Has Sea Ray gone stupid ???

Do Over said:
Mike....you need to tell everyone the rest of the story (cue Paul Harvey) so they understand COMPLETELY....apples to apples for everyone.
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I agree I should. Problem is I can't fully remember all the details, this was 9 years ago. And I know everyone is going to ask, then it comes off I'm lieing. I dug myself in, and people aren't stupid. If I could explain it like I did to you, and they took it at face value, as you did. It wouldn't be a problem.
I'm really not trying to bash the current coorperate Sea Ray folks. I don't know how they would have handled my situation. I was venting, and trying to give the guy insight, that said he was going to buy a new boat, because he didn't want to inherent someone elses problems. I didn't do such a good job.
 
Bridog said:
Unfortunately all boats old and NEW will have problems and, at some point, cost you money. Period!

Now...having the company pay for it instead of me?? Well, I guess I was just being selfish on my part by allowing them to take advantage of me by letting them pay instead of me. I know, I should've held firm and paid for it myself, but I was weak. As far as my dealer is concerned? I'm pretty sure they got reimbursed for the repairs. Unless, of course, they thought it would be morally wrong to do so. Not sure how that went on their end. Shame on them if they did!
Anyway, I've found that it's all part of the boating "lifestyle" If you think otherwise, you really need to get another hobby. Perhaps scrapbooking or collecting Pixie dust.
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:smt043Pixie Dust...don't spill none on ya:smt043
Simmons.jpg
 
So, last year I paid $51K for a Ford F150 pickup - a F150! What gives with that?
I'll tell you - It's where products lie within the Supply and Demand curves. Where there is adequate supply and high demand prices are higher and margins are greater. Competition is somewhat congruent in that, they all play to the same supply and demand criteria. Why, for example, would Ford reduce margin and the consequential shareholder benefit if Chevy is playing to the same rules and also trying to maximize shareholder return. As long as the demand from the public is there the companies will command the pricing.
So, as far as the Supply component and the cost of goods. In the end "goods" cost nothing, it is the labor to extract and develop / produce the goods that is the cost. With that said and from direct experience being a business owner basic cost of labor (what the "wage" is) really over the last twenty or so years, have gone up less than the cost of living. More importantly the big increases are the burdens to the labor (taxes, overhead, profit,withholding, medical, FICA, etc). For example an employee that has a wage of $65 per hour has a billing rate of $158 per hour due to the various burdens. This issue is across the board and the principal reason you pay so much for just about everything including Sea Ray's current line of vessels. There are those anomalies out there like consumer electronics but these fall out as mass production efficiency and packaging (there is more in that little black chip). Then there is the cost of risk and how that impacts product cost; today's litigious environment is more active than ever, these costs of risk are simply passed on to the consumer; that is an overhead charge.
Regardless, the title to this thread is focused on one manufacturer but rather should be a generalized topic.
So in the end to the OP, if I was to poke someone in the eye it would be your elected officials for the cost of Sea Ray boats......

And as an edit I see you are from NY - you need a better dog for this fight
 
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Do Over said:
Mike....you need to tell everyone the rest of the story (cue Paul Harvey) so they understand COMPLETELY....apples to apples for everyone.
Click to expand...

Oh please don't...... Put a fork in the thing it's done
 
I've never understood the "please stop this thread" comments on the internet......it's really easy to stop...DON'T click on the thread....easy peasy.


your welcome
 
islandhopper00 said:
Hey, while I'm at it. Let me tell another customer service story.
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A few years back my next door neighbor was working on a drag boat that was a local favorite and world record holder for a time. The engines were done by Keith Black Racing, and were wildly powerful high tech monsters. One weekend they blew the bottom right out of a very expensive aluminum block, but saved the boat. Monday my neighbor called up the Tech Line and told them the story. "Never Happens" blah de blah. So my neighbor and the boat owner crate up the engine as is and ship it to Keith Black. They receive it but their story is the "engine looks fine". A few days later a crate arrives next door with a brand new, full-on, complete long block, and a note from KB saying they could not find any problem with the engine. You can only afford that kind of customer service if your product is pretty strong! When it comes o Sea Ray, I think they put together really nice boats, for competitive pricing. Our local 'double M' was a den of incompetent larceny and "dealer" horror stories abound.
 
