Finally Bought a TT - My experience
After several months of searching an going to numerous dealers up and down the central valley of California, changing our mind, redefining what we wanted, getting pricing on many different TT(and popups and hybrids)and doing some negotiations on one or two different ones, we finally pulled the trigger. It didn't take us this long because we trying to run a hard bargain(although we were looking for a great deal), it took us this long simply because we could not decide on the best floor plan and type of trailer.
We finally found what we were looking for: A 2013 Keystone Passport 238ML. This trailer was exactly what we wanted. Starting price: $17497. $17497 is not what we paid. It was quite a bit less.
Here's how everything went:
We have been looking for around 3 month while waiting for our TV to get here from Dearborn(a F-150). We visited every local dealer multiple times(Best RV in Turlock, Manteca RV in Manteca, Pan Pacific RV in French Camp, Dons RV in Ceres). We even went to a dealer in Livermore. We made visits to Fairfield and Vacaville. We did a La Mesa RV show in Sac a month ago. I even tried the buying service with Good Sam and dealt with the General Manager of Camping World in Vacaville. We were pretty serious about finding the right TT for a great deal.
When we got up this morning we decided to go to IKEA in Sacramento(We live near Manteca)to buy a new bed for our daughter. Well, I convinced the wife that we should look at RV's while we were there. So off to Sacramento we went.
First stop: Camping World in Roseville - Nice people but obviously not wanting to get serious about dealing. They showed us around but when we tried dealing, it was pretty much, "the prices they have are already competitive and as low as they can go".
Next stop: Sacramento RV - As I found out, they are owned by the same people as Manteca RV - Had something we could have lived with but also stuck to the "the price is already as low as we can go" broken record. - Strike 2
Final(ah what the heck let's look) stop - Pan Pacific RV - Sacramento - a half hour later, they had something we liked but just not in the price we wanted it for. They had an alternative(lower class trailer but with the floor plan we liked)but it was not in stock. A guy(who turned out to be the owner as we found out)asked about XYZ trailer. We told him it was out of our price range. I told him if he could make the right deal that would work for us we would take it. He made us an incredible offer. DEAL DONE!!! The kicker was he would deliver it to his dealership in French Camp(20 minutes from home vs 75 mins to Sacramento)at no additional cost to us. Long story short: A 2013 Password 238ML out the door with both propane tanks full, new battery, all the necessary tank dump accessories PLUS a WDS hitch with sway control(prob a Huskey)+ tax, lic , etc for just a touch over $19K. What a score!!! - Pan Pacific just earned my business for LIFE!!! They treated me well, were willing to deal and did what it took to get the deal done!!!!
Conclusions to my last 3 months of RV hunting?
1. RV's must be selling like hotcakes because there was very little willingness to move more than a few hundred bucks and every dealer was pretty blunt about it.
2. Best RV in Turlock lives up to their reputation(look them up on the forums if you need to know what that means). Huge selection, good prices but a lot of entry level stuff and pretty assertive about their low price position.
3. Manteca RV - Interesting group - Nice facility - Really nice sales staff - But(as I was told by one of the staff), they move over 100 units a month. That must be why they were not too interested in dealing. I could not get them to budge more than $300 on anything. The sad thing is that there was a unit 2 weeks ago that, if they would have been willing to deal, we would have bought it.
4. Don's RV - No real comment - They never really had anything we were interested in. I did ask if they wanted to compete with Best RV(a half mile down the road from them). They said sure, send them an e-mail with specs and they would get me a quote. A week later still no quote.
4. Camping World Vacaville(and the Good Sam buyers assistance program)- Never went to the facility but did engage both their General Manager and the internet sales woman(his daughter) - First encounter with the General Manager was a conversation and a follow up e-mail in whih he said I would be dealing with his daughter. I asked her for a quote on a different unit. She sent me a price. I asked for a better price and my reasoning for wanting a better price(negotiation tactics). The follow up call was from her Dad. All the sudden communication died. Camping World in Vacaville must also be doing a lot of business. Which again, I was ready to buy from them.
5. Camping World in Sacramento - We went there in person - After seeing their business model live, I am amazed they are able to sell trailers. Beautiful facility, REALLY nice staff but this is not a place to be having deals. They must sell to people who either do not have internet access(or do not know how to use it) or just like the service associated with Camping World. I had to bite my lip when the sales guy was talking about the Camping World buying power and how great the deals were. But on the bright side, the free water was ice cold!
