Upgrade to newer DP cancelled due to poor trade offer from dealers

Liv4weekends · 05-19-2019, 06:33 PM

I have a preowned 2008 Journey 39Z for which I paid too much, due to inexperience and purchasing through dealer "trusted friend" we didn't question. Would never use him again but what I've found virtually across the board is that dealers do not deal fair. My Journey appraised for $96,500, but they won't come close to that. My plan was to upgrade a last time to a shorter unit that my wife would feel more comfortable driving. We enjoy the coach and I'm thinking I may scrap the upgrade plan. I see others own similar or older Journeys. Ours has all options offered for the year and other than dingy carpet, no issues. The only other item she asked for was a fireplace. I also may cancel the expensive extended warranty. Every time I need to use it, it's a fight over repair versus upgrade, depending on whether part is available. I'd appreciate input from other Journey owners.

Cooperhawk · 05-20-2019, 06:26 AM

We've had our Journey for many years now and still love it. The dingy carpet thing is also an issue for us but we are thinking of different flooring.

As far as we're concerned the Journey is a well built, solid coach that will last a long time. I wish we had four slides, but other than that it works just fine for us. We now have in excess of 100,000 miles on her and she runs just fine.

We have upgraded the TVs, Satellite System, ect. We have also had the basement furnace/air conditioner rebuilt.

I doubt we'll trade her off anytime soon. We just upgrade to suit our needs.

Liv4weekends · 05-20-2019, 07:01 AM

Our 2008 Journey has about 52,000 miles, so lots of traveling left in it. I'd be interested to know who did your basement air work. No problem yet but I like to be prepared. Its going in shop today to (again) get the dash air to blow cold. Also, no shop has ever gotten the windshield wipers to stop hanging up with a gust of wind, scary going down interstate in hard rain. Appreciate your comments on your Journey, we sure like ours and will probably do flooring change, likewise.

Cooperhawk · 05-20-2019, 07:17 AM

It was ABC Bus in Faribault, Mn. They have an RV shop and work on them a lot. Not all ABC shops do RVs however.

If you do some search here on the Forum you will find that the unit is replaceable quite easily if you need a new one. The unit drops out of the coach and they can work on it on the floor. Any good AC shop should be able to repair them.

Cooperhawk · 05-20-2019, 07:23 AM

Well, I take that back. I did some searches and couldn't find anything although I have read quite a few posts about it. There are replacement units available.

Ours works just fine right now.

FIRE UP · 05-22-2019, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liv4weekends

I have a preowned 2008 Journey 39Z for which I paid too much, due to inexperience and purchasing through dealer "trusted friend" we didn't question. Would never use him again but what I've found virtually across the board is that dealers do not deal fair. My Journey appraised for $96,500, but they won't come close to that. My plan was to upgrade a last time to a shorter unit that my wife would feel more comfortable driving. We enjoy the coach and I'm thinking I may scrap the upgrade plan. I see others own similar or older Journeys. Ours has all options offered for the year and other than dingy carpet, no issues. The only other item she asked for was a fireplace. I also may cancel the expensive extended warranty. Every time I need to use it, it's a fight over repair versus upgrade, depending on whether part is available. I'd appreciate input from other Journey owners.

Liv4weekends,
You're not alone in less than stellar dealership deals. It's happened to many, many of us. We live and learn. Anyway, your Journey is close to one of the top sellers for its era and design. I know quite a few folks with both the Journeys and Meridians, almost the same exact coach. Now, as for your "dingy" carpet. Well, there's quite a few choices out there for sure, as flooring replacements. Our coach is an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the CAT C-7 330HP and it's right close to 15 years old.

Our carpet was an off white. We've owned and operated this coach now for right at 8 years and, we've put almost 50K miles on it in that time. The original carpet was an off-white color. There's only two of us and, one tiny, non-shedding mini Schnauzer. She's a clean little dog. Anyway, time, miles and just plain usage made our carpet uglier and uglier. We tried many, many times for both professional and home style cleanings.

Almost non of them worked out for the better. So, recently, as in oh, maybe about 8-10 months ago or so, we received a phone call from a friend here in town, saying he and his wife had just had their coach (an '05 model something with carpet) recarpeted. We buzzed over to their place and took a look at it. It took me about 30 seconds to determine that NEW CARPET was in our VERY NEAR FUTURE. We're both the kind of folks that still like carpet.

It's warmer, quieter, and easy to deal with, in our opinions. So, we cruised on down to the showroom and, within about 20 minutes of looking at samples, the CEO made a decision. I don't get to decide, I just make payment!!! Anyway, in less than a week, our coach was completely recarpeted with brand new and waaaaaaaaay more modern colored and style of carpet. I gutted the coach for that operation. That is, I removed both the captains chairs, the dining room table and chairs, and our love seat. The larger, heavier electric recliner couch, I just separated into halves and moved the two pieces around while the carpet layer did his job.

Without a doubt, it, the new carpet, along with many other interior upgrades we've done since, made that '04 coach look like it's a '16 or '17 model. Every one that enters it is amazed. And, since some have seen ours, they too have had theirs recarpeted. This is a choice thing. If you're tired of carpet and want another type flooring, there's lots of choices out there. But, recarpeting was our choice and we'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Scott

P.S. In the first four pics, you'll see the old "dingy" off white carpeting and, how it looked UNDER furniture, vs out in the open where it was worn, and discolored etc. In the following pics, you'll see the transformation into a newer, more modern gray/silver majestic colored carpet. Sooooooo much nicer.

Liv4weekends · 05-22-2019, 06:05 PM

Thanks so much for photos. We've done the carpet cleaning with temporary improvement at best. We will also stay with carpet. We find a good quality carpet certainly helps with noise reduction and gives the interior a more cozy look. Our 16 year old dog prefers carpet over hard tile any day. We have a battery operated vacuum.

