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% Mark up over invoice not MSRP


TrapperBob

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looking at purchasing a class A in the next year as our full time rig. Have seen plenty of posts about what you can expect to get off MSRP. In my mind when buying an item I always have what I think is a fair mark up over dealer invoice. What I do not know is what will they let it go for. Does anyone know what was the lowest over dealer invoice/cost that the sales manager would take. Thanks for the feedback

 

Bob

Bob and Jenise

Class of 2016 Full timers :)

2008 Newmar Essex 45' 500hp ism towing Honda CRV awd

 

Every day you wake up is a good day!!!!

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Bob, that would imply that someone would know what the dealer invoice was on a particular unit. Unlike the automotive industry it is virtually impossible to find out what the dealer invoice is for an RV.

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
Living on the road since 2000

PLEASE no PM's. Email me. jackdanmayer AT gmail
2016 DRV Houston 44' 5er (we still have it)
2022 New Horizons 43' 5er
2016 Itasca 27N 28' motorhome 
2019 Volvo 860, D13 455/1850, 236" wb, I-Shift, battery-based APU
No truck at the moment - we use one of our demo units
2016 smart Passion, piggyback on the truck
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See our website for info on New Horizons 5th wheels, HDTs as tow vehicles, communications on the road, and use of solar power
www.jackdanmayer.com
Principal in RVH Lifestyles. RVH-Lifestyles.com

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Let me add a bit to what Jack has said.

 

One of the difficulties with RVs is that while federal law requires automobile dealers to display the MSRP printed by the factory, no such law exists for the RV industry and many RVs are displayed at the dealer's lot with a document purporting to be an MSRP that was created and inflated by the dealer himself. Complicating things even farther, in most cases dealers for the very same RV manufacturers are far apart and so it becomes difficult to make two dealers price compete on the exact same RV. In addition, very seldom will two dealers have an RV of the same make and model that is configured exactly like one on a neighbor's lot. All of this makes it much more difficult to know where to start.

 

The RV Consumer Group states that the most one should ever pay for a new RV is 80% of the factory MSRP. You can usually tell these from the dealer created ones but it may be difficult. Add to this the fact that a higher volume dealer will probably accept a lower margin than the smaller dealer for the same unit, but you have to figure out where that line is. Establishing what is a reasonable price for any RV requires a great deal of research each time you shop.

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

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

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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Jack, Kirk

 

Thanks for your feedback. I value what you guys have to say. You just reinforce my opinion that it is hard to come up with a true cost on RV's. Kind of like asking a guy on a cruise what he paid, No one pays the same price. It comes down to how good a deal you can work. When looking at a DP in the 400K range new, it pains me to not know I got everything off that was reasonable. It would be nice if like car manufactures you could find out what the mark up over invoice was.

Bob and Jenise

Class of 2016 Full timers :)

2008 Newmar Essex 45' 500hp ism towing Honda CRV awd

 

Every day you wake up is a good day!!!!

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I was told by the salesman that I purchased our current coach from that his dealership charged $5,000 over factory invoice, at least on ordered coaches that did not have to be floor planned. (and on the brand that I purchased) This translated to about 30% under the "Suggested Retail" on the coach. My trade-in, same brand, appeared to be NADA low retail.

Frank
Kay - Co-pilot

Roscoe and Maggie - Rescue Beagles

"I asked God to send us a True Friend. He sent us a Beagle!"
"It's never too late to have a happy childhood!"

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When shopping for a new 5th wheel it was funny how dealer A would have $110 k on on a Mobile Suites and dealer B had $104 k and both dropped into the low $90 k when we were just looking. The Landmark's were worse even among'st different dealership locations. Explore RV had one price in Tyler and another at Kyle. We ignored the "MSRP" tag entirely and knew we could drive a good bargain when we decided on a rig based on input of other buyers experiences.

 

There are a lot of coach owners out there and you could probably get some good input.

Dave & Tish
Beagle Bagles & Snoopy

RIP Snoopy we lost you 5-11-14 but you'll always travel with us
On the road somewhere.
AF retired, 70-90
A truck and a trailer

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion” -unknown

HoD vay' wej qoH SoH je nep! ngebmo' vIt neH 'ach SoHbe' loD Hem, wa' ngebmo'. nuqneH...

