Duane, our favorite certified RV inspector from the RV Inspection and Care YouTube channel, is back with his picks of the best brands for used Class A motorhomes.
Duane’s advice, as always, is down-to-earth and practical. And buying used when it comes to RVs is nothing if not practical. After all, you can save a TON of money by buying used over new. Not only that, your used RV might come with all the bells and whistles that might have pushed the budget on a new unit over the top.
To help narrow down your search, Duane came up with the three best brands he has seen over the last 10 years or so and featured them in the video below. This top three list contains diesel pushers as well as quality gas models.
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Duane’s top three best brands for used Class A motorhomes
#1 Newmar
This company has been building quality motorhomes for more than 50 years and had a stellar reputation among dealers and consumers. Plus, they have a Class A motorhome for just about every price range.
On the high end, put Newmar’s King Aire, Essex, or London Aire in your used RV searches. Duane says these models are rolling palaces.
In the midrange, look for the iconic Newmar Dutch Star, the Mountain Aire, or Ventana.
Those models are all diesel pushers, but Newmar also makes some quality gas-powered Class A motorhomes, too.
On the low end, search for the Newmar Bay Star Sport and the larger Bay Star. Newmar also made some Canyon Star motorhomes in a gas model in certain years, although they no longer do.
#2 Tiffin
Tiffin’s company history goes back 45 years and they’re known not only for the quality of their builds but also their outstanding customer service. Family-owned for decades, Tiffin was recently acquired by Thor. However, if you are buying used, there’s a good chance you can get a model made by the Tiffin family.
On the high end and for maximum amenities, look for the Tiffin Allegro Bus or the Tiffin Zephyr.
In the midrange, the Tiffin Phaeton has legions of fans, but the Tiffin Allegro RED is a great, albeit lesser-known, midrange option.
If you prefer a gas-powered motorhome to the above diesel pushers, you’re in luck. Duane says Tiffin makes one of the best gas-powered Class A motorhomes on the market. They played around with the name over the years, but Duane says you can’t lose with an Allegro or Allegro Open Road gas-powered Class A, and if you find one in good shape from the last 10 years or so, you have an excellent find.
#3 Winnebago
Building motorhomes since 1966, Winnebago generally put its emphasis on midrange gas-powered motorhomes. However, the Tour and the Grand Tour are both higher-end diesel-pusher Winnebagos.
In the midrange look for the Winnebago Horizon, Journey, or Forza, also diesel-powered.
For a midrange gas-powered Winnebago Class A motorhome, search for an Adventurer or a Sightseer.
On the lower end, the Vista or the Sun Star make good choices.
Best brands of used Class A motorhomes wrap-up
Duane says there are many more quality brands of Class A motorhomes, but these three are a great place to start your searches as they have stood the test of time.
Do you agree with his picks? Why or why not? What other Class A motorhome brands would you add to the list? Drop your thoughts in the comments below, please.
##RVT1114b
We have a 2018 Newmar LondonAire. Now I will call it our rolling palace.
We just test drove the 2024 class C 45 foot Newmar and didn’t care for the engine up front, less storage, but loved the side door, and the solid long windows, and the two big sofas. We are keeping ours.
I would beware of any brand that has gone bankrupt or bought out by another company. Parts are going to be hard to find. That’s one thing that winnebago has on a lot of the other brands. Pretty good parts supply. In my opinion.
I attended the Winnebago rally recently in our 14..33C Sightseer, purchased new and learned a ton from other owners as well as some vendors and company engineers. Duane’s top 3 are the Everyman rv’s. Foretravel, Country coach, etc are top of the line and hard to compare to vs.W, Newmar and Tiffin. With that said, all have issues and if you don’t take care and stay on top of everything, problems will arise. I’d love to have an Entegra or a Foretravel, but a solid used Everyman brand that’s affordable and taken care of I’ll take as well, as long as it’s affordable. By the way, my Winnebago has been almost flawless for 11 years and 32k miles.