6. The same tactics that can be used for buying an auto simply do not seem to apply when RV shopping. It is hard to compete the dealers head to head in a given area because most do not carry the same makes/models as their competition. You have to compete dealers in different areas for like model RV's. By the way - AND THEY ARE AWARE OF THIS!!! More than once did dealers I was talking to basically tell me to go for it. When I did the homework I found out why. The next dealer with same make/models was an hour to 2 hours away. We played that game - Let's go to a dealer an hour and half away to get a "Good" deal. Yup!! The good deal was $300 less than our closer to home dealer and we would have to come back tomorrow to pick the RV up.
7.Oh yeah. Let's not forget the S.F. Bay area RV's dealers - We went to a couple of them one weekend - I guess I made the mistake of wearing my NRA Life member shirt. - They barely wanted to acknowledge me let alone deal. The one that did have something we liked(a new 2012 that never sold) wanted the 2012 price and wasn't moving. Guess I should have worn my "Obama for King" shirt.
8. Finally, Pan Pacific RV in Sacramento - That's where I got my deal. The sales guy(Ross) was exceptional, the owner was honest, the deal was where it needed to be and my family(including a 3 year old)were treated very well. They acted like they wanted to sell an RV, were willing to deal and earned my business. I CANNOT say enough good things about Pan Pacific RV.
Best advice I can give?
Shop until you find the RV you like at the price you want to pay. Don't be afraid to walk away(multiple times if necessary).
Don't be afraid to go back to the same dealer multiple times and deal with different sales people.
Use the internet to become knowledgeable about pricing.
Don't be afraid to ask for better pricing.
And here's my favorite:
You: I do not like this price. Can you give me a better price?
Dealer:The price is pretty low already. We might be able to move a couple hundred. How much do you want to pay?
You: As little as possible. I want your best possible deal. Figure out what your best price is. If it is the lowest price I can get, I will be back. If not, I will buy from the dealer who wants to give me the best price.
Dealer: Did we mention our low price guarantee?
You: If you are not willing to give me your best price today on XYZ unit, I am certainly not going to give you my business after I have found a better price somewhere else.
Talk about turn up the heat!!!!
Thanx to everyone on these forums who answered my previous posts.
Hope my experiences help someone else and sorry for the long winded post.
Cheers!!
We finally found what we were looking for: A 2013 Keystone Passport 238ML. This trailer was exactly what we wanted. Starting price: $17497. $17497 is not what we paid. It was quite a bit less.
Here's how everything went:
We have been looking for around 3 month while waiting for our TV to get here from Dearborn(a F-150). We visited every local dealer multiple times(Best RV in Turlock, Manteca RV in Manteca, Pan Pacific RV in French Camp, Dons RV in Ceres). We even went to a dealer in Livermore. We made visits to Fairfield and Vacaville. We did a La Mesa RV show in Sac a month ago. I even tried the buying service with Good Sam and dealt with the General Manager of Camping World in Vacaville. We were pretty serious about finding the right TT for a great deal.
When we got up this morning we decided to go to IKEA in Sacramento(We live near Manteca)to buy a new bed for our daughter. Well, I convinced the wife that we should look at RV's while we were there. So off to Sacramento we went.
First stop: Camping World in Roseville - Nice people but obviously not wanting to get serious about dealing. They showed us around but when we tried dealing, it was pretty much, "the prices they have are already competitive and as low as they can go".
Next stop: Sacramento RV - As I found out, they are owned by the same people as Manteca RV - Had something we could have lived with but also stuck to the "the price is already as low as we can go" broken record. - Strike 2
Final(ah what the heck let's look) stop - Pan Pacific RV - Sacramento - a half hour later, they had something we liked but just not in the price we wanted it for. They had an alternative(lower class trailer but with the floor plan we liked)but it was not in stock. A guy(who turned out to be the owner as we found out)asked about XYZ trailer. We told him it was out of our price range. I told him if he could make the right deal that would work for us we would take it. He made us an incredible offer. DEAL DONE!!! The kicker was he would deliver it to his dealership in French Camp(20 minutes from home vs 75 mins to Sacramento)at no additional cost to us. Long story short: A 2013 Password 238ML out the door with both propane tanks full, new battery, all the necessary tank dump accessories PLUS a WDS hitch with sway control(prob a Huskey)+ tax, lic , etc for just a touch over $19K. What a score!!! - Pan Pacific just earned my business for LIFE!!! They treated me well, were willing to deal and did what it took to get the deal done!!!!
