We went to an RV show today. We avoided the $15 parking fee by parking about a half mile away and walking. As we hoofed the back way to the entry, we somehow overshot it, as it was configured differently this year. Next thing you know, we're somehow inside the perimeter without paying, saving another $30. We brought our own snacks, too. The RV we wanted to check out wasn't there, so we did not buy a new RV.
We once tried parking some distance away and walking to a local venue, only to find they had a walk-in fee for those who didn't pay parking.
I guess you saved what, $100k, by not buying an RV. What's wrong with the one you have?
If we had walked as far as we did and got hit with a walk-in fee, I'd be mightily peeved.
We love the rig we have, but some years back, Mercedes cheated on its emissions, just like VW. We had the "mandatory" work done. Now we get much lower mileage, have far less power, and must add DEF, which has nearly tripled in price, at least twice as often. DH is determined our next rig will have a gas engine.
We found our rig by attending this RV show about a decade ago. We settled on one we liked, then waited nearly five years to find a good deal on a used one. We bought it right before the pandemic. We have mostly* enjoyed the heck out of it, and it's still valued at a lot more than we paid for it. It's a 2012 and it won't last forever. We went to the show so we can repeat the process. We also had a friend who wanted to attend, otherwise we probably would have waited another year to go.
The one we are interested costs about $250k** out the door, with at least a six-month wait. We will buy one when the used price settles somewhere around $100k. We will then sell our current rig (aka Miss Rigby) for about 40-$50k. Expensive, but not insanely so. We also paid for the first one with proceeds from a side gig.
*DH can fix anything and has had to do a lot of work, because Mercedes Sprinter RV's are so damn fiddly. We once had a problem he couldn't fix, and we had a time crunch, so we took it to Mercedes. They kept it five days, couldn't fix it, and charged us $500. Eventually, DH figured out the problem and fixed it himself.
**Yes, that's an insane amount of money, but small rigs actually cost more because they're trickier to engineer and build.