As I said, Sea Ray is pricing themselves out of the middle class money,
 
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I think the middle class is shrinking due to our present political cronies. Obama is the biggest pu$$y on foreign policy, irrational on domestic policy, and disillusioned on economic stimulus of any POTUS we have ever had.

I apologize to Jimmy Carter. You are no longer the worst president of the USA.

There, that should do it.:smt043:smt043:smt043
 
Summer Fun II said:
As I said, Sea Ray is pricing themselves out of the middle class money,
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On the other side of the coin; There seems to be a market for the high end stuff as per another thread where someone just signed a deal on a 510. I know I'll never be in the 510 class, or even in the 310 class for that matter, but the point is that there IS a 510 class and Sea Ray are building a vessel that is good enough to persuade some of the people who CAN afford it to purchase one over all the other vessels in that size range. Corporate goal accomplished. Maybe the target market has to be more towards the "luxury Yacht" end in order to sustain corporate "life'. I only know of a couple of brand new 26 to 30 foot vessels in our area, but there seems to be more of the new Sea Rays, Formulas, and Marquis in the +35 foot range. A tour of False Creek last year opened our eyes to the fact that the 330 we were on was just a mere dinghy compared to the majority of the boats in the inlet. Heck, some of the boats had helicopters on them.

Edit; Just remembered; Nordhaven sells boats too, and they have a waiting list. And most of their boats are priced more like the water front real estate in this area. The money's out there somewhere.
 
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Right now just about every boat maker has a waiting list. Boston Whaler's recent magazine said they added 60,000 sq ft to their manufacturing plant in Edgewater, FL. Most of the boat makers are in the same boat (OK, that was a very bad pun, sorry) and it's nice to see.
 
Many boat builders went out business or closed plants during the recession. The wait lists are due to reduced capacity plus a change in strategy were the manufacturers are not building inventory but building to order.
 
JimT said:
Many boat builders went out business or closed plants during the recession. The wait lists are due to reduced capacity plus a change in strategy were the manufacturers are not building inventory but building to order.
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Exactly the same here in Oz. And the builders of large boats, 30' plus, are not about to change that strategy.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
HUMPH said:
You DO have a dealer right in Jack London Square! Sun Country Marine has been there for about a year.
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That is their yacht center. I was specifically told that my boat could not be worked on there. And that maybe that would change in the future.

So, nope, no dealer in the SF bay area for us mortals without yachts. :huh:
 
I did some searching and found the NMMA figures for 2011.

http://nmma.net/assets/cabinets/Cabi...ct_preview.pdf

Of interest was graph 5.1 which showed total inboard boat sales by year and also dollars sold by year.

Interestingly, in 2006 when unit sales and dollars sold peaked, the average cost per inboard boat sold was $43,298. According to the figures supplied, in 2010 the average cost for the same category of boat was $58,786. That's a whopping 35% increase in the cost per boat. Holy CRAP, that is a huge increase in just 4 years.

What's up with that? It's no wonder boat makers are expanding their facilities. It would appear that maybe they're sticking it to new boat buyers.
 
Gofirstclass said:
I did some searching and found the NMMA figures for 2011.

http://nmma.net/assets/cabinets/Cabi...ct_preview.pdf

Of interest was graph 5.1 which showed total inboard boat sales by year and also dollars sold by year.

Interestingly, in 2006 when unit sales and dollars sold peaked, the average cost per inboard boat sold was $43,298. According to the figures supplied, in 2010 the average cost for the same category of boat was $58,786. That's a whopping 35% increase in the cost per boat. Holy CRAP, that is a huge increase in just 4 years.

What's up with that? It's no wonder boat makers are expanding their facilities. It would appear that maybe they're sticking it to new boat buyers.
Click to expand...

:smt101 !
 
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