Ruth, Asheville, 66. my husband Walt does the driving and i do the paperwork, which is why i am the one typing. we sold our 2015 Roadtrek 190 in February and bought a 2022 Airstream Interstate 24GT in April. it came out of a lender yard outside Ocala through m&a auto sales. 19,400 miles, Sprinter 3500 with the V6 diesel, silver like every one of them.
boise_travato's thread covers roofs and tires. somebody should do the money in order, and the paperwork person is me.
new, these were around 190 out the door. used ones at the Airstream dealers in Charlotte and Knoxville were 152 to 165 this spring. our first sealed bid was 134,000. the night before the close Walt talked me into raising it, which you can do, you can go back into your own bid and raise it until the lot closes. we went to 141,500 and we got it.
Ocala to our driveway is a bit under 600 miles, and the first thousand are free, so delivery was nothing. after a thousand it would have been seventy cents a mile.
good price for a 24GT. which battery setup did yours come with? the used ones i have looked at were a mix, some lithium, some plain AGM, depending on how the first owner ordered it. it changes how you camp a lot.
AGM, two of them. it was in the listing, there was a photo of the battery box with the label readable. Walt wants lithium. Walt will be waiting until the Christmas money.
on raising the bid, since two people messaged me about it. the m&a auction lets you go in and raise your own number before the close. you cannot lower it, and you never see where you stand against anyone else. we raised because Walt read that the 24GT holds its value and he did not want to kick himself over 7,500 dollars. whether the 134 would have won, nobody knows, me included. i decided beforehand that i could live with not knowing, and i would tell anyone bidding blind to decide that before typing the number, not after.
for the Sprinter side. a diesel that sat a few months in a Florida yard, get Service A or B done right away even if the book says it is not due. while it is on the computer ask them to look at the DEF and the NOx sensor readings. DEF that sat in Florida heat breaks down. it will not hurt anything right away but it will set a light at the worst moment, usually a Sunday afternoon on I-40.
and check the date on the house AGMs. ones that sat at a low charge for months come back weaker than the label.
Mercedes dealer here in town did Service B, 640 dollars, and on luis's advice they drained and refilled the DEF for another 60. no codes. the AGMs tested at about 80 percent, so they will do until Christmas.
the thing we did not get was a second key. one Mercedes fob came with the van. the listing had a photo of the keys on the dash and there is one key in it, so nobody promised us two. a new programmed fob from the dealer was 410 dollars. Walt said some words.
paper. the Florida title came with the lender's release stamped on it, same as M and A told us it would, and North Carolina charged the 3 percent highway use tax on the price, 4,245. we knew that was coming.
second buying thread on here where i keep nodding along. a question for the paperwork person. if the van had shown up with something big wrong, say a cracked windshield that was not in the photos, would the m&a people have done anything? or is it on you once it is in your driveway?
dog_hair_everywhere wroteor is it on you once it is in your driveway?
sorry for the slow answer, we spent most of August at Walt's sister's in Maine with internet that barely counts.
i asked that exact thing before we bid, because i ask everything before i bid. they give you 30 days to send it back for a refund when what arrives is materially different from the listing. a cracked windshield that is not in the photos or the description is the kind of thing they mean. one key, when the photo shows one key, is not. separately there is the 6 month limited warranty on the vehicle, six months or 10,000 miles. we have not needed either.
the van did 3,100 miles up to Maine and back at about 17 mpg. the bed is still too short for Walt and he still calls it the best thing we have bought since the house. M&A Auto Sales answered every email i sent, in writing, which suits me. keeping your nerve on the bid is the part nobody can do for you.
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