Slagle it boggles my mind looking at all these RV's everywhere - talk about excess capacity - CRAZY!
wcco.com
AP) Willmar, Minn. Organizers at an RV convention are expecting higher gas prices to keep more drivers home this year.
The annual Minnesota Good Sam "Samboree," held this weekend at the Willmar Civic Center, normally attracts about 400 RVs and up to 1,000 people.
But with gas prices topping $2.60 a gallon and the typical RV getting fewer than 12 miles per gallon, the director of an RV-owners club predicts only about six or seven hundred people will make it to Willmar, Minn.
Luke Johnson said people have come from as far away as Winnipeg and Nebraska. But higher prices, he said, will almost certainly force RV-ers to take fewer and shorter trips.
But read this - they say RV sales are growing - strange:
pbn.com
National RV wholesale shipments for the year are projected to top 357,100 units, the second-best year since 1978, according to Richard Curtin, director of surveys of consumers at the University of Michigan. Last year, RV wholesale shipments surged more than 15 percent, marking a 26-year high, according to RVIA.
General Electric, a major player in the manufacturing and financing of RVs, is projecting 7.9 million households will own RVs by the end of 2005, an increase of 1 million owners since 2001.
This trend continues the steady growth in ownership over the past 25 years.
Increasing gas prices have had little effect on the industry, according to RVIA. “Regardless of gas price fluctuation, RV ownership is a good value,” said RVIA President David Humphreys.
Most RV buyers are also eligible for a second home mortgage IRS tax deduction, according to RVIA. |
