|
QUESTION:My wife and I currently have had a `96 Taos for four years, (our first
pop-up) and are looking at larger trailers. It's 90% of the time just
the two of us, or throw in a grand-kid from time to time, and the Taos
has been a good little house to have, but Angela would like more storage
capacity, as well as a little more floor space. The two of us fill it
up when we're both trying to do things inside.
We were seriously looking at the Santa Fe, as we really like the floor
plan, but went to the dealership the other day, and saw a Tacoma. It's
2 feet longer, has more storage space, and Angela likes the tip out over
the sink. The floor plans are similar, (big thing for her is to NOT
have to move a table to get to the beds!), the weights are close, as
surprisingly is the price.
We currently store the Taos in the garage, but the larger trailers would
have to be stored outside, or we would have to put up something to hold
garden stuff that now fits around/under the Taos. We've also liked the
fact that the Taos is easy to turn around by hand (getting the views
that she wants), and know we will lose (at least) the ease of doing this.
I would like to have input as to the pluses and minuses of buying one
over the other. We kick tires regularly, and always have our eyes open.
Also, given the price the salesman shot us on the Tacoma, it seems that
our local dealer asks more than MSRP (we don't know what options it had,
too much snow on the ground to open it up, but were told it was
$11,100 vs MSRP of ~$9600 off the Fleetwood website the way we want it
equipped). I heard the advantages of staying with a local dealer, and
the one we have local to us does provide excellent service, but I can't
see spending an extra $1500 to have the dealership like us. Comments
please.
ANSWER: before we finally decided to go with the 2004 Tacoma, we also
considered the Grand Tour Carmel, which has a similar layout to the Sante Fe
except instead of a Hutch across from the dinette, it had a couch seat. We
really liked the Carmel because of the upgraded mattresses and the interior
seemed like a little fancier material - aesthetics. But, we didn't like
having the dinette in the way at one end though. Every time we went back
inside the Tacoma at the dealer those little aesthetics didn't matter nearly
as much as the extra room you get. So we went with the Tacoma and on our
first camping trip realized very quickly that we had made the right choice.
We're a family of four (children 11 and 8) and having 2 king size beds is
great too. We put a foam pad on ours which makes them very comfortable now.
But the main thing is we actually feel like we've got a Class A bus
now.....well, compared to our tent. :-) There's enough room that the wife
and I can stretch out on the couch and watch some TV at night while the kids
play board games or nap at the other end. There's plenty of storage space
for everything we need too.
For storing the Tacoma at home, I put up one of those "portable" carports
with the tarpaulin roof in the backyard which works great keeping the dirt
and leaves off it, plus it keeps the Florida sun from cooking it.
We paid a lot more than the other fellow on here for ours. The total
including tax and tag was about $10,000. It came with AC, awning, RVQ,
furnace, and outside shower. Living in Florida we really didn't think the
furnace was necessary......but two of our last two trips were a whole lot
better *because* of that furnace. It dropped down into the 40's (that's
cold here!) but it was warm and cozy inside our Tacoma with the furnace
going.
|
|
|
|
