[MrE]

My epiphany came when I bought a bicycle from a friend that owned a bike shop. He said, "buy quality, it only hurts once". Basically, if you don't enjoy using what you're buying, it won't get used. This is very true in the RV field, there are a lot of RVs out there that are not a pleasure to drive.

This only applies to initial build quality, after that it's care and maintenance. I believe you to be taking the correct approach, check out owner forums on anything you're thinking about buying, much better information than you'll get from an RV salesman with unknown motives.