Tips on buying new

[TonyOCKy]

For those of you contemplating buying a new travel trailer from a long distance dealer, say in the very north of Indiana where most are manufactured, allow me to give you some tips that I learnt the hard way from experience.

#1 Do not plan your purchase in early spring. It is very cold and you will be distracted from thoroughly checking out the available models by trying to keep warm. Late spring or early fall are probably the best times.

#2 If you do decide to buy from one of these remote dealers, who do offer extremely good deals on price, and you are prepared to pick it up yourself, allow several days stay in one of the local RV parks to thoroughly check out your new investment. Dealers local to you are reluctant to deal with any complaints you may have, and 300 miles is a long way to travel to rectify a problem. Don't get me wrong, the dealer from whom we purchased our unit was happy to rectify our problem(s). It was just a hassle that we had to make that detour on our way to Montreal.

#3 Think about this. The remote dealer may price the same unit $2,000 or $3,000 dollar below the local dealer, but if you factor in cost of delivery (approximately $500), the fuel cost and RV resort expenses you will incurr, against the convenience of having local support when you need it, it may well be worth trying to negotiate some middle ground on price with the local dealer. After all, he or she is likely to get your service business for years to come.

And don't forget, the dealers are very much like car dealerships. They want to sell you a camper and will negotiate to get your business, but they will take as much as they can get.

[Dakzuki]

bikendan wrote:

APT wrote:
Getting quotes from the "wholesale" RV companies and comparing to your local is wise. Then consider what the value is to pay more locally to each buyer. Sometimes the savings is worth it, other times not.

this is what it boils down to.
for us, our local dealers actually laughed at us and dared us to drive 2000 miles one-way, if we wanted prices like RVW and RVDirect.

the lowest local dealer's price on our new HTT, was $19,500.
so, we drove the 4000 mile RT and got the exact same HTT for $14,500.
the manufacturer found us local dealers that were more than happy to do the warranty work and never had any problems with that.

I used price quotes I got from around the country to beat down a local dealer on my Navion. I was prepared to pay a few grand more to stay local. They came within $600 which was more than 10 grand lower than their initial "discounted" price. Winnebago charges the same to deliver to all dealers so that is a non issue.

[Carb_Cleaner]

The savings on taxes alone paid for our fuel to go out of state. Not that we had much of a choice, because the manufacturer we chose has no dealers in our state, nor any state on our borders. Travel, or having it delivered by who-knows-who at what expense, were our only options.
New Hampshire in the middle of December can be rough.

[atreis]

I bought both of my trailers from one of the larger national dealers (RV Wholesalers)... They're actually relatively local for me though (only 60 miles away).

I second the recommendation that you stay a couple days nearby after picking up your trailer so that you can have them correct anything that's wrong right away. There's no need to stay at a resort park though - in fact, you'll end up testing more of the systems if you don't. There are often state parks nearby (for RVW, there's one VERY close, although I've not stayed there).

[Redsky]

Local applies if you have a local dealer with a good reputation. In my area there are non I would trust to do the setup or any warranty work.

A small local dealer is going to have a far smaller selection than a larger operation and has to cover their overhead with smaller units sold. The small local dealer is more likely to require a large deposit and then special order the RV for you.

Key is checking the reputation of dealers before you buy in as many ways and using as many sources as possible. There is no single source that does it all.

[K_Charles]

We got all our TT from out of state. Only one time did we have warranty work done, the refrigerator recall, and a repair shop did that for us, not a dealer. I wonder how many RV's break down by their local dealer, wouldn't a breakdown be more common when away from home?

[bikendan]

APT wrote:
Getting quotes from the "wholesale" RV companies and comparing to your local is wise. Then consider what the value is to pay more locally to each buyer. Sometimes the savings is worth it, other times not.

this is what it boils down to.
for us, our local dealers actually laughed at us and dared us to drive 2000 miles one-way, if we wanted prices like RVW and RVDirect.

the lowest local dealer's price on our new HTT, was $19,500.
so, we drove the 4000 mile RT and got the exact same HTT for $14,500.
the manufacturer found us local dealers that were more than happy to do the warranty work and never had any problems with that.

[fla-gypsy]

All good thoughts but I will add transportation costs can be much more as you add mileage and need to be considered. In Florida typical cost would be $1000+.

[APT]

Your experience follows many others. However, even more people enjoy the savings and acceptable service from their local dealers. Myself, I have never had to take my TT in for service. There have been a couple issues, but I try to repair myself. Just taking to the "local dealer" is at best inconvenient.

Getting quotes from the "wholesale" RV companies and comparing to your local is wise. Then consider what the value is to pay more locally to each buyer. Sometimes the savings is worth it, other times not.