Hire or Buy a Motorhome?

For your Long Term Road Trip in Europe

So your thinking of doing a little long term, slow travel.

Travelling in a motorhome is one of the most cost effective ways to undertake long term travel.

In this guide you will discover all you need to consider before making a decision on whether to hire or buy a motorhome, including example scenarios for New purchase vs Second hand purchase.

However, you will need to know the answer to the following couple of questions before you can make a decision.

1. What is your budget to hire/buy a motorhome?

2. How long do you intend to travel?

Want to know how to Buy a Motorhome in Europe for a Non-Resident?

Once you have answered these questions, you can set about doing a little analysis on your options. Got your answers? Lets dive in…

First you need to work out your ROI, which is accountant talk for Return on Investment.

Working out your Return on Investment (ROI)

Simply put, the higher the purchase cost of the motorhome,  the longer you need to travel before buying becomes more cost effective than hiring.

Essentially you need to work out how much money you will lose buying a motorhome versus how much it will cost to hire a motorhome for the length or your trip… Sound easy?

Yep, its easy as that! And I’m going to show you how to work through the maths with a couple of examples.

FTM Insider Tip: Germany and the Netherlands tend to be the cheapest options for buying motorhomes.

Example 1: Buying a Brand New Motorhome vs Hiring

Lets do the maths for a Brand New Family Motorhome for a 1 Year Road Trip.

Return on Investment (ROI) when buying a Brand New Motorhome

Assumptions:
1. Motorhome purchased in Germany costing €60,000 – Adria Coral XL SL.
2. One years rent from Auto Europe for a family luxury (Sunlight Motorhome).
3. Other costs includes: Insurance +  Registration + Servicing + Roadside Assistance.
4. Sales Price (what you will sell it for at the end of your trip) of €48,00 is an estimate only.

Note: These costs can vary dramatically depending on country of purchase and are estimates only.

Cost of Hiring a Motorhome – 1 Year

Cost of Buying a Motorhome

So what does this tell us? It tells us that based on this analysis, hold costs for a year long trip are cheaper if you buy.

Note: This analysis excludes the initial lump sum outlay to purchase the van.

Lets take it one step further and calculate at what point it becomes cheaper to buy rather than hire. That is called a Break Even Point.

Calculating the Break Even Point in Buying Vs Renting a Motorhome

Break Even = Cost of Owning/Cost of Hiring

In our example above, you can see hiring costs of €39,000 and Buying hold Costs is €22,700 for 1 year (12 months).

€22,700/€39,000 = 0.58 or 58% of 1 year’s Hire (7 months).

Example 2: Buying a Secondhand Motorhome vs Hiring

Now, lets do the maths on buying a secondhand family motorhome for a 1 year road trip.

ROI when purchasing a secondhand motorhome

Assumptions:
1. Motorhome purchased in Germany for €34,000 (10 years old).
2. One years rent from Auto Europe for a family luxury (Sunlight Motorhome).
3. Other costs includes: Insurance +  Registration + Servicing + Roadside Assistance.
4. Sales Price (what you will sell it for at the end of your trip) of €30,000  is an estimate only.

These costs can vary dramatically depending on country of purchase and are estimates only

This result tells us the same as the example above, hold costs are cheaper if you buy.

Note: This analysis excludes the initial outlay to purchase the van.

Break Even Point for Second-Hand Campervan on a 1 Year Holiday

Break Even = Cost of Owning/Cost of Hiring

In our second example, you can see hiring cost €39,000 and Buying hold Costs for a secondhand vehicle are €13,800 for 1 year (12 months).

€13,800/€39,000 = 0.35 or 35% of 1 year’s Hire (4 months).

So….What does this mean?

In Example 1: Purchase and Disposal Costs of buying a brand new motorhome and selling after 1 year (€22,700) are equal to hiring an equivalent motorhome for 7 months.

In Example 2: Purchase and Disposal Costs of buying a secondhand motorhome and selling it after 1 year are equal to hiring a “Newer” motorhome for 4 months.  Most rentals are newer model motorhomes.

Check out the Essential Motorhome Accessories

Pros and Cons of buying a motorhome

There are a few other points that you need to think about when considering whether to buy or to hire a motorhome. Below is a list of the pros and cons for buying a motorhome

Pro’s of buying a motorhome:

• Buying a motorhome works out cheaper over the long run
• You get to choose from a wider selection of motorhomes to suit your individual needs
• If you buy a new motorhome it comes with a full warranty
• You have a greater choice of layouts, makes and models

Cons of buying a motorhome:

• Making the purchase can be difficult, especially if your a non-resident in the country you wish to buy in.
• Selling your vehicle at the end is an additional consideration
• Older vehicles will need to be maintained
• Older vehicles may not be allowed into many European cities because of the emissions regulations
• Value Added Tax (VAT) on an expensive motorhome is writing a check that you’ll never get back

Find out all you need to know about Buying a Motorhome for the first time here.

Other Considerations – should I Hire or Buy a Motorhome? 

For a road trip through Europe that will be 4 months or longer, buying a motorhome is well worth considering. However, these are only estimates and you’ll need to do your own maths as the outcome is dependant on:

• The country you wish to purchase the motorhome in
• The motorhome model/make/layout
• The price available to you for renting a motorhome

The lowest cost option: If you don’t need a “new” or a “big” motorhome, you can purchase a second hand van for under €10,000.  A motorhome like this will not cost you a lot over time, as they generally don’t depreciate too much. This is cheap travel when compared to hiring for a long term road trip.

Some people want a newer van or a specific layout. If this is the case and you are travelling for over 4 months then think about buying.What did we do? We purchased a brand new motorhome as we are a full time travelling family and we wanted a specific layout and options with the seatbelt arrangements.   We are currently road tripping Europe.

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