How to negotiate

After a ton of research, I determine what I want and how much I want to pay. I then go to the dealer or private party and I tell them what I will pay. That amount you will pay needs to reflect the research you did, your love for the item, and also be reasonable. They say yes or no. It really is that easy. It all starts with the buyer, not the seller. The buyer has to know what they want and what they will pay or the seller is in charge and that never works out for the buyer. IMHO if the buyer budges, then the buyer didn't do the right amount of research or came in with an unreasonable amount based on their research. Keep it simple. Prepare and stick to the plan.

Good luck and have fun with whatever you do buy! :)

Lots of good advice in this thread, and some bad. I learned a couple things and was reminded of a couple things.

Here's my take both from school of hard knocks and learning from others.

I have not negotiated an RV from a dealer but I have negotiated a fair number of cars. You are buying a dealer and a brand. I have dealt with excellent dealerships and horrible ones. I ask around for the good ones before I start shopping. From my time on rv.net, that is even more important on RV's.

1. Salesman is not your enemy. There is a win/win deal out there. You need to find it. Goal isn't to get everything - have your nonnegotiables and places you can give in.

2. You must be willing to walk away without emotion. Not angry at the salesman. Not a fake protest, though if you are good that can work of course. You have to know there will be deal another day, maybe there maybe somewhere else.
(I make sure to buy a new to me (usually late model used) vehicle before I NEED one, ie. my current one is not dependable, so I'm not in a bind when negotiating.)

missionman wrote:

My goal was 30% off MSRP which worked out to about $2k more than whole sale out the door. Could I have saved $2k? sure but the dealer is local family owned, well known, right down the road for warranty work and a pleasure to deal with so far. So that $2k is a good investment IMO.

We shall see, new camper comes in this month! thanks for all the help too

There's another aspect to this: your local good-guy dealer might give you a better trade-in price down the road some day, since you will be a "favorite customer"? But mostly - the guy still has to make a living and pay for his facility/employees/overhead, so that he's still in business if and when you DO need him.

I searched a bunch on rv.net for getting a good deal the past few months and it really helped a bunch. here is a run down on how it worked out for us

After doing a ton of research online, we hit the dealers to see brands/floorplans (we spent a few weeks doing this). We narrowed it down to 2 and then listed our TT for sale privately. Once it sold we listed pros/cons for the 2 we chose and decided which was worth pursuing. I was going to negotiate between the two dealers for leverage but the one was just full of sleezeballs, total waste of time.

That leaves us with our top choice and sitting down to come up with a price. Originally I was going to throw down a printout of whole sale pricing but wanted to see how reasonable they were first. So knowing the wholesale price in my head I came up with a reasonable price considering they would have higher delivery charge and be able to provide warranty support without issues since I would be buying it from them.

My goal was 30% off MSRP which worked out to about $2k more than whole sale out the door. Could I have saved $2k? sure but the dealer is local family owned, well known, right down the road for warranty work and a pleasure to deal with so far. So that $2k is a good investment IMO.

We shall see, new camper comes in this month! thanks for all the help too

That depends, is it a $60,000 unit or a $10,000 unit? Do this, find out the "real" MSRP, now take off 1/3 (33%). Even better if you can get the "real" dealers cost number to start with. Now, how much profit do you want the dealer to make? Remember the dealer has to make some money and the salesman has to make some money. Now how much overhead to you want the dealer to have. He has to pay the light bill, the utilities, the bookkeeper, etc. Now how much is reasonable for a PDI? You want them to spend 6 minutes with you, hand you the keys, shake your hand, and send you on your way? Or do you want them to spend 4 hours with you and go over everything with a fine tooth comb (you're going to get what you pay for). Any extras you want thrown in, propane tanks - filled, sewer hose, extension cord, water hose, chemicals, etc. Add them all together and you have a $$$ to shoot for.

Hoping to revive this thread, because I hope to be sitting in the negotiation chair soon.

When others have said to aim for 20-30% off. Are they referring to MSRP or the price tag sitting on the RV counter that says "Our Dealerships Special Price"????

Their listed "special prices" are about 23% off of MSRP. How much more meat is there to chew off the bone??

I'm the type of person who hates feeling like I've been taken or not gotten a good deal so it bugs me that I may have paid to much. But the trailer was the best we could find to fit our needs now. I'd have liked a little smaller, but I guess with 4 animals 23 ft is doing good.

luvmydogs wrote:
thanks Dave that makes me feel a little better.

If you like the trailer and you like the price, that's a good deal.

Sounds like what you paid is in the ballpark.

Naio, whether or not those extra features had any value to that customer or not is totally irrelevant. She was not comparing to like items.

mrkoje wrote:
She informed me that my competitor beat my best price by $500! What she didn't know is that she paid $500 less overall for a vehicle that was easily worth thousands less (smaller engine, no touch screen or heated seats etc...)

Did those extras have any value to her?

Me, I would value the heated seats at $0 and the touchscreen at negative $200. The bigger engine might be ok depending on fuel mileage -- negative if it decreases mileage by more than 2-3mpg.

Just because something has a monetary value to some people does not mean everyone wants it. Some may consider it a negative.

I hope the unit on your lot went to someone who wanted those features and was happy to pay extra for them :).