Online wholesale RV dealers - any experiences?

[pookiebear38]

We're shopping for a new trailer and just wanted to ask if anyone has had any experiences with an online dealer. I would prefer a local dealer but the prices I've been offered from the online dealers are several thousand dollars different. As far as I can see, the dealer has several lots as well as the online business. We've looked at both fifth wheels and travel trailers. Thanks in advance for any help!

[GoPackGo]

Just pulled up my big super-secret private message and tried to do a Cut-and-Paste. Big fail. Still won't work. I'm willing to send it to any of you in a PM, you can read it, and if you think it has merit, go ahead and post publicly. If not, then trash it. It describes how I went about buying from a 'wholesale' dealer.

Best I can do I'm afraid.

[BarneyS]

Gsport wrote:
This is a public thread, why do people say "I sent you a private message"? Why not say it here for everyone to see and maybe learn something??

Maybe they just don't want everybody to read what they said. No law against that!
Barney

[GoPackGo]

WeBeFulltimers wrote:

Gsport wrote:
This is a public thread, why do people say "I sent you a private message"? Why not say it here for everyone to see and maybe learn something??

I have to agree! Just WHAT could be such a secret? Was some kind of "good buddy" code detected? :W

Man oh Man -

I know this is aimed at me. Can't speak for others but . . .

For whatever reason, I am occasionally unable to post replies to some of the threads. It's very sporadic and has been going on for about a year. I draft up my reply and hit the 'post' button and then one of two things happens - The post just sits there and nothing happens or I get a weird message stating the thread is unavailable. I do not have a clue why this happens.

If I believe my post would really help the OP, I just put my post in a PM, send it to the OP, and then post a new message stating that I've sent a PM to the OP so he will know. Don't ask me why I can post a one sentence reply, but not my earlier, longer post cuz I don't know either.

Not any big conspiracy - Are you one of those people who believes in those kinds of things ?

[2naEagle]

I have been looking at new ones for almost two years now. I have had two new ones. One from a dealer 116mi and one from 47mi away from "home".
Never returned to either one.
What good is a "home" town dealer if you are 550 miles from home. Close to home and weekend camping maybe. If your retired and on the road a lot I'm starting to think money.
But hey with the dealer we would not have any thing to look at.

[RustyJC]

We bought from a dealer 1000 miles away and saved a substantial amount on the transaction.

Service is no problem. I've never been back to a dealer or service facility since purchasing the RV, but if I needed service, I prefer to utilize independent service facilities or a mobile repair service. The manufacturer has no problem with this since many/most of these RVs are sold to full-timers who don't reside close to the selling dealer.

Rusty

[WeBeFulltimers]

Gsport wrote:
This is a public thread, why do people say "I sent you a private message"? Why not say it here for everyone to see and maybe learn something??

I have to agree! Just WHAT could be such a secret? Was some kind of "good buddy" code detected? :W

[junmy3]

We bought our TT online one year ago. We ended up getting a 2016 a few thousand less than the local dealer was offering a 2015. We had a little trouble getting a few minor warranty issues worked on by our local dealer but eventually got things worked out.
A friend of ours bought locally and has all kinds of problems getting warranty issues corrected. They had to eventually take it to another dealer that would do the work in a timely manner. So buying locally did not help in their situation.
I would have preferred buying locally, but they refused to even try working out a deal with us. The price you saw when you first entered the TT was the lowest they were willing to go.

[Gsport]

This is a public thread, why do people say "I sent you a private message"? Why not say it here for everyone to see and maybe learn something??

[B_O__Plenty]

djousma wrote:
So for me, buying local is worth *something*, including a bit higher price. All RV's especially brand-new have quality control issues that require dealer to fix. You will always get preferential treatment at the dealer you purchased from. Including going to the front of the line when others have to wait for repairs. Is there a local dealer near you that would take care of you? Or is the closest one hours away? For me the after-the-sale support is important.

