Hear From Real RV Shoppers at the Tampa RV Show


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What’s a typical RV buyer like?  What do people want?  Are we typical?  Am I normal?

These are the kinds of questions we hoped to get answers to by talking with actual RV shoppers last week at the Florida RV SuperShow in Tampa.  Exactly what “typical” is might surprise you.  Have a look!

(And before you write in to tell me.  No.  I’m definitely not “normal”.)

 

You’re used to hearing from us… what we think, what features we like, etc.  But on our last day at the Tampa RV show, we thought it might be fun to turn the camera around to hear from you all.  We decided to ask questions of actual RV shoppers who were checking out rigs at the show.  We didn’t really know how that would go, so we only gave ourselves a couple ground rules.  First, since we’re still us, we only bothered people who were checking out smaller rigs – like Class B and smaller Class C motorhomes.  And second, they had to actually want to be on camera with us.  That second one was a LOT harder to accomplish than we thought it would be!  But eventually we found a handful of folks who agreed to talk on camera about what they were looking for.

I’ll admit, I kind of wanted to see if the things we think are important were important to others as well.  The results were a bit surprising…

There Is No Typical

It would have been satisfying to have picked up on a theme that ran through multiple customers.  But there really wasn’t one!  The RVs that these folks were looking for were just as varied as the people themselves.

There were a few shoppers that were pulling pages from our play book: One couple wanted a bike garage.  Another wanted the latest Lithium tech.  But those same features simply weren’t important to others.  We found one couple who was focused on the bathroom and the floor plan.  One fellow had made his mind up he wanted a Mercedes Sprinter.  Our interviewees ran the gamut from very-first-timers, to folks buying their second motorhome in 3 years, to a couple who had tried them all and wanted to downsize.  We talked to a lot of people that day (in addition to those you see on camera, there were many more that didn’t want to be), and just about everyone surprised us with something that they were after.

So whether you want a permanent bed and room for dog crates in your next RV, or if all you really want is a bathtub (thanks, Lilly!), YES… YOU’RE TYPICAL.  (Or at least as typical as you can be.)  And I kind of like that there’s no “one rig fits all” RV.  It keeps things fresh.  Whatever you want in your next RV, here’s hoping you find it!

And finally, a special thanks to everyone who agreed to be in this video with us.  You guys are the best!



James is a former rocket scientist, a USA Cycling coach, and lifelong fitness buff. When he's not driving the RV, or modifying the RV (or - that one time - doing both at once), you can find him racing bicycles, or building furniture, or making music. In his spare time, he works for a large IT company.


    6 thoughts on “Hear From Real RV Shoppers at the Tampa RV Show

      1. James - Post author

        Seems like it would require a lot of resources (propane) to operate. I don’t want to have to burn fossil fuel every time I use the toilet…

        Reply

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