The time to buy a recreational vehicle is now. That is, if someone is in the market for one. Jeff Ellingson, part-owner of Abel RV on Route 20 in Bartlett, doesn’t use the hard sell.

“This is something the buyer wants, not something they need. So right there, that is different than buying a car,” he said. “You have to sit a new buyer down and try to fit them in what they need. You don’t know how the customer will use the RV, so you have to ask. I’ve sold RVs to race fans, snowmobilers, a rock collector, and a guy who wanted to put his telescopes in there. You never know.”

Indeed, many of Abel RV’s customers are from out of state. Ellingson said while business is probably the slowest he’s seen it in his five years of ownership, it’s picking up.
“It’s not as bad as you’d think. Last summer, high gas prices hurt us, but they’re back down. The time to buy is right now, especially with interest rates they way they are,” he said.
Ellingson said a large part of his business is tying families together. He said buying an RV actually is a very economical way to take a family vacation.

“There’s a lot of misperception that these are not affordable, and that’s not true. It’s the cheapest way to keep family together, and I’ve had a lot of customers buy for this very reason,” he said.

Notable
There has been an RV dealer on the 12 acres where Abel RV stands today since 1972. Abel RV stocks about 200 RVs at a time, ranging in price from used models for less than $1,000 to full coach RVs that cost $300,000.

& quotable
“We try to have fun with the sale. We’ll show the RV, and go out there and demo it. We do everything except start up a campfire.”

Philosophy
 “Treat the customer right and they’ll come back to you. Some people come back to buy three RVs in five years from us.”


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Music Classic rock
Movies Pulp Fiction
Interests Golf, RV-ing, camping
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