2 replies to this topic

[SeaDooLV]

Hi. I'm new to the site and hope to get some help with my first boat purchase. My wife and I (mostly me) have our hearts set on a black 2011 180 SE with the 255HP motor and a tower. The asking price is just over $30K. Those of you that have purchased new boats have any tips or suggestions on how to begin the negotiation to get a better price than that. The one thing I can think of on our side is the new models are coming out just before we are ready to buy.

Another question, is their any chance the dealers will deal on the new 2012 models, specifically the 180 SP? Would rather have one of those for sure. Like the look change and the ski mode, but will probably bump us just over the price range because of those dang taxes. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[PaulM]

check out www.seedealercost.com. It will show you dealer invoice. I bought a 2011 Challenger SE with an MSRP of $25,999.00. The dealer invoice (cost) is $22,000. If you do the math, thats approximately a 15% markup. I would assume the margins are the same accross the board, so just take the MSRP of the boat you want (don't include the bogus dealer fees of freight and setup) and multiply by .85 and voila, the dealer cost on that particular sea doo boat! If you know the cost, you can have a much better footing when going into the negotiation. Don't pay "freigh and setup" charges either, it is a slick negotiating tool that dealers in the boating/ATV/motorcycle world use to show you a discount then add back to the sale price while justifying this by attaching a reason for it ie. "freight" and "setup".
Freight charges are included in the dealer invoice and are already accounted for in the MSRP like in the car industry. Setup charges are the costs incurred to prep a boat (the pre-delivery inspection (techs billable time) and the cost to pay a guy to detail the boat. Again, in the automotive industry, these costs are absorbed by car dealers, if one tried to charge the client for it when buying a car, the client would walk out.

Hope this helps, good luck! My dealer recommendation would be: Schronce Powersports in North Carolina. Martha Schronce is amazing and made my purchase the best experience possible. ( I live in Pennsylvania ) Very tough to find a dealer worth giving your business too, it was easy to choose Schronce after the first two minutes on the phone! I had a problem with my new challenger and my original dealer ignored me and the problem, Shronce took the boat back and sold me a 210 SP. They weren't even my original dealer, but they are the ones who stepped to the plate to help a consumer and I ended up trading up in boat.

[SeaDooLV]

Thanks for the help.