Conclusions to my last 3 months of RV hunting?
1. RV's must be selling like hotcakes because there was very little willingness to move more than a few hundred bucks and every dealer was pretty blunt about it.
2. Best RV in Turlock lives up to their reputation(look them up on the forums if you need to know what that means). Huge selection, good prices but a lot of entry level stuff and pretty assertive about their low price position.
3. Manteca RV - Interesting group - Nice facility - Really nice sales staff - But(as I was told by one of the staff), they move over 100 units a month. That must be why they were not too interested in dealing. I could not get them to budge more than $300 on anything. The sad thing is that there was a unit 2 weeks ago that, if they would have been willing to deal, we would have bought it.
4. Don's RV - No real comment - They never really had anything we were interested in. I did ask if they wanted to compete with Best RV(a half mile down the road from them). They said sure, send them an e-mail with specs and they would get me a quote. A week later still no quote.
4. Camping World Vacaville(and the Good Sam buyers assistance program)- Never went to the facility but did engage both their General Manager and the internet sales woman(his daughter) - First encounter with the General Manager was a conversation and a follow up e-mail in whih he said I would be dealing with his daughter. I asked her for a quote on a different unit. She sent me a price. I asked for a better price and my reasoning for wanting a better price(negotiation tactics). The follow up call was from her Dad. All the sudden communication died. Camping World in Vacaville must also be doing a lot of business. Which again, I was ready to buy from them.
5. Camping World in Sacramento - We went there in person - After seeing their business model live, I am amazed they are able to sell trailers. Beautiful facility, REALLY nice staff but this is not a place to be having deals. They must sell to people who either do not have internet access(or do not know how to use it) or just like the service associated with Camping World. I had to bite my lip when the sales guy was talking about the Camping World buying power and how great the deals were. But on the bright side, the free water was ice cold!
6. The same tactics that can be used for buying an auto simply do not seem to apply when RV shopping. It is hard to compete the dealers head to head in a given area because most do not carry the same makes/models as their competition. You have to compete dealers in different areas for like model RV's. By the way - AND THEY ARE AWARE OF THIS!!! More than once did dealers I was talking to basically tell me to go for it. When I did the homework I found out why. The next dealer with same make/models was an hour to 2 hours away. We played that game - Let's go to a dealer an hour and half away to get a "Good" deal. Yup!! The good deal was $300 less than our closer to home dealer and we would have to come back tomorrow to pick the RV up.
7.Oh yeah. Let's not forget the S.F. Bay area RV's dealers - We went to a couple of them one weekend - I guess I made the mistake of wearing my NRA Life member shirt. - They barely wanted to acknowledge me let alone deal. The one that did have something we liked(a new 2012 that never sold) wanted the 2012 price and wasn't moving. Guess I should have worn my "Obama for King" shirt.
8. Finally, Pan Pacific RV in Sacramento - That's where I got my deal. The sales guy(Ross) was exceptional, the owner was honest, the deal was where it needed to be and my family(including a 3 year old)were treated very well. They acted like they wanted to sell an RV, were willing to deal and earned my business. I CANNOT say enough good things about Pan Pacific RV.
Best advice I can give?
Shop until you find the RV you like at the price you want to pay. Don't be afraid to walk away(multiple times if necessary).
Don't be afraid to go back to the same dealer multiple times and deal with different sales people.
Use the internet to become knowledgeable about pricing.
Don't be afraid to ask for better pricing.
And here's my favorite:
You: I do not like this price. Can you give me a better price?
Dealer:The price is pretty low already. We might be able to move a couple hundred. How much do you want to pay?
You: As little as possible. I want your best possible deal. Figure out what your best price is. If it is the lowest price I can get, I will be back. If not, I will buy from the dealer who wants to give me the best price.
Dealer: Did we mention our low price guarantee?
You: If you are not willing to give me your best price today on XYZ unit, I am certainly not going to give you my business after I have found a better price somewhere else.
Talk about turn up the heat!!!!
Thanx to everyone on these forums who answered my previous posts.
Hope my experiences help someone else and sorry for the long winded post.
Cheers!!