Entegra, hands down, over Tiffin and Winnebago. One on one competition for Newmar. Check out how many others will allow their TWO YEAR warranty to be transferred to a second owner. Or even how many of them stood behind their product enough to even offer a TWO YEAR warranty. We’ve owned three different DP Entegras since 2012 and would never step down to a Tiffin or Winnebago.
We were very happy with our Tiffin on a Frtliner chasis for 15 years but the ride in our Entegra is far superior with the Spartan chasis it sits on, with much better basement storage.
Between those 2 rigs, we tried a Winnebago Grand Tour for 2 hours because on actual delivery day, from HVAC s not working, multiple breakers tripping, all in the first 2 hours of swapping out rigs in the dealers lot, we reversed course and moved everything back into the Tiffin, got our cashiers check back, drove away and had 3 fingers of bourbon 2 hours later. Bad day for the salesperson and delivery department.
Restarted the search a month later and are happy in our Entegra. (Different dealer)
I totally agree with the list of the 3 best USED Class A rigs. I would not buy new of any rigs these days but the Newmar, Tiffin and Winnebago in that order would be my choices as well as long as they are at least 5 years old.
I think it a decent list if looking at mass produced brands, but if you are looking for quality and high end materials, the list is lacking. I’d take our 21 year old Foretravel over just about anything out there. In terms of build, bones and quality. You might be able to entice me with a Country Coach or Wanderlodge, but that’s about it.
We had a ‘99 Bounder built on a Ford F53 chassis, the Bounder was mediocre the F53 chassis sucked. We traded for a 2002 Mountain Aire on a Workhorse chassis with a Chevy 8.1 L engine. It was great, handling, drive ability, everything. It was 15 years old and the only thing wrong was the front A/C was locked up. Everything else still worked good, we should’ve never sold that. It even out performed the F53 V10 in performance and fuel economy, 8.2 mpg vs 4.6 mpg.
I had a 97 Dutchstar, the roof shrunk up in 3 corners and I could never keep the windshields sealed. If I had them reset most of the time the left one especially popped out at the bottom almost immediately. I would never buy a Newmar. I am happy with my 20 year old Fleetwood.
What about the problem with the windshield frames rusting and breaking the glass that Winnebago won’t own up to? I think it started about 2000 and not sure if or when it was corrected.
Sorry to hear that experience with a Newmar. Own a 2002 Dutchstar with 250K mile on it. For almost 22 years we have had minimal issues and certainly none of which you mentioned. We did opt for double paned windows and roof never leaked. Although when doing some upgrades at the factory a couple of years ago which included a repaint (which was partially covered under warranty…yes after all those years) they had to peel up the roof to do the paint. They found some things that needed to be addressed and could fix or do a new roof. For the price difference we opted to do the new roof.
That’s a decent list of 3 brands that were produced in quantity, and are decent quality. But there are several which are much higher quality and are available used at bargain prices. Those are Country Coach, Newell and Foretravel. It’s too bad Duane chose to stick to run-of-the-mill brands because these top-of-the-line rigs offer far better quality and can be had very affordably.
Country Coach should be at the top of the list
I agree with the choices. I have a 2002 Kountry Star DP. Not sure where it falls in the High/Middle/Low end of Newmar models, but it sure is well built and fits our needs perfectly!
Based on what data, specifically? I did factory tours at both Newmar, Thor and Forest River. I bought a new Thor given the total price/value and the features at that price point.
If you are making an argument for pay more, get a better build then say that. If I’m not mistaken, the overwhelming majority of the components are the same for RVs. Perhaps an article on why a given build is better would be helpful.
Is it more than just branding? If so, what creates the “quality?”
I think it was explained pretty clearly. This is one RV inspector’s opinion based on the many, many RVs he sees. Perfectly legit criteria in my opinion. If you don’t agree that’s your right, but Duane is certainly more than qualified to share his experiences and opinions.