Should I buy?

:) +1 to winding down, not sure I would need a Tesla, but open. But would prefer it to an Edison based on history.

As i stated in an earlier post we are travelers not campers.  When I worked I would fly to an area, rent a car and drive from site to site staying in motels.  It was very efficient and we packed in alot. Now that we are retired we are doing the same traveling but with an RV.  It is much better since we have the time and do not have to pack and unpack and always look for places to eat.  But it is less traveling efficient since we only like to spend 4-5 hours on the road and do not want to set up in the dark.  So we get up late and start out at 11 AM and drive until 4 PM.  Then we go to a campsite.  If not at our destination we do not unhook and only connect to electric, then leave the next day to continue on our way We have no stayed at free sites e.g. Walmarts.  We then repeat or else we get to our destination.  Usually its too late to do any sightseeing so we just set up camp and start the real vacation the next day.  If we drove a car we would drive later and get to a hotel late in the evening so that we gain an entire day.  When we leave with a car we can check out of a hotel and sightsee all day before moving on.  With the RV we have to check out and take the RPOD with us so there are few sights we can see that can accomodate a TT.  So its less efficient but who cares since we have the time being retired and not on a schedule.  The bottom line is we waited until retirement to buy the RV and do not regret waiting.  If we did it all over again knowing what we know now we would probable still have flown to places but rented a motorhome instead of cars and motels to save time and have the best of both worlds.

For us, it works better when we have a long distance between destinations to break down camp and hitch up the evening before and head out early (like 4-5 AM early) and put in a longer day on the road if needed. I'm up early anyway, and I love driving at 4AM, its quiet and peaceful, no traffic, and by the time everyone else is getting up we're already halfway to our destination. We stop around 8-9 to make breakfast and generally hit our next campsite by 2-3 latest. Plenty of daylight left to get set up, take a walk, and relax. But now that I'm retired I never do that two days in a row. If its a shorter distance we still start by around 6 and are done by 11-12.

Yes, for most of us, it's best to have things paid off before retirement.  That's one of the reasons, among many, that we bought a used TV and a used r-Pod after retiring.  Not only did we save a lot of money and avoid monthly payments, we also avoided all the warranty issues that so many new Pod purchasers seem to report on this board.  

We cashed out our new 180, after taking some $$$ from an inheritance I got from my great aunt. I debated whether or not to buy new, but I've never had a new camper before and wanted the experience. (I was hoping that by buying new it would last a while, and was under the assumption that we would have a warranty. So far we've had no breakdowns, which is good because I found out later that the dealer we bought from is notoriously bad at honoring warranty work.) Plus, I wanted to start using it now rather than wait years for retirement while I was still in good health. I've seen a lot of people wait and then their heath starts to fail and they can't even use the RV that they waited so long to buy.