How reliable are NADA figures?

I may be simplistic, but what the seller is asking is irrelevant. What's relevant, and where I start my negotiation, is what the unit is worth to ME. I am under no obligation to make my offer close to his asking. All he can do is say "no". Then you walk away. The asking on a rig we recently bought was over 16K. Our first, and final offer was 10K. They countered, and re-countered, but we walked away with the 5er for 10K. That was what it was worth to US. Didn't matter what they were asking. Of course I am talking used here. New may be a whole different game.

tandk wrote:
I don't know about Georgia, but in Southern California NADA guides are incredibly low for used fifth wheels. We bought a 2003 Nash 21 5R a year and a half ago for $6000 and Nada guides had them at $2900. And we got a really good deal. All the others we saw were $7-8000. I would look around on craigslist if you have it or rvtrader to get an idea of prices. Good luck!

The Mook has a fixation with dealers (and NADA).
Ya can lead a Kat to water, but ya just can't make him drink, LOL!

MK - regarding "should you offer a dealer 40% below his asking price?"

Sure.....offer him 50% less if you wish.
Won't be anything he hasn't heard before!

BTW - most dealers only keep the very best RV trade-ins.
The others go to auction - then to other dealers further down the food chain to "spiffy up" and sell.
Which dealer is it?.:h

Advice above is excellent. Private party ads, CraigsList, etc.

Only "function" (as noted) for NADA is establishing values for financing.

For the public, it's all smoke and mirrors -
and NADA is still worth... "nada".:W


~

tandk wrote:
I don't know about Georgia, but in Southern California NADA guides are incredibly low for used fifth wheels. We bought a 2003 Nash 21 5R a year and a half ago for $6000 and Nada guides had them at $2900. And we got a really good deal. All the others we saw were $7-8000. I would look around on craigslist if you have it or rvtrader to get an idea of prices. Good luck!

I also found NADA was very low...but my bank - USAA - used NADA to determine the amount they'd finance, so I had to use it.

However, the USAA bank rep said that you have to look at the "standard equipment" listing, and anything not specifically listed must be added as a line-item.

Once I started adding equipment to the toy haulers I was considering, the NADA values came right up, and I was able to value many toy haulers over-and-above the asking prices. So financing was a piece of cake.

But other banks are different.
The buyer of my toy hauler banked with B of A, and according to him they used the base NADA value without any consideration to additional equipment.

MookieKat wrote:
For used and new? Should we expect to pay the "low retail" on NADA or can we get it for less?

Personally, I think you can it for much less than low retail, though some private parties may hold out for more.

Used trailers are like used cars, in regard to pricing. There is the wholesale price (in autos, sometimes referred to "market value" or "trade-in value"), which is what the dealer paid for the unit. Than there is the retail price, which is what the dealer or private seller is hoping to get.

Both trailer retail and wholesale figures are listed by NADA in their "dealer only" books. This particular book costs money and is generally only available to dealers.

The retail figures you are referring to are listed in NADA's free, publicly published books. Wholesale figures are NOT listed in this version.

IMO, if you can find out the wholesale cost of a unit, you generally can offer 5-10% more than that figure, and expect to get a deal. The dealer might hem and haw a little bit, but if you let him know you know what he paid for the unit, and you are offering a fair profit....

Here is one site which helps, though it is far from comprehensive.

free site showing some values

There are a couple pay-for sites, which will work with you for a small fee (25 dollars), and tell you what any unit wholesales for, new or used.

We've bought/sold, to/from private parties on our last 3 rvs and the nada site has been ~3k higher, fairly consistently, from what we paid/sold for. We've saved a small fortune by not using dealers for anything and have had great luck with finding well maintained, high quality units. Craig

If you’ve learned how to negotiate in the car market, it’s the very same exercise. I always look at NADA but don’t think it’s all that reliable. But it gives me a ballpark to work with. I rely much more on checking what similar units are selling for as a guide. The difficulty is comparing apples to apples. Are the options and condition similar? Usually I have no idea unless I’m able to look at them, and that’s rare. So you use your best judgment, decide what the unit is worth to you, and negotiate from that point. But I can assure you a 40% discount offer will get you absolutely nowhere with a dealer or a private party.

Are you looking at new or used? Valuing used is more involved since condition comes into play. Resources like ebay and pplmotorhomes can give you an idea of what a particular unit has sold for, so you can get a general idea of worth. But the value of a beater vs a well kept one can be significant.

I assume you have actually looked at units, and not just on line literature. You can't tell build quality without seeing and touching.

2oldman wrote:

MookieKat wrote:
in case we fall in love with one of the ones that we have found online and need to jump on it. I am strategizing beforehand.

"Falling in love with.." is generally not regarded as a good bargaining position. At least you have to pretend you don't care... and be prepared to walk if you don't get the price you like.

In my opinion it's far more important to spend your time researching what your floorplan is going to be, rather than honing your bargaining skills. You're going to be living in this thing. And then when you DO find close to exactly what it is you want, all that bargaining will pretty much be out the window, because you've spent a lot of time finding that exact one.

Now, if you're having 3 dealers competing for your business with the same exact model, then yes, you have bargaining strength.

Yes...we have been forewarned not to show our excitement, so we have been doing well in that regard. We have been researching floor plans until we are dizzy with the variations and have come up with a type that we feel will work for us. We have specific things that we want, so we feel pretty well prepared, except for the negotiational knowledge, which I am trying to pick up in this forum.

MookieKat wrote:
in case we fall in love with one of the ones that we have found online and need to jump on it. I am strategizing beforehand.

"Falling in love with.." is generally not regarded as a good bargaining position. At least you have to pretend you don't care... and be prepared to walk if you don't get the price you like.

In my opinion it's far more important to spend your time researching what your floorplan is going to be, rather than honing your bargaining skills. You're going to be living in this thing. And then when you DO find close to exactly what it is you want, all that bargaining will pretty much be out the window, because you've spent a lot of time finding that exact one.

Now, if you're having 3 dealers competing for your business with the same exact model, then yes, you have bargaining strength.

loulou57 wrote:
It really is about supply and demand.

If you like the local unit and feel you can offer and secure the deal at 25% less then go ahead....but..be prepared to lose the one you like because you were greedy and someone has a better offer and swoops it out from under you as you try to renegotiate.

Not being greedy. Just trying to learn the ropes on how to negotiate in this new market in which we are complete newbies. We have learned how to negotiate in the auto market, but this area is totally new to us.