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.

[416Rigby]

I drove from San Diego, CA to Lakeview, Ohio to pick up my trailer at RVWhoslaers. Saved multi thousands of $$ on the price vs local purchase. 4,700 miles round trip by myself. It was a fun trip and managed to make it in 6 days.
When service is needed, I call back to Ohio explain the problem, they call dealers and service centers in my area then call me back with the name and number of who is expecting me. I am very happy with them so far.

[JCasper]

slomark wrote:
Purchased mine from Lake Shore, and made the delivery arrangements thru U-Ship. If you go this route, pm me and I'll provide the info on the u-ship driver.

thank you but I've already taken delivery.

[slomark]

Purchased mine from Lake Shore, and made the delivery arrangements thru U-Ship. If you go this route, pm me and I'll provide the info on the u-ship driver.

[goducks10]

Only difference from having a nice dealer do repairs out of warranty is the nice dealer will smile when he hands you the bill. Other wise it's the same bill.

[rtazz17]

Seattle Lion wrote:
I'm in the minority here. Our local dealer is the largest in Washington and despite their size, the quality of the sales and service is great. Their prices are definitely competitive locally, but of course are higher than buying in the midwest. The issue to me is not so much the purchase price as it is the support I get in the years following. I feel the same way about our car/truck dealer. They know us and we get extremely well taken care of. That's worth more than a few thousand bucks to us.

Saving 5 k is worth much more then the supposed support from local dealer.These rvs depriciate so fast saving 5k is worth it.Local dealers will do warranty work no matter what.My brother bought his in midwest and just had to make appoint to have awning replaced.agot an appointment immediately to have work done.As long as the dealer is reputable he will do reputable work on your rv wether you bought it from him or not.Its his name on repair.But hey if money is no object then I see your point.Most of us who have kids are looking to save money where we can.

[Winged_One]

sdetweil wrote:

a little work to get the local dealer to do warranty service, some paperwork.. all of the local dealers service department people seem surly all the time anyhow.

:B Oh, they are surly up here in Michigan too.

[sdetweil]

we tried local dealers, up to 200 miles away, but no-one could touch the prices in Michigan. We ended up buying an Alpine 3720fb from General RV a few miles from Lakeshore. Saved just over 11k from anyone here in Texas. We were driving up for a Michigan football game anyhow, so it was easy to add on to the route.. just take a different vehicle.

a little work to get the local dealer to do warranty service, some paperwork.. all of the local dealers service department people seem surly all the time anyhow.

[JCasper]

Just a little update. We took delivery April 27. The fix on the outside kitchen strut is terrible. The front cap is weathered fairly bad because it is about 2 years old but a brand new unit. There is also some caulking on the roof that needs touched up.

Overall this unit is a 98/100 and I'm happy with the purchase and decision to buy from lakeshore. My local dealer is going to repaint the cap and take care of the caulking, the same dealer who lost the sale. Lol.

I would highly recommend lakeshore to anyone shopping.

We are taking it out the next two weekends and will have the repairs done later on. We would of used it sooner but have been on vacation in Mexico. .

[kroghville]

We bought our Montana from "Montana Bob" at Lakeshore because of price. We stayed two nights camped at their dealership to learn about the RV, our first and they were a great bunch to work with. It will be one year on March 25 and we've not had one issue that the dealer should have caught and didn't.

[Shepherd]

We saved over 5k and got the six point leveling system for eight hour round trip drive.:C

[Dave_H_M]

"They know us and we get extremely well taken care of. That's worth more than a few thousand bucks to us."

Lordy that reminds me of the Soprano logic as i am watching all the old Soprano shows. I don't pay that kind of money for that reason period.

I drove from IL to MI to pick up the fifth wheel i wanted for 5 grand less than the local would do it.

I say do it and don't look back.

[JCasper]

I got a call from Lakeshore today. The mounts for the struts that hold the door on the outdoor kitchen up were not mounted well from the factory. The screws are pulling out of the door. He put in some rivets but still was not happy with the repair. He gave me the option of delaying shipment and having him fix the door or shipping me the door when it came in. I told him to delay shipment and make sure the fifth wheel was in top notch shape. He was happy with my decision to leave it there. I am disappointed I won't have the fifth wheel here to use in 2 weeks, but I'm very happy they called with this instead of bandaiding it for me to find out and fix later.

[ricatic]

This is really not weird at all...as was noted earlier, the mentioned dealerships are now three pieces of a larger group of dealers owed by the same family...We bought our Big Horn from yet another one of the family...and are very satisfied...

Over the last few years, I have become good friends with one of the principals of this group...we talked about whether or not happy customers should be jumping into threads like these and recommending one of the family not yet mentioned...he asked me to not do this as they end up bidding against themselves often enough already...

Reality is this group provides great pricing, excellent service and almost complete brand coverage...but at some point one of the bidders has to fold...

Winged One has let some of the cats out of the bag...ours came from Gillette

Regards

[Winged_One]

Deb and Ed M wrote:
By the way - both of those dealers have very good reputations!

We had good dealings with Lakeshore, but I wish I would have had good dealings with Terrytown. Twice in 3 years I went to Terrytown, first for a trailer, then again for a FW. Neither time would they provide a decent deal.

With the FW, they quoted a price several thousand more than we saw a few days later on one of their Craigslist ad's (IIRC where the ad was).

We got excellent buyer service from everyone else we talked too, I don't know why we had so much trouble with Terrytown. Good to see others aren't having problems, I guess.

We ended up buying from All Seasons RV in Muskegon. Weirdest thing was Terrytown and All Seasons along with Gillette, National RV Detroit and Hamilton's RV are/were owned by the same man!