Leisure Industry: Not Your Dad's RV

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The fastest growing segment of the RV market has been buyers ages 35 to 54. Dave Davidson, 40, a father of three who owns an electrical-contracting company near Los Angeles, is one of thousands of recent first-time buyers who had not seen themselves as RV types until after the terrorist attacks of 2001. "You started thinking about things that are near and dear to you," Davidson says, "and how quickly it could all be taken away." A year ago, he bought a 40-ft. National RV Islander motor home for $190,000, complete with a queen-size bed and a skylight in the shower. He and his family have already logged 16,000 miles to such destinations as Aspen, Colo., and Graceland.

Guy Russo, 36, a kitchen and bathroom renovator in Chester, N.J., looked to an RV when his daughter, then 12, became afraid of flying after 9/11. Like many other recent buyers, he has been surprised by how many young families he meets at RV parks. "When we bought our RV, we thought, 'O.K., we're going to have to deal with a lot of older people,' but it's not always like that," he says.

"Getting into a motor home is so much easier than messing around with airports," says Jeff Barr, 41, a homebuilder in St. Louis, Mo. His family should know. His wife was a flight attendant for 17 years, and until she got laid off in January, the family could fly free. But that didn't keep the Barrs from buying a secondhand, 38-ft. motor home last September for $137,000. They keep their 2001 Holiday Rambler Endeavor stocked with food, clothing and toys so they can just hop in and go, which they do at least twice a month, often to NASCAR races (where they park on the infield and then climb on top of their rig for a good view).

The RV's reputation isn't completely rehabilitated; you can see that in the Oscar-nominated movie About Schmidt, in which Jack Nicholson's recently widowed character turns to his Winnebago Adventurer for solace after his depressing retirement party. Offscreen, however, some RV technology rivals that of luxury cars (and boats), including infrared thermal imaging for better night vision, automatic leveling systems for a smoother ride, GPS navigation and broadband Internet access via satellite. RVs range in size and shape from Spartan tents on wheels (starting at $3,500) that can be towed by the family car to cushy bus-size motor homes (typical cost: $130,000). Custom-built RVs from Marathon Coach of Coburg, Ore., and Featherlite Inc. of Cresco, Iowa, can carry $1 million price tags. The industry's strategy is to hook young buyers with a cheap towable and keep them upgrading every few years as long as their budgets allow.

Just six weeks after the 9/11 attacks, the RV division of Coachmen Industries, based in Elkhart, Ind., started selling a Spirit of America line of travel trailers with decals of Old Glory and red-white-and-blue pillows. The company expected to sell 400 of these $9,000 towable units--really just redecorated versions of existing models--but has sold more than 5,000. Nearly 90% of these entry-level RVs went to first-time buyers, half of them Gen Xers (ages 30 to 40).