything from the comfort of your own home - that's how selling works today! Get non-binding information now and sell your motorhome with ease.