Boat Pricing

elarson5757

So educate me on boat pricing.  I've never bought a new boat and I'm trying to understand the price the dealer worked up vs what I should offer.  I've bought a ton of RV's in my life and as a result I know that they are priced first at MSRP and I should expect to pay between 20-25% off that MSRP depending on the dealer, availability, etc. Well what about boats?  I'm looking at trading in my 246CC for a brand new 2016 246 open bow.  Went over the base price, added all the options out of the book, added the trailer and tax, etc and it came out at just over $70k.  The dealer had a book he pulled all the pricing from including base price and all the options indiviueally and just added it all up.  He was t hiding the price sheet as he allowed me to go thru the sheet musket to review all the options.

So is this price close to what I should expect to pay?  Do I offer 20% off this price..what is it??

elarson5757

By the way....I have not told him about the trade yet as I may sell it outright and I do not want the new boat price getting clouded by the trade. I always work them as two separate numbers...

LaRea

Tough subject. Compared to car pricing, the number of sales is much smaller, so the pricing strategies are relatively opaque.  In the one time I bought a new boat, the technique I used was to price used boats and say "I'm going to buy this used boat unless you convince me otherwise."  

Oh, and I bought during a major snow storm on the last day of a boat show.

I know .. lame.  But it worked for me.

Handymans342

This is a well guarded trade secret. I was going to take a job as an RV sales person just to learn this secret.  

Cableguy Greg

The sheet that he was hiding was his dealer cost sheet, what the factory charges him for every option. Depending on the volume that the dealer sells, you can expect a 20% markup on that cost sheet. That is what my old dealer used to do. If it is a high volume dealer like Hideaway in Detroit, they are probably doing 10 to 15% markup. I would say that you are looking at other brands and offer him 10% off what he told you. Good luck!

Michael T

Also you can go to sites like Yachtworld.com and look at models for sale like the one you want to buy. At worst you may see the price of your intended purchase that is only a couple of years old if really lucky there may be a couple of new ones listed by dealers.  This will give you a pretty good ball park figure. Now is certainly the time to buy imo.