Now, if you are saving a significant amount, then yea, you gotta shop with your wallet. You can sometimes use that as leverage with your local dealer too, to come down somewhere within range. The thing is too, that these large dealers know you wont be back, so making money doing volume sales is their thing. the smaller local shops who dont move as many units have to be able to cover their costs, and make some money too(just not all of it on my sale alone :)).

If preferential treatment means waiting 4 weeks for an appointment late in the Fall, leaving your trailer there for 6 weeks to correct minor issues, then picking it up 1/2 done and finishing the work yourself...then buy all means pay a lot more $$ and buy from that local dealer...Never again! It doesn't always work that way..Save the money.

B.O.

[cmeade]

We bought our new Keystone Alpine from a dealer 200 mi from home. He had. been convicted of charging illegal DMV fees and lost dealers license. Dealership under new ownership but he is still a major partner. His price was $12k less than CW. He tried to sell me a $2k B&W slider and I alredy had a Companion in my bed. We did the paperwork, PDI, and hitched up and got out of there within 3 hrs!! Never went back and needed 2 warranty visits in the 1 yr warranty period which Keystone approved by an authorized repair shop 40 mi away from home. My advice is get the best price make a fast getaway and don' t look back!! (BTW in 10k mi towing have not needed a slider with our 6'4" shortbed Ram)

[Dayle1]

With my last purchase, I sent out an email with full details that included a target price but w/o shipping, taxes, etc. I sent it to online dealers in the mid-west and local dealers (within 180 miles). Some local dealers ignored my target price and I ignored them. But several were very competive, even beating my target price. Any dealer that sells a decent volume of the brand you want can be competive with online dealers if they want to.

My local dealer is 120 miles away, but there was only one dealer closer. And my unit has been back to the dealer twice, once for a serious issue. So It's a good thing I didn't buy from a dealer 1200 miles away. Yet still got a very, very competive price.

[Chowan]

wholesale dealers? Is there such a thing? How do you find them?

[avvidclif1]

So much for purchasing local. I did and when I had a warranty issue was quoted 4 weeks to get to it. BS. I got the parts in warranty from Heartland and fixed it myself. Never again will I buy from that dealer. I'll find the best price and drive to pick it up.

[khager76248]

we bought both our first Trailer, and our Class A motorhome out of state. We live in Texas and the local dealers were just to far off, so we ended up ordering one from a dealer in Ohio. We made a trip out of it while we were up there. We did have some warranty issues, but all were solved pretty easy. We also had a big issue with the slide, and Forest River sent someone down picked up our trailer and took it back to their plant. Not only fixed the slide, but several other items while they had it. When done they towed it back to Texas. We did not have to spend anything.

Our Class A, we bought in Michigan. Flew up to Chicago and drove to Mi. Did the PDI, spent the night at the dealer, then drove home in the morning. The local dealer did not have any problems fixing all the warranty stuff. For us it was never an issue.

Now here's the best part, We paid 15000 for our new Trailer back in 1996, we sold it 4 years later for 13000. So we only spent 2000 for 4 years of camping with the family. We didn't get so lucky with the Class A. lol

[evanrem]

I purchased mine from a wholesaler also which was about 5 hours away. I worked with several dealers and they all gave me the you wont get any service and a few other issues that I may have. Some asked where I came up with the price and when I told them they would not deal anymore. One dealer came close but in the end said someone will pay more for it and said no deal. With that I went with wholesaler, It was my first TT so I did not know what to expect, they spent about 2 hours going over it, took me on a test drive since I never towed anything this big (which I'm sure they laughed about when I left) and sent me on the way. The only warranty repair work I needed was for a water heater and I took it to a rv repair shop who took care of it. I did call one dealer and he said he would not do the warranty work since I did not buy it from him. From a dealer point of view you think they would want to service it for future business but guess not. In a nutshell I would do it again and I only save $500 for the amount you are talking about it would be a no briner for me.