Local Dealer vs. Lakeshore RV or Terrytown RV

[JCasper]

As much as I want to buy from my local dealer the pricing from Lakeshore or Terrytown is way lower. I live outside Portland Oregon so I know that my dealer has a $3-4,000 freight expense but still their pricing is high.

How many people buy from a dealer far away from home? Any concerns with doing this? I'd rather buy local and have the local support but it seems like I'll be paying an additional $5-10,000 to do that. That's a lot of $$$$.

I'm looking at some Cougars, Mountaineers, and Jaycos right now. I haven't decided on one particular model yet.

[JCasper]

Louba wrote:
It says a lot about RV prices in your area when a couple drove from Portland,OR to Ohio to buy my trailer a few years back.

Wow, what kind of RV?

[Louba]

It says a lot about RV prices in your area when a couple drove from Portland,OR to Ohio to buy my trailer a few years back.

[JCasper]

I talked to my local dealer yesterday. It sounds like they want to deal and will order the 320QBS for me. I'll see how much he wants to deal when he calls me today.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

By the way - both of those dealers have very good reputations!

[midnightsadie]

so sit down with the guy who realy makes the sales decision not a sales person, and lay out your plan. walk in get the guy you,ve been talking to and tell him you wanna talk to the big guy. I hate dealing thru three people to get a bottom line figure. and I don,t.

[rjsurfer]

I drove from from North Carolina to Terrytown and saved about 3k on my Cougar, gave my local dealer a chance to come close to the price but he wouldn't budge. I said the heck with him and went through with the purchase.

Don't you know when I needed some service I called the local dealer and he was out of business!

Like others I sent Terrytown a picture of the bad part and they sent me a new one postage paid but I did have to send the old part back, no problem.

Ron W.

[911golf]

You should also check Rocky Mountain RV in Logan, Utah. Did not end up buying from them, but prices were very comparable to Lakeshore and shipping to here in Alberta was slightly better than all the way from Michigan. It is alot closer to you too. Just something to consider.

[huntram]

I bought my Carriage Cameo from Terrytown in 2011. Drove all the way from SoCal to save 30k! They where great to work with and delivered as promised. My salesman has since received his MBA and has taken an accounting position at another company.
Brian

[JCasper]

goukcats wrote:
Check your state tax code. I had a rude awakening when I purchased out of state with a trade in. Ky had just made a change "(to protect in state dealers)" that if you bought out of state, you had to pay tax on the full purchase price verses just the difference (this change applied to TT & 5er's). It has no impact if no trade is involved because you pay tax on the full purchase anyway.

I also found that some dealers will keep pushing your service back if you live local & buy elsewhere. This also applies to non warranty work, which doesn't make sense to me. I understand a dealer not wanting outside warranty work if a job takes 2 hrs & the manufacturer will only pay 1 or 1.5 hrs labor. Good luck.

We don't have sales tax here so I'm not worried about that.

What you say about service I am sure takes place often. I like my local dealer, but won't pay a huge premium to buy from them. I'll pay a little extra just for convenience and to support the local guy, but it has to be reasonable.

[goukcats]

Check your state tax code. I had a rude awakening when I purchased out of state with a trade in. Ky had just made a change "(to protect in state dealers)" that if you bought out of state, you had to pay tax on the full purchase price verses just the difference (this change applied to TT & 5er's). It has no impact if no trade is involved because you pay tax on the full purchase anyway.

I also found that some dealers will keep pushing your service back if you live local & buy elsewhere. This also applies to non warranty work, which doesn't make sense to me. I understand a dealer not wanting outside warranty work if a job takes 2 hrs & the manufacturer will only pay 1 or 1.5 hrs labor. Good luck.

[JCasper]

jay5er wrote:
Take your best price to youir local dealer, see what they come up with. You can always go bact to TT.

That's kind of what I'm planning to do. I'm going to go look at a mountaineer 346LBQ on Sunday. If I like it I'm going to lowball them and see what happens. It's a 2013, it's been there a while I think

[jay5er]

Take your best price to youir local dealer, see what they come up with. You can always go bact to TT.

[MFL]

I bought mine from a dealer 250 miles away. I got a great price, it was easily worth the drive!!

With a new trailer, there are going to be some small issues. I can fix the little things, and would, even if my dealer was local. It is more trouble to take it to even a local dealer, and leave it, have to go back whenever, to pick it up, than to just have a warranty part sent, and fix it yourself. The dealer only asked for pictures of several items replaced under warranty. They did not even need the original returned.

If I had a major failure, while under warranty, it would be worth the drive for repair.

Jerry

[midnightsadie]

I ,ve always bought price, I can get service almost anywhere, things are warrented for a yr. we have a mom pop dealer who WILL and CAN fix most anything. I just don,t see why a local dealer charges 10k more than the dealer 100 mile away.

[therink]

My brother lives in VA and bought a new 26BH TT from Holmanns in MI last year. Price was about 2500 less. The drive to pick up the trailer cost him 700. Was a no brainer for him.
The only concern would be local dealer cooperation with warranty work if you didn't buy from them.
Fortunately he hasn't needed any warranty work.