New to campers and surprised by the high prices. How come a camper is half the cost of a car?

[MM4Overland]

The technologies the testing and all the associated costs that a car manufacturer pays to deliver a car to the market are much higher than the similar costs for a manufacturer to deliver a camper to the market. Why are the prices so high ? How is it possible that a car could be around 40K and a camper is ...20K ??

 

[john61ct]

Heck a decent eBike cost more than the average cars I've owned in my life

 

[Rbertalotto]

The only saving grace with campers, is they depreciate rapidly. And folks buy what they don’t like and sell relatively unused campers for 25-50% off new price. I was looking at truck campers. From $20k+ to over $50,000! I can’t see how a box with a few accoutrements can ring up this kind of price....

 

[tacollie]

Small production numbers. Good labor isn't cheap. If you think $20k is a lot then build it yourself. Anything I've looked at used under $10k had been a pile of crap and that was before covid screwed the market.

If you then truck campers are expensive you should look at the companies building out vans.

 

[Christian P.]

I think your "surprised" phase is not over yet...you don't get much for $20K in a camper these days...

Welcome to 2021.

 

[Herbie]

I was going to say. Any camper that would functionally replace my current one would be at least as much as a luxury automobile - the kind of thing that comes with Nürburgring times...

 

[Groverland]

Even the relatively cheaper wedge campers are going up in price. Two years ago it wasn't hard to find one under $10k. Now even if you can the wait time is a couple YEARS!

I agree with the above comments regarding scale and labor. It's not really fair to compare them to automobiles.

 

[MM4Overland]

I think your "surprised" phase is not over yet...you don't get much for $20K in a camper these days...

Welcome to 2021.

I have time to wait, I will need one in like 9 years when I retire

 

[MM4Overland]

I was looking at the flatbeds 10K for one ? Seriously ? What is the extremely good work that is required for these?
As far as I could see these are pretty well a very good match for mass production

 

[Thinman]

ever sleep in a car?

put it this way...if Sleep Number sold a camper....my wife would buy one

 

[Todd780]

You could double that 20K and the build quality would still be questionable on a lot of the trailers.

 

[WeLikeCamping]

ever sleep in a car?

put it this way...if Sleep Number sold a camper....my wife would buy one

well, actually, Sleep Number does sell mattresses for your camper. https://www.sleepnumber.com/categories/mattresses-rv-beds

So, you could pretty much build what you want, then lure her in with the mattress

 

[roving1]

Even just a cargo trailer with nothing inside of it costs an astronomical amount brand new/used.

It's absurd to cross price empty boxes on wheels vs actual whole entire cars that can drive you to the ends of the earth and they are often the same price.

 

[MM4Overland]

As I said for flat beds it does not check the economy of scale theory
These could be easily mass produced using CNCs and welding. It is far less work intensive

 

[The Artisan]

Look at an Earth Cruiser EXD quarter of a mill. You get the camper and truck?
Kevin