Kvw613 · 05-26-2019, 06:33 PM

Dealers lie. Service departments are incompetent. Extended warranties will cost more than you would ever pay out of pocket for repairs, unless you lose an engine or transmission. In four and one-years of ownership of our 2002 Itasca Horizon 36LD, I have had to repair every single system except engine or transmission. I did need to replace the oil pan, which the extended warranty did not cover due to it being rusted. Every E.W. claim was met with resistance to the degree that the shop swore to never deal with them again. Just about every service item was a non-Winnebago issue. The components are all big name manufacturers, yet they fail.

CharlesMoore · 05-26-2019, 08:28 PM

My a/c was not quite keeping up so I took it to National RV Refrigeration in Shipshewana, IN. I have used Leon more than once and have been impressed with his knowledge and fairness. He fixed the basement unit in my Journey 2002 DO and it now keeps up with the temperatures outside.

Davusmc · 05-26-2019, 08:28 PM

If you don’t mind me asking, what upgrade did you do to your satellite?

puttin · 05-26-2019, 08:39 PM

Very nice carpet! We too prefer it over a hard flooring material. Our '08 Sightseer has sort of a dijon mustard colored carpet that we like. It's still in very good shape. Every few years when we head to Lake Havasu we have Dynamic cleaners come. They do a great shampoo and clean everything up like new. Then we have Az Reflections detail the outside...boy they're great!

jhanan · 05-26-2019, 09:15 PM

Keep it! I have 120k on our 02 Itasca Horizon - and fix everything you can on ur own as dealers will rip u off

bobmac · 06-23-2019, 10:20 AM

With respect to basement air, the most likely thing to fail will be one of the start or run capacitors. They are cheap to purchase at an appliance or heating/cooling place. Replacement involves opening the right rear compartment and swapping out. Download the manual for the A.C. unit - it will provide specs on the caps. Purchase a set and carry them with you. You can either replace them yourself or get a tech to do so. It is really a residential unit and an HVAC tech will be a better choice than an RV tech.

CharlesMoore · 06-23-2019, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CharlesMoore

My a/c was not quite keeping up so I took it to National RV Refrigeration in Shipshewana, IN. I have used Leon more than once and have been impressed with his knowledge and fairness. He fixed the basement unit in my Journey 2002 DO and it now keeps up with the temperatures outside.

Further info on my basement air repair by National RV Refrigeration in Shipshewana, IN. I was there watching him take the unit out of my RV. It took about 2 hours. Prior to that he spent about an hour for prep and troubleshooting. We could see the compressor try to come on but it cycled to a low current in a "few" seconds. He said he would troubleshoot later so we left. BTW - the unit had never been removed from the chassis so everything was frozen and a few bolts broke trying to get it out.

After a day he called me back and said the A/C was operational and back in RV and we could pick it up the next day. The problem was a crack in the copper tubing at a tight radius bend so all the freon leaked out. I had him replace the electrolytic capacitors as well. The whole bill was approx $600 and that includes cleaning the gas portion of the refrigerator and replacing a part. I was expecting a larger bill and was relieved to find it was much less. So this will end my story other than to say his shop is on his farm and you get to see horses and other animals. Plenty of parking and turn around space. Cheers to all.

BobC · 06-27-2019, 09:39 AM

Keeping and fixing is going to be the most economical option but if you really want to downsize, why not sell to a private party and buy a good, used coach? A dealer trade is never going to be anything close to its value.

By the way, if you decide to re-do the carpet, consider using commercial quality carpet tiles. The carpet tiles I installed using carpet tape are 20" square so they're easier to cut and fit than a large piece of carpet. They're low-nap and easy to keep clean and can be replaced if damaged (buy extra).

4x4van · 06-27-2019, 10:14 AM

Just a quick bit of info for you.

You say your rig "appraised" at $96K. A quick search shows your yr/model going for $85-95K on RVTrader, while NADA shows $82K Low Retail and $98K Average Retail. But that's retail. Any dealer taking your rig in for trade will only offer wholesale value, which is significantly lower than retail; they must still cover any costs associated with selling your rig AND make a profit on it. The only way a dealer will pay more is if they simply increase the price of your new RV. It may not seem fair (to you) but it is reality.

As others have pointed out, you have a good rig with low miles; enjoy it, or sell it privately.

Liv4weekends · 06-27-2019, 10:27 AM

It was appraised by company handling our insurance and warranty..

Liv4weekends · 06-27-2019, 10:36 AM

I like your suggestion of carpet tiles, my vinyl is fine. Is there any site that gives instructions and did you have to remove furniture?

BobC · 06-27-2019, 11:27 AM

Tons of online sites, here's one:

https://www.google.com/search?q=layi...TF-8#kpvalbx=1

The key is to dry fit first so you can adjust things in order to avoid pieces that are too small. You want to make sure that your cut edges are up against the wall, etc. Just like with vinyl tile, the tiles should always butt together at factory edges.

I used carpet tape in an X pattern plus strips along the four sides that were half on one tile and half on the other so the edges would't lift. I attached the tape to the floor first and pressed the tiles in place. It's been over a year and all is OK. Commercially they use a glue that stays tacky so they can be removed for replacement but that seemed messy to me. It's been over a year and so far, so good.

Buy more tape than you think you'll need to save a trip back to the store. The same goes for the tiles. You're probably going to need 10% more than your square footage plus an extra box to keep for replacements. Make sure the store will take back any unopened boxes you don't need.

I did remove the furniture, which wasn't a big deal, especially since I was replacing the couch with recliners. My dinette and couch were both on the slide. I haven't done the cockpit yet and may or may not have to remove the driver and passenger seats.