Buying from dealers hours away

[blwnsmoke]

I'm in NH and checked with a dealer out in MI (wholesaler), VT and one in MA. My trailer retailed for $54,000 optioned the way I wanted it.

Contacted the VT dealer and they were willing to sell it for $40,000 and when asked about interest rates (knowing my credit), they quoted me around 5.5%.

Contacted the dealer in MI and he quoted me $39,xxx plus a bunch of freebies and got 4 1/8%.

Contacted the MA dealer and they were $49,995 and would not budge even sending them a copy of the emails with the other dealers pricing.

Long story short I went with the MI dealer and they delivered it to my house. I ended up getting it down to $38,400 and had to pay $1,800 for delivery. Being it was about the same price as the VT dealer, the much lower interest rate is what sold me being it's going to take me about 5-7 years to pay it off. Doing the math it would have cost me about $1,200 if I brought my truck out there and towed it back myself (fuel, hotel, food etc).

Fortunately there is a Camping World 1,000ft from my work and I know many of them for about 8 years so they take great care of me. If it wasn't for that, I don't know how my warranty work would be handled but that really played into it as well.

[sgtlm17]

I purchased long distance. My local dealers were ridiculous in price. I saved enough money to travel wherever I needed too. I fix most anything myself and if its above my expertise I use a RV service company not a dealer. RV service companies I have found always are more responsive.

[00buck]

I've bought locally a couple of times from two different dealers. The first was the worst. I took my unit back 9 times for the same problem. On the 9th time the service manager pretended he didn't know me. I blew a gasket. The second unit from a different local dealer was not quite as bad, but again, I had to make repeated trips for the same issue. I haven't bought locally since. On one deal I saved over $20,000 with a better price on the new unit and a better trade on my old unit. I drove 3 1/2 hours for it. My latest unit was used and bought from a deal 2 1/2 hours away.

I could care less about local service, given the yahoo's who work in the service departments. Most of the problems I take care of myself. If you can't do that, you probably shouldn't buy one. If I had any serious structural problems, I'd take the unit to a local body shop or garage that works on RVs.

[itat]

Originally Posted by Rollingdunder1

Unless you have a local dealer with a reputation for exceptional service after the sale; I'd say purchase wherever you can get the best deal.

X2

Using the same logic about saving more than enough to offset a lot of repairs, I bought both our trailers used. I did my best to do a very thorough inspection of them before agreeing to the purchase. My first purchase was a private sale locally. Second was from a dealer about 1-1/4 hours away. I'd prefer to buy from a dealer because I can get a 30 day warranty from a dealer on a used unit. Can't get that from a private seller.

If I were to buy new, I'd go wherever the price was cheapest. The only local dealer I'd trust to do service doesn't carry the FR brand I like. Factor in the cost of fuel, at least one night in a hotel and several days camping close to the selling dealer to check everything out before heading home. Get a written guarantee that they will reimburse you for either delivery or a return trip if there is anything wrong that can't be fixed in a day or two.

[BandJCarm]

$22,000.

That's why.

Local dealer works on every model for a fee. Warranty doesn't last forever, and problems don't always happen here at home anyway. Local dealer will work warranty, just not put me first.

If you're spending 10% OVER your max budget to get what you want, as I am, I ain't gonna spend $22,000 more just to say "Well, I bought it down the street here".

Dealer here was offered chance to match price, he said "Forget it".

[mtnlvr]

I shopped the local dealerships first. They were inflexible, even with cash. I ended up flying to a wholesaler in Iowa and saving about 38% off retail. The savings were well worth the trip.

[j free]

My dealer was 3 hours away and the competing dealer was 3 hours away. So my choice was limited. but saved $14,000 over the other dealer witch was camping world. As for warranty it my dealer or camping world no other dealers around.

[cincia]

I'm lucky that I live in an area with several large dealerships and I agree with The_Rhino. Once we found which tt we wanted we were able to look at several of the same model and chose the best one (one of them was so poorly put together even a novice like me could tell was going to be problems down the road). The one we bought cost slightly more than some other places but the peace of mind was worth it for us. We have only had to bring it back to the dealer once but they made the repair while we waited (we had booked an appt time to bring it in) and an hour later we were back on the road home. Cincia

[Blacknchromehd]

Well you have a great question.

Up to this July I had a Holiday Rambler Endeavor which was a 2000 with 60K miles on her...Had a total of $30,000 in her with all my work and upgrades over the past 4 years...this summer I got tired of being passed all the time on hills by DP units and chose to look for one...

Well Total Value RV in Elkhart Indiana had the best pricing we could find on a 360 RB Legacy...in fact $15000 lower...so we drive the 550 miles each way to get it...and they thru in a $4000 warranty package, break controller, three vent covers as well...

Any issues have been handled by our Independent Dealer here in York..I pay them and the factory has sent me a check...

[Ncgrandma]

We shopped both local and out of area for our ROO21dk 2 yrs ago. We were able to get what we wanted for several thousand dollars less by ordering from a dealer in Buffalo NY. We live in NE North Carolina a 9-10 hr drive. They called us when it came in and we drove up, did the PDI and had the weight distribution hitch and anti sway system put on, spent the night in the area and drove home the next day. Had great service. Questions answered and even got some good tips from them. To us it was worth the drive. We have a local deal/service center if needed but so far have only had small thing my husband was able to take care of.

[Keystone]

The closest Work & Play dealership to me is 3 hours away. Since that is what I wanted, I had little choice.

[AbdRahim]

I guess you pays your nickel and takes your chances. Everything seems to require a compromise somewhere.

[silverback 35ts]

I can see your point but you miss two things,1) if you do not live near a dealer (like myself) 2) yes you can save, and as rving gets busier by the minute a lot of folks will have to wait days or longer weather they purchased it at that dealer or not.
I have had issues will dealers doing this as many others and i took it back to the selling dealer.
So my point is "Until the manufacturers change their contracts and make them like car dealers nothing is going to change for the better!"

[CraigBean7672]

Buying nearby does not guarantee service satisfaction. There are many stories and I've heard from friends that many dealers make their money selling so having service done at dealers is often not the best experience. Recommendation is to find a shop that specializes in service and not selling RVs. In my area there's even a few mobile service guys that are highly recommended. There are some particulars to consider though, like a factory warranty that may require an authorized dealer to do the work, however, that may not exclude independent service so long as they're authorized/certified, and another scenario may be if it needs to go back to the factory for some major repair and you need to get the dealer involved. But not sure if this would even come into play.

[sgtlm17]

X2

[dustman_stx]

I'm on my third camper from RVWholsalers since 2012. They are almost exactly 1000 miles from my front door. Best decision I've ever made. Every time I buy its like I've already paid 15-20% down compared to local prices. Better customer service than my local dealers to boot.