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Ordering 5er thru dealer


EverywhereMan

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Hello all,

I'm sure this topic has been brought up before and appreciate your opinions - I'll be ordering a 5th wheel thru a dealer sometime this Spring.  I've recieved a few quotes from dealers and more coming.  Wide range of pricing based on same order sheet.  Any suggestions for negotiating with sales? What should you expect discount off MSRP?  

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Somewhere near 30% off of MSRP. You will find a wide range of prices. It can be very wide. Some local dealers may have a high price and they will tell you if you buy elsewhere they will not do warranty work or at least put you at the end of the line. I wouldn't pay any attention to that. There are lots of repair shops that will repair your RV with the manufactures ok and they will ok the work. Most warranties are only good for one year anyway. Even Forest River did away with the second year warranty that they would sell you for from $150 to $250. If it where me I would go the a lower price volume dealer like the ones in OH. Most dealers will not match their price.

Additionally please don't expect good customer service from most RV dealers. Most don't even know what that is. If you can find one on a lot that will do it may also be a little cheaper. Good Luck

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I think it should be mentioned that the 30% thing only works with no trade and possibly cash deal. If you have a trade they will work it into the price making you think they are giving you more for your trade. Sounds elementary I know but I can't believe how many people fall for the salesmans BS.

2002 Beaver Marquis Emerald   C-12 Cat 505 HP

2014 Volvo 630 D-13 I Shift SOLD

2017 New Horizons SOLD

 

 

 

 

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Be sure when the dealer states the MSRP it's the manufacturers MSRP and not one made up be the dealer leading you to believe they are giving more of a discount.  Dealers like to finance sales as they can also make some profit on loans.    Greg  

Greg & Judy Bahnmiller
Class of 2007
2014 F350
2007 HitchHiker Champagne

Both sold 2/19, settled in Foley, AL after 12 years on the road

http://bahnmilleradventure.blogspot.com/

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whj469 - What do you mean by OH?  I want to think you are referring to volume dealers in Ohio but not sure.

Everywhereman - I have a friend who has his work done at an RV repair shop, not the dealer. I'm planning to call them to see if they can do, or will do warranty work, especially if we get an extended warranty. For us, we will only be in the area the first year and then a couple months or so at a time after we go fulltime. So the dealership thing is not that important as we will not be around here much anyway. If the local dealer can come close to the price then we will use them, especially if we factor in having to go out of town to pickup the trailer. We are also not that far from Indiana if we have to go the factory route for repairs.

Regarding negotiations, lots to factor in especially if you are financing. For me, I'm going to treat it like buying a car.  I'll have a price in mind I think is far and they will have to prove to me it's not. Then when we go see the finance guy for the up-sales pitches, I'm saying no need for most of it. So we are going to already have to have an idea if we are getting an extended warranty and what they cover. Because I'm expecting the finance guy to make a run at us to sell us one. Not sure yet if we are getting an extended warranty, but if we do, I'll be prepared to compare against what the dealership is offering.

We are going to have to finance part of our trailer until the house sells. Our home is nearly paid off (two months to go). I'm arranging an equity line of credit so I can write a check for the trailer. I'll let the finance guy at the dealership run his numbers, but don't think he can beat the interest rate I can get from my local bank. I also have a credit union that I can talk to beforehand.  You have to be careful with equity loans however, because some are variable rates.  With interest rates on the way up, so could the payment go up. Although, in our case we would only be financing for about 6 months, then paying it off. The point is there can be a lot more to the negotiation than just the trailer price. 

I'd be interested in what format you used to get bids.  Did you just list the basic trailer and add on the options such as a second battery or what.

 

Mark from Missouri

Our Future in an RV

2018 Ram 3500 Laramie Dually LB 6.7L HO Diesel Aisin Transmission 4x4 3.73 Gears

2019 Vanleigh Vilano 320GK 35’ fifth wheel 16,000-pound GVWR

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19 hours ago, EverywhereMan said:

Hello all,

I'm sure this topic has been brought up before and appreciate your opinions - I'll be ordering a 5th wheel thru a dealer sometime this Spring.  I've recieved a few quotes from dealers and more coming.  Wide range of pricing based on same order sheet.  Any suggestions for negotiating with sales? What should you expect discount off MSRP?  

Welcome to the Forum.  Lots of good info here.  I don't have much to say about buying new RV's, having always purchased used ones.

Many things to consider in addition to just buying a 5th wheel.

--  Don't neglect researching what you will be towing the 5th wheel with.  Extremely important to have enough truck to tow and stop the trailer safely.

--  Many people have success in buying used RV's.  Something to consider.

-- Make sure the trailer you buy has enough CCC (Cargo Carrying Capacity).   Many don't.  Fulltimers carry 2000-3500 pounds of cargo, not including the weight of water in the trailers tanks. (80 gallon tank of fresh water is 640 pounds).

--  Spend some time browsing back through the various sections of this forum, Beginning RV'ing, General RV Information, etc.  Look for topics which have addressed some of the things you will be dealing with in the future.  Many of which you may not have thought about yet.

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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All bets are off with a trade in! They will give you more for the trade if you owe more on it and they will increase the price of the new one. OH is Ohio because you don't know that? There are at least two volume RV dealers in Ohio that have prices that most dealers will not match. Yes they will be about 30% off of MSRP. You must go there to pick it up or you could pay someone to deliver it to you.

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I had an $8000 price difference from the least to the most expensive.  I asked my local dealer if they would price match this other dealer.  They said no.  So I drove 16 hours and picked up my new rig after it came in.  I travel full time so I will not have a home dealership.  Some dealers will PDI much better then others and will have most if not all of the bugs fixed before you pick up your unit.

2015 Ram 3500 RC DRW CTD AISIN 410 rear

2016 Mobile Suites 38RSB3

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On 12/23/2017 at 12:28 PM, EverywhereMan said:

 Wide range of pricing based on same order sheet.  Any suggestions for negotiating with sales? What should you expect discount off MSRP?

There are a lot of theories on this but to date, I have not seen any that hold up and the reason is that there is no standard MSRP for RVs the way that there is for automobiles and if the factory does supply such a document, the dealer has no obligation to show it to you the way that federal law requires of automobiles. 

What I did that proved to be very successful was to contact the RV manufacturer and I got a list of all dealers for the chosen make/model from them which were located in 3 states. I then selected all of them that I considered being in a reasonable driving distance and I then took the dealer order sheet from our local dealer and covered all of the prices and made a copy of it that showed all details of the order except the pricing. I then called the sales managers of 10 of those dealerships and asked them if they would be interested in making a bid to sell me an ordered RV based on my existing spec sheet. Of the 10 that I called, 9 were interested and so I faxed each one a copy of that order sheet that had no prices. The 9 bids received ranged from 86% of the price shown on the manufacturer's website to as low as 74%. Since our RV configuration was some different from that on the website, the range seemed reasonable to me. Of those, most stated no trade-ins and some stated trade-in negotiated separately. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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Kirk, so after sending out your sheet to nine dealers the price range of the discount offered was 14% to 26% off the original dealer's price sheet (which we can call "MSRP" I assume)?

Mark from Missouri

Our Future in an RV

2018 Ram 3500 Laramie Dually LB 6.7L HO Diesel Aisin Transmission 4x4 3.73 Gears

2019 Vanleigh Vilano 320GK 35’ fifth wheel 16,000-pound GVWR

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