Website that shows Dealer Cost for many boats.. Including Sea Ray

Thanks for posting, this is very interesting. Is this the site that not too long ago Brunswick said it would not share pricing information with? The dealers are not going to like this.
 
It may not be up for long. The holding company that owns Larson, Seaswirl, FinCraft, Triumph, Carver and Marquis is trying to shut it down.

J&D Acquisitions has announced it has filed a lawsuit against a new website that reveals what dealers pay for boats, according to an article on TradeOnlyToday.com. J&D Acquisitions said that the use of its contractual and proprietary pricing information “will damage our brands and our dealers and we will not stand for it.” A letter was sent last week to all Larson, Seaswirl, FinCraft and Triumph dealers and sales representatives to inform them of the legal action. J&D Acquisitions also owns Marquis and Carver yachts.
 
Wow!! I knew there was mark up coming from a family of past car salesmen but, C'mon!!! You have to make 200k+ on a 40 foot sundancer sale!!:wow::smt101

I'm sorry, I'm all for people making a decent living but, they should be wearing masks with that mark up!!
cyclops.gif
 
Wow! I see why they want to take it down! Fully optioned out 280....Dealer $117,967.00...MSRP $196,613.00. Looks like plenty of room for my trade....NOT!!!!
 
I realize that :( I like the cabin layout of mine, no way would I "down size"! It's nice to have the V-berth set as a bed all the time and still have a place to eat on a trailerable boat!
 
The markup to MSRP is 40 points from cost across all of the models - I wonder what a typical gross margin sale is for a Sea Ray dealer?
 
I don't know why the dealers/manufacturers care. The open secret is that the actual purchase price was about 35% below MSRP. That leaves the dealer with a 5% margin....seems fair to me.

EDIT: After browsing prices for a bit I can't believe the insane markup that Sea Ray has. Their artificial markup is insanely higher than anyone else.
 
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The facts are the boating business industry is going to have to get in line with the economy if they expect to stay in business. This information became so readily available for automobiles that "good" dealers here have it on hand and offer it. The "not so good" dealers go away and another building goes empty.
 
I realize that :( I like the cabin layout of mine, no way would I "down size"! It's nice to have the V-berth set as a bed all the time and still have a place to eat on a trailerable boat!

:thumbsup:
 
The facts are the boating business industry is going to have to get in line with the economy if they expect to stay in business. This information became so readily available for automobiles that "good" dealers here have it on hand and offer it. The "not so good" dealers go away and another building goes empty.
Exactly! This economy is just like the Hurricanes in 04 here in Fl, I called them Mother Natures way of "flushing the toilet"!! Our whole area now looks way better than it did...once all the blue tarps got replaced! If it wasn't secured or it was trashy....it disappeared! Same thing with this economy! I tell my people "He who has the best service wins" in this economy. I use the phrase as a "blanket" to cover all things...IMHO
 
you have to consider the time and money that goes into some of these big boats after the sale. You want Sea Ray to stand behind a $1m boat, then they have to have enough margin to cover something like a major engine failure etc... Everyone bitches and moans when something breaks and wants it replaced yesterday, that costs real money. by posting these numbers, all they are doing is hurting the post sale service. I think it gives a false sense of profit to the dealer.
 
you have to consider the time and money that goes into some of these big boats after the sale. You want Sea Ray to stand behind a $1m boat, then they have to have enough margin to cover something like a major engine failure etc... Everyone bitches and moans when something breaks and wants it replaced yesterday, that costs real money. by posting these numbers, all they are doing is hurting the post sale service. I think it gives a false sense of profit to the dealer.
We are in the Luxury bus conversion business and our warranty is included in the dealer price, not MSRP, not to mention that "major engine failure" would most of the time be charged back to engine Mfgr. as most of all the other items SR uses. Maybe the boat industry is different:huh:
 
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you have to consider the time and money that goes into some of these big boats after the sale. You want Sea Ray to stand behind a $1m boat, then they have to have enough margin to cover something like a major engine failure etc... Everyone bitches and moans when something breaks and wants it replaced yesterday, that costs real money. by posting these numbers, all they are doing is hurting the post sale service. I think it gives a false sense of profit to the dealer.

It really does. Delivering a new boat isn't like delivering a car to the dealer. You don't just unwrap it and put it on the lot. For instance a Sedan Bridge comes with the bridge removed. The boat then has to be wired, prepped, fueled, sea trialed, cleaned, maintained, stored, insured sometimes bottom painted, batteries installed, electronics sometimes installed, shown hundreds of times before a sale, and then serviced under warranty after the sale. Not to mention pay the salesman, sometimes pay interest on the boat they purchased, pay for the service technician, electricity for the dealership, insurance, yard costs, rent or mortgage. All of that costs a lot more than the 5% mentioned earlier in this thread. How would you expect any dealer to stay in business for more than a day without making a profit on selling boats?

My opinion (And I don't personally have any vested interest in this since I only sell Brokerage boats) is that who cares what the markup is? If you like the boat and negotiate a price that you are happy with, buy it. Why do you have know exactly what the dealer purchased the boat for. For instance high volume dealers on some makes get a price break because they sell a higher volume of boats than a dealer who sells 5 per year.

There are way too many variables in large boat sales to make anything on that site a reliable resource for researching a large boat purchase.
 
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I am surprised how skinny the margins are on the Seadoos, Harley's and 4 wheelers... you have to be selling a lot of them to keep the doors open it would seem
 
I don't know why the dealers/manufacturers care. The open secret is that the actual purchase price was about 35% below MSRP. That leaves the dealer with a 5% margin....seems fair to me.

EDIT: After browsing prices for a bit I can't believe the insane markup that Sea Ray has. Their artificial markup is insanely higher than anyone else.

You have to take into account that a lot of these boats have to be stored at marinas, and I am sure there are a lot of interest holding costs as well. But it is some nice info!

In addition, 90% of the people that buy new Searays don't care. They got the money and thank goodness they do so that everybody (or most) on this website can buy there barely used boat for a great price and actually use it fo rwhat it was intended "BOATING" not Floating at the dock.
 
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Wow!! I knew there was mark up coming from a family of past car salesmen but, C'mon!!! You have to make 200k+ on a 40 foot sundancer sale!!:wow::smt101

I'm sorry, I'm all for people making a decent living but, they should be wearing masks with that mark up!!
cyclops.gif

Todd, It is always easy to think the other guy has no risk, expense, and just makes it so easy. What does it cost to deliver a million dollar boat to the end user? Many manufacturers push their responsibilities to the dealer at delivery. I was thinking; what factors may necessitate high dealer markup?

Liability insurance.

Employee expense.

Water related real estate locations.

Carrying costs, including storage, interest, property insurance, and tax.

Equipment to move large vessels.

Go pay for that with the chump change of $200k and let us know how much you have left.

EDIT: By the time i got this poted several had expressed these points. MM
 
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There are a number of good comments on this thread, but the fact is that the information is now out there and dealers need to educate people on the value they bring and the costs incurred instead of trying to hide the information. While this website may make it easier for tire kickers, I suspect that most of the people who are shopping at this level had access to this information (or something close) from other sources if it mattered.
 

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