Dealer Price Negotations

[mjracsj]

I did well in purchasing a new but last year's holdover model when I bought. A friend in the boat sales business helped me out a lot with this piece of insight-- from talking to the salespeople about their vast assortment of so many rvs on the lot I casually asked how they have so many on hand and was able to find out that they (and most rv dealers) have them all on hand thru "floorplan" financing. Once I told my boat dealer friend this he explained that they are accumulating interest they owe on them if not sold by a certain date and that it might be likely that on a leftover from the previous year they were probably facing a big "curtailment" payment which is like a balloon payment the dealer may have had to come up with to their financing company on that unit after a certain amount of time. He guessed that the dealer may have been facing as much as a $20,000 or more balloon payment of their own on that leftover unit by that time.
This turned out to be pretty accurate and the dealer was desperate to get rid of it and turn it into cash. I ended up paying well under 140,000 in May 2012 for a leftover but new 2011 390RB.
After the sale was all done I asked their finance manager about it and he admitted that I was pretty much spot on and that they needed to sell the unit and just recover their money. He said they dont budge much on units that are fairly new arrivals as that is where they make most of their money (or try to --it is a tough business!) but if they are there for a long time they have to sell them for whatever reasonable amount that can because their financing bank is breathing down their neck. They were in the position of having to report on the status, value and age of their inventory on a weekly basis to their bank.
It ended up being as good a deal as possible for both me and for them.

[Hallen01]

Originally Posted by plasma800

I'm wondering... ...How deeply can you negotiate with a dealer?

I think 25 percent off is about it. I paid in the neighborhood of $178K for a Berkshire 390 40L, but I got a a sizeable 80 percent of original cost for my two-year old diesel truck trade-in, and fair price on a trailer trade-in.

So, you can offer the trade-in, AFTER you get their best price.

Also, you can say things like (for a left-over 2013): "I see, by the fact that this has the original 255 80/LRG 22.5 tires, and not the larger 275s, that this unit doesn't have the front end suspension upgrade. After I make the request for approval through the warranty department, it'll cost me at least $1000 round trip to take it to Gaffney to get the free mod."

Or: "I see this 2014 model doesn't have the flush window design they are now using, but the older (early 2014 and before) sliding window design."

Or: Man it sure would be nice if I had the wood accent instrument panel option that's coming through on all the new ones".

Or: "Ok, I'll sign, but we don't settle until all the items on the damage/inop list are fixed. No exeptions."

Good luck and don't be shy.

[Campin Cajun]

It sounds like we are preparing him for WAR!!!

[mjracsj]

It is a jungle out there. Full of predators in the rv sales depts. The brave warrior should be calm, patient and well informed of dealer offers elsewhere. Especially helpful I did also make sure the dealer in the northeast I dealt with was made aware of the prices offered by MHSRV in Texas and my willingness to go there if they could not convince me that they could make what I wanted happen and save me the trip!

[wrapperman]

We purchased ours in Michigan. Flew there and saved a bundle. Got more on the motorhome than we thought. Included everything you could get on the unit. Tried all dealers within 300 miles. None wanted to come down on the price but Terry Town in Grand Rapids did. Found mine on EBay. We knew what we wanted and negotiated over the phone. Sweet deal

[wrapperman]

I should add this.

You got something they want and they have something you want. It's really a game so start negotiating. Do your homework. Don't be in a hurry.

[boowho]

Originally Posted by Campin Cajun

It sounds like we are preparing him for WAR!!!

We ARE!!!

Boowho??

[boowho]

Originally Posted by mjracsj

I did well in purchasing a new but last year's holdover model when I bought ........ ended up paying well under 140,000 in May 2012 for a leftover but new 2011 390RB.

Good Job!!!

You and I have the two best deals I've heard about/read on here with regard to buying a coach. I bought my '11 390RB in Nov '12 (just a year ago). It had been titled but never taken out; not once.

Bought from the original owner for $125K, so no warranty. So far total $$$ spent by me that could have been warranty (had I bought new) covered is around $400.

Even though not the original owner, FR (and it's OEM suppliers) have been very good at taking care of things that they weren't legally required to. Basically they've covered ALL parts; I just had to pay labor or do the repairs myself.

Considering horror stories I've heard from others, I couldn't be much happier.

Boowho??

[mjracsj]

And thanks to posts and research by you and others I was made aware of the tire and airbag upgrade which I had done while the coach was back at the factory for roof replacement, drivers window replacement and a few other little things under warranty. Very appreciative for that! I couldn't be happier with the coach and love almost everything about the 2011 RB floorplan. Sad that it seems to have been phazed out.
The best feeling with any Berkshire is satisfaction in having gotten probably the most coach for the money.
Sure if money was no object I may have bought something else but nice having the absolute best for what we could afford

[Phil57]

Originally Posted by wrapperman

We purchased ours in Michigan. Flew there and saved a bundle. Got more on the motorhome than we thought. Included everything you could get on the unit. Tried all dealers within 300 miles. None wanted to come down on the price but Terry Town in Grand Rapids did. Found mine on EBay. We knew what we wanted and negotiated over the phone. Sweet deal

We bought our's from Terry Town also. We are from Grand Rapids so that made it easy. When I was dealing our salesman Bob Wells told us that most of the MH sales are online. I don't think that would bother me as most of the repairs have been done at the factory. We are only 150 miles from Elkhart.

[Snowman9000]

One big thing you've got going for you is that Berkshire is carried by RVDirect.com. Go there, select your model and options or select an in stock model, and request the price. Within a few minutes you will have a very good price, which you can use with your local dealers.

I just did this, yesterday and today, and completed a purchase of a Sunseeker Class C. Two dealers beat the RV Direct price, and the third came close. On the particular model I bought, if RVD's MSRP is to be believed, we got prices which were 38-40% off. I think that's on the high end of what might typically happen, because I think our model had a lot of fluff built into MSRP for some reason.

PS: They don't care if you are a cash buyer. In fact, they would rather finance you, and sometimes you'll get a lower price that way.

[boowho]

Originally Posted by mjracsj

Sure if money was no object I may have bought something else but nice having the absolute best for what we could afford

Roger that!!! I'd LOVE a Newell!!! HA!!!

BTW, we have the same color scheme as well. Phil57 too. I think his and my serial numbers are like 6 apart.

Boowho??

[mjracsj]

True! Although Iove my color scheme and wouldnt trade it for any other. Even have thought of accenting the black by ditching the wheel covers and going with black powdercoated rims with chrome spiked lug nuts I will let you know my serial # so we can see if we are closely related as well HaHa. And I have been busy with mods making it just right for our family. It has been a good experience overall. Randy and Andy at FR have been a big help and a pleasure to work with. Plus we found a local self employed Master RV Mobile Tech guy for service that has been great so I will never have to deal with a substandard dealer again.

[plasma800]

Originally Posted by ernest917

Plasma800...

Thought you might want to see what we got....

Attachment 42971



Attachment 42972



Attachment 42975

LOVE IT!

[plasma800]

Originally Posted by mjracsj

It is a jungle out there. Full of predators in the rv sales depts. The brave warrior should be calm, patient and well informed of dealer offers elsewhere. Especially helpful I did also make sure the dealer in the northeast I dealt with was made aware of the prices offered by MHSRV in Texas and my willingness to go there if they could not convince me that they could make what I wanted happen and save me the trip!

That ain't no lie!