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Another thing to factor into any deal is your trade-in (if you have one). Almost no dealer will give you any more than 80% of the wholesale value. You can find a good representation of the wholesale value in the DEALERS NADA book. Most libraries have one. The online version is worthless in this regard. Also, options are not generally counted in setting the wholesale price. Just factor that into your numbers, because a dealer is not "really" giving you mid-upper retail on your RV. He is simply playing a numbers game to make the sale.

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
Living on the road since 2000

PLEASE no PM's. Email me. jackdanmayer AT gmail
2016 DRV Houston 44' 5er (we still have it)
2022 New Horizons 43' 5er
2016 Itasca 27N 28' motorhome 
2019 Volvo 860, D13 455/1850, 236" wb, I-Shift, battery-based APU
No truck at the moment - we use one of our demo units
2016 smart Passion, piggyback on the truck
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See our website for info on New Horizons 5th wheels, HDTs as tow vehicles, communications on the road, and use of solar power
www.jackdanmayer.com
Principal in RVH Lifestyles. RVH-Lifestyles.com

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I have several friends that have been in Auto Dealerships...

Bottom line is that "Invoice" is all BS...means nothing.

As in "Big Sale..selling below Invoice" Total crap....

"Invoices" do not include dealer incentives, promotions, volume discounts, etc.

I can tell you that the last GMC Pick up I bought a few years back I received an employee discount (as my Brother in Law works for GM) of ~$7000. (on a ~$36K Vehicle)

And this was after all my dealing with the dealer...I didn't even tell him about my Employee discount till the deal was made.

Good luck, and good advise above.

Cheers,

Bob

1989 Safari Serengeti 34'
Towing a 1952 M38A1 Military Willys

Past HDT owner

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The only way that I have found to be sure you are getting a really good price on a new RV is the method that RV Consumer Group suggested to me when we were shopping for a new RV for our full-time adventure. We had chosen the RV make/model that we wanted but were unable to negotiate what we believed to be a fair price, so asked them for advice. Here is what they advised, and I did.

 

Since I had already been to the local dealer where we did a configuration sheet for ordering of a new motorhome equipped to our specifications and priced it all out, I set that order aside and I contacted the RV manufacturer and asked for the address and phone number of all dealers in a three state area. I then went through this list and selected all of them within about 200 miles in all directions. I called each one and asked to speak to the sales manager. I explained that I was going to be buying a new motorhome of the brand they had for sale and that I would travel to the dealer with the very best price. I then told them that if they would like to bid on my purchase, I would send them a copy of the configuration order sheet to make a bid on. I called 12 different dealerships and 11 said yes and supplied me with a fax phone number.

 

Next I took the spec sheet and covered all numbers on it, made a copy and sent that by fax to those 11 dealerships. Within three days I had received 9 additional bids on the purchase of our RV by return fax. Of those, 7 were priced below the local dealer's bid and the lowest one was $8000 below.The end price was76% of MSRP. I then contacted the local dealer and offered him the opportunity to match this price, but his reply was emphatically negative. In this way, I bought our RV with confidence that it was priced near the minimum that I could possibly get. Since we were going fulltime, it really did not matter that the local dealer didn't like us as we were gone from that area less than 1 year later. We hit the road in 2000 and kept the RV involved for nearly 14 years, 11+ of it fulltime.

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

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

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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Kirk,

 

I like how you did it. I will do something along the same line. Since I am in the process of getting house on market purchase will be a cash deal. I will put the dealers under a time limit to respond letting them know a purchase will take place in short order.

 

Thanks a gain for your thoughts

 

Bob

Bob and Jenise

Class of 2016 Full timers :)

2008 Newmar Essex 45' 500hp ism towing Honda CRV awd

 

Every day you wake up is a good day!!!!

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I did the same as Kirk, spec'd out the coach and e-mailed a request for quotes to multiple dealers in my area. They all replied within 1-2 days and the bids were all very close. I then re-e-mailed them with a request to re-quote with my current coach as a trade-in. The dealer that I went with quoted an out the door price with trade that was 15K less than the other dealers.

Frank
Kay - Co-pilot

Roscoe and Maggie - Rescue Beagles

"I asked God to send us a True Friend. He sent us a Beagle!"
"It's never too late to have a happy childhood!"

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