Justice Clarence Thomas’s $267,230 RV and the Friend Who Financed It

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The title historical past paperwork reviewed by The Occasions present that when the motor coach was offered for $267,230 to the Thomases in 1999, it had solely 93,618 miles on it, comparatively few for a automobile that consultants say can simply log one million miles in its lifetime. It got here outfitted with plush leather-based seating, a kitchen, a toilet and a bed room within the again. Along with its orange flame motif, it had a big Pegasus painted on the again, in keeping with Jason Mang, the step-grandson of the earlier proprietor, Bonnie Owenby.

“It was superluxury, actually bougie,” he recalled.

On Nov. 19, 1999, after recognizing the motor coach on the lot of Desert West Coach in Phoenix and placing a maintain on it, Justice Thomas attended a dinner on the conservative Goldwater Institute. In a speech that night, he mentioned he had by no means yearned to be a federal choose. “Pure and easy, I needed to be wealthy,” he mentioned.

Wayne Mullis, the proprietor of the now-defunct Desert West, mentioned in an interview that Justice Thomas by no means mentioned acquiring conventional financing with him, and that “so far as I do know, he paid for it.”

Certainly, Justice Thomas would have been hard-pressed to get a mortgage from a conventional lender. Banks, and even finance firms specializing in R.V. loans, are significantly reluctant to lend cash on used Prevost Marathons as a result of the custom-made options are laborious to worth, in keeping with three main business executives interviewed by The Occasions.

“As a rule, the vast majority of consumers are money consumers — they don’t finance the Prevost, typically,” mentioned Chad Stevens, proprietor of an Arizona-based dealership specializing in high-end motor coaches, whose shoppers embody celebrities and politicians. “In 1999, you would wish a really robust down fee and a robust monetary portfolio to finance one. It’s a luxurious merchandise.”

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