Discounts Due To Market Conditions?

[Jack Barbic]

Some dealers in my area will be having their rallies with incentives to promote sales. I found an interesting site that has a monthly review of new RV shipments. It is clear that sales are down about 20% from last year.

The URL is: http://www.rv-news.com/newrvnews/shipments.cfm

I would like to buy another Class A at one of these rallies and am interested to know if others have recently purchased a motorhome and what discounts are you folks getting. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jack

[Jack Barbic]

Some dealers in my area will be having their rallies with incentives to promote sales. I found an interesting site that has a monthly review of new RV shipments. It is clear that sales are down about 20% from last year.

The URL is: http://www.rv-news.com/newrvnews/shipments.cfm

I would like to buy another Class A at one of these rallies and am interested to know if others have recently purchased a motorhome and what discounts are you folks getting. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jack

[Zimectrin]

Interesting.....

Have also noted a lot more used RV's on the streets with a For Sale sign in the window. Are there more out there or am I just noticing them??

Have not noticed the dealers 'final' prices to be better than before. (measured as percent off MSRP)

I think the manufacturer has to fund real discounts, and with sales where they are, they may be hungry. Look for rebates or factory discounts.

It will be interesting to learn of your experiences. Be sure and let us know.

[Cruzer]

Your sales numbers are right but remember that they are an average of all manufacturers. I had a copy of the breakdowns between the various towable manufacturers and models recently. It showed some real variations between the various manufactiureres. For one thing, Tiffin is up something like 23% over the previous year and they are still running backlogged on production, even after expanding their manufacturing plant. The Phaeton was shown as the number one selling diesel pusher of all manufacturers. But, the vast majority of the maunfacturers were down.

Discounts will vary, but according to a number of conditions, not just the market. Otherwise Tiffin dealers could actually command a higher price, but that won't work or else they won't sell very many.

In reality, the internet has pretty much leveled the price field to somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% discount from MSRP. This will vary somewhat according to dealer, what they have in stock, and how bad they need to move it, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of room to offer any additional "big" savings over the normal price unless the factory comes up with a real "we're hurting, let's deal" kind of program for the dealers. If you get a dealer who's normally going 26-27% off I wouldn't expect to see any more but if you have a dealer who normally gives 22%, then you may see some extra savings when business is slow.

I've never purchased an RV at a show or rally. If the manufacturer has additional discounts available to the dealer, you may indeed get a great price on a show special. We recently ordered a 42' Allegro Bus but it was from a dealer, not at a show. We got an extremely good deal from them.

[Bob (WA0MQE)]

I stopped at an RV Dealer north of Denver a couple of days ago to just look at a few of the motorhomes they had on display, (a lot of them).

The sales manager explained that sales were non-existant on their gas motorhomes and the same on the low through mid-entry diesels. He blames it on fuel prices and economy in general. However, they had sold two to three per week on the $450K to $500K luxury motorhomes. He said the folks that can afford these don't worry about fuel costs.

They really had the prices knocked way-down on the ones that weren't selling.

[mayahuel]

we just ordered a new 2007 Beaver Contessa 3 days ago. we received 21% off msrp. we were looking at a competitor coach that was a 2006 and it was discounted over 25%. we decided to go with the 2007 as we got to order it to our specifications and have it built for us, including a custom paint job. we paid a few % more but feel we got much more coach and less options we didn't want. it will be delivered with less than 100 miles on it, fresh tires, no hours on the genny etc.

[Jestme13]

I don't know about those good show discounts, at least this year in Hershey I found the dealers i spoke with to be very hard to get a reasonable discount, some stuck to their 13% off. I did find a coach that with the additional ad ons, not options, was down to 20% off. The deeper discounts are the coachs that are not very desirable I guess.

[rebelsbeach]

Ordered in April and took delivery in July,received 25% off the bottom line...
I could have bought then for 27% off,but wouldn't have had the dealer support I enjoy new,which is important to me...

Cruzer's right on the money as usual...

[BIGRED1]

I think Cruzer is right on. I'm told by knowledgable people that the average MRSP(full retail sticker price) is an average of 28.5% above dealer cost, so 26-27% is going to leave them a little profit. DiMartini seems to be offering some of the best deals.