I was getting pretty distraught over the fact that it seemed that we would NEVER seem to get your RV dreams off of the ground. Well, I’m pleased to say, we finally did it!
We finally decided upon an A-class bus, called a Coachmen Mirada. It’s a 2001 model that has about 65,000 Kilometers (about 40,000 miles) on it. It’s in pretty good shape. Probably the only disadvantage I see is the fact that it has no slides in it.
Now, slides would be nice, but we were actually quite astonished at how roomy this unit is without slides.
Let me offer you some history, so you can understand our dilemma. I have left my full-time job back about five years ago now and I’ve been running my own business since then. Things were not too great for the first few years, as I established myself, but things financially picked up for us in the past year.
Meanwhile, our credit rating took a bit of a hit. Miss a few bills and it doesn’t take long to put yourself into a position where you are not too favorable a risk for the banks.
Plus, we have been looking at several options and none were perfect. For a long time we looked at the 5th wheel units as they were pretty feature filled at a good cost. But you had to consider picking up the appropriate truck to pull it. In many cases, we found that the truck was going to cost as much as the 5th wheel! We were basically looking at a good $50,000 touch to get to where we wanted to be.
Being that we have decided to start our rv living adventure slowly, this just didn’t fit the budget. The thought of paying out $500 plus per month for the several years for this didn’t sit right with me.
We’ve also looked at c class units but we really were unable to find anything that we really liked. Plus we discovered that the gas mileage was just about as bad as on the a class buses.
In the end, we saw the Mirada and just liked it. It has a few problems, which I’m sure money will fix, but all in all, we really like it. It’s a whole education, very quickly, but we did our first trip with it this past weekend, and I’ll fill you in on all the nitty gritties in a post to come.
The end result was that we had to find a unit that not only fit our wants and desires but also our budget and situation. I think we did ok on this one. When it all comes down to it, it feels like a tough pill to swallow, and it’s a bit scarey but in the end, you’ll thank yourself on your very first trip!