Dealing with a Dealer - Used Purchasing Advice

Well, I was in the car business for two years, and I learned that THE best way to "Do A Deal" is to negotiate the absolute bottom line price for the purchase without ANY mention of a "trade in" and then when both parties have agreed on the selling price, THEN you throw the trade in:thumbsup:

Just remember, you can go wholesale to wholesale or retail to retail when trading.:thumbsup:

Good advice, wish I would have taken that tack going in. Now I am stuck.
 
The market, she's a changing, and not a minute to soon....give away prices on boats does none of us any good.

Does some of us good :grin: Although I do have my "old" boat up for sale so we'll see if I'mm still :grin: after that ordeal.

"I am not looking for giveaway pricing, just for pricing that accurately reflects the market pricing. Has anyone here paid the original asking price for a boat or a car, especially a used one? From all my reading on CSR, the asking price is the starting price of the negotiation and both parties work from there. "

Yes, for a used car. It came from a big Toyota dealer in SW Michigan (3 hour drve for me to get it) with all the service records including the original purchase documents. Orig. pur. price was $45,000 + and the lady was 2 months shy of making her last $642/month payment and traded it in ( I also had paperwork on her last 3 vehicles). The dealer was asking about 1/3 of Kelly Blue Book, plus gave me more than I ever dreamed my vehicle was worth on trade. I just happened to be looking to see what I couldn't afford to go buy and stumbled across this thing, showed up with cash and been loving it ever since!:thumbsup:

But I do have to admit that deals like that are few and far between! Good luck on the search!
 
They probably aren't budging because the 260DA with a generator is harder to find than one without. IMHO, they're betting someone will be willing to pay for it.
 
Not sure about your state but make sure the dealer/broaker includes the sales tax. Here in California I found out the hard way that the sales tax was NOT included in the price. This was my first boat purchase thru a broaker and didnt know they were not required to include taxes. I got a notice from the county for the tax 8 months after my purchase. Cut deeply into my beer fund.
 
When we met with a salesman at Marine Max last year, he said they were selling two kinds of boats....cheap ones ($15,000 and under) and expensive ones ($75,000 and up!). The $20,000 to $60,000 market was dead. People with money wanted the best/new and people who just wanted to boat in something ok to nice/smaller. We saved a lot of money sightseeing on ebay on the year/model we wanted and bought off Craigslist from the owner. You need to see how well the boat was taken care of with receipts and your first impression of the owner/boat. On a trailer or cradle you can really get a close look, Mike.
 
I'm almost in the same boat... (literally)
We own a 2010 185sport, it's our first boat- we purchased last summer... We've taken it out almost every decent weekend and I'm ready to start looking for something larger.

I'd love to see what your deal looks like.. I'd like to move up to a trailerable DA in the 24-26 range...
 
I am willing to bet that if you came in and made an offer without the trade they would deal. Dealers around here want NOTHING to do with a trade unless they are profiting 15-20% on the sale of your trade.

I for one know first hand that the days of offering 25% less on a boat are over. In the past week I know of 5 different boat deals that are coming together within 2,000-10,000 of asking price.

However, if the original price was "X" and the new asking price is "X-30%" then it's strictly a game of numbers and semantics.
 
IMO, when the fecal waste collides with the oscillating mechanism in the middle east, none of this discussion may matter.
 
IMHO the biggest stumbling blocks are preconceived notions of what “should be”, “is normal”, or “they got”. Ever transaction between a willing buyer and willing seller is unique to that moment in time. Forget all the extraneous issues as there are only 2 that matter: what you will pay for the 260 and what they will pay for 185. It really does not matter what the asking price is, only what the selling price is. As has been mentioned the options you are looking at are desired and as a package will be worth more than their individual values. One will find one of the 3 on most boats 2 of the three on some but all on few vessels. I learned that last year in my search. None of us ever want to pay too much, but don’t lose a rare option combination because of preconceived notions.

That said I would require the optional power as one of my personal must haves if I was looking.

Good Luck, MM
 

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