Buying in the winter

[Kansas_couple]

Will get a chance to go to Omaha this Saturday. Planning to go to the CW in Council Bluffs to take another look at the travel trailer I want to buy. Right now the website has it listed at a price about $2000 less than what the dealer wanted for it last spring. And it is a 2014 model.

I am fully aware if I buy I would not be able to fully camp in the thing until the weather warms up (I'm sure it's winterized at this time) but I wonder if getting it for a (possible) off-season price might be worth doing a deal at this time.

Has anyone else here done anything like this?

And please, no sarcastic answers from members in Arizona or Florida!! 🙂

[Lantley]

APT wrote:

Lantley wrote:
...they could not beat my local dealer enough

But the price was lower. So get a quote and compare. Their prices do not vary much by season except for some MFR rebates.

I agree the price doesn't very from the manufacturer however the dealer margins are affected. A dealer is willing to sacrifice their own profit margin in order to gain cash flow.
A small profit is better than no profit in December and January. A dealer cannot survive all year like this but keeping the doors open through the winter when traffic is non existent can be a challenge.

Buying in the off season allows the consumer to take advantage of the lower profit margins that many dealers are willing to accept in the winter.
Come Spring when buyers are plentiful all bets are off and the dealer can make up for the winter months.

[wmoses]

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
I know a fellow who drove from north of Dallas to south Houston - to save $200 on his 5er toy hauler purchase. 600 mile roundtrip @ 10 mpg @ $3.50 for diesel - yep he spent at least - $210 on fuel to save $200.

l drove to Georgia to get my trailer because the dealer here was apparently not interested enough to work with me to narrow the gap between the prices.

Here is what happened - They had a non-Emerald Edition version of my RV at more than what the other GA dealer wanted for the Emerald Edition of the same trailer. So I brought the Internet printout from the GA dealer's website and also walked with my IPad so I could log onto the website. After seeing the evidence, the salesman (who was nice enough) consulted with the Sales Manager and long story short they did nothing to the price. I left and planned my trip to GA. At that point it did not matter if the cost to get to GA exceeded the price differential (it did not) I was going to GA. Neither dealer had special favour in my eyes, so the only difference was the waste of my time in going to GA. But then I combined the trip with camping on the way back and the time factor was addressed if any partially. All in all no regrets - l saved money and they probably made money on someone who opted to buy off the lot.

[APT]

Lantley wrote:
...they could not beat my local dealer enough

But the price was lower. So get a quote and compare. Their prices do not vary much by season except for some MFR rebates. I don't mean everyone should buy from a "wholesaler", but they should understand the costs for going that route. Those types of dealers are high volume, low cost because they do not keep much inventory on their lots. They sell more direct orders than lot sales.

I have the same opinion or worse about buying at an RV show. The prices are not the "lowest" on the market and there's no way I want one that has been trampled through by thousands of people.

[rgolding]

I am a firm believer in buying off season, from inventory and for us, close to the end of the year. The best week for purchases to me is the week between Christmas and New Year. This only applies to buying from dealers. Get the papers signed before the first of the year, but if you have add ons or changes, they can be done in January. Dealers want their year end figures to look good, inventory to be reduced and something off their books before the year begins. Floor plan interest is above 5%, that is their incentive to make a deal. Taxes are based on what is on the property at the first of the year. All things to your advantage. One more thing to consider, trade ins are a company asset, but not money. Businesses want money, more than assets.

All this only applies to items you really want or need, don't just buy because it is a good deal. The really good deal is being HAPPY and Satisfied.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

I know a fellow who drove from north of Dallas to south Houston - to save $200 on his 5er toy hauler purchase. 600 mile roundtrip @ 10 mpg @ $3.50 for diesel - yep he spent at least - $210 on fuel to save $200.

[Lantley]

APT wrote:
Few people beat the "wholesale" RV dealers any time of the year. Get a quote from one of the big ones and compare to your local winter sale.

Personally, I'll take a fresh custom order RV at the lowest price over anything on a lot for 2/6/12 months.

I researched the wholesale guys and they could not beat my local dealer enough to make traveling worthwhile.

[APT]

Few people beat the "wholesale" RV dealers any time of the year. Get a quote from one of the big ones and compare to your local winter sale.

Personally, I'll take a fresh custom order RV at the lowest price over anything on a lot for 2/6/12 months.

[Dirtfan]

We got ours on a winter build program so the dealer said, trailer was on order and we made a few changes to meet our needs and picked it up in April, it was tough to be making payments pn it and didn't even have possession of it

[Lantley]

B.O. Plenty wrote:
Whatever the time of the year is....You should negotiate a deal that will give you around 30-35% off the "list price". The dealer pays the same price for the trailer Summer or Winter. They just want to sell it cheaper in the Winter to free up a little money to help get through the off season. Doesn't mean it's a bargain. You need to run the numbers. It could be they wanted too much for it in the Summer as well.

B.O.

I agree with everything you say, However supply and demand enters into the equation. That lack of demand helps you get to the bottom line price a bit faster/easier in the off months.

[B_O__Plenty]

Whatever the time of the year is....You should negotiate a deal that will give you around 30-35% off the "list price". The dealer pays the same price for the trailer Summer or Winter. They just want to sell it cheaper in the Winter to free up a little money to help get through the off season. Doesn't mean it's a bargain. You need to run the numbers. It could be they wanted too much for it in the Summer as well.

B.O.

[Dirtfan]

We decided we were going to buy a travel trailer in Novmeber last year, we did our home work and found the unit we wanted, did alot of surfing and found a price, we went to the local dealer and he showed us 3 different units, one of them we were even aware of it, sat down and talked price, now this is in December the kid quoted us list price on the unit, we walked out of the dealership, went home and sent about 7 emails to other dealers, 4 of them never even replied back to us, one dealer that is 2 1/2 hours away shot us a price that was close to 3K cheaper than our local dealer, we were very interested, about 2 days later received another email from same dealer and if we were to order the unit before the end of 2012 he would knock another $500 off the price, deposit check went out in the mail the next day, we saved over $3200 by not buying it from our local dealer, after all the paper work was signed I sent my local dealer an email basically telling him I wanted to spend my $$$ locally but he didn't want to sell me the travel trailer, that same trailer was still sitting on the lot 6 months later

[jchonroad]

We factory ordered our 2002 Class C at the end of January, and it was delivered at the first part of March. Part of the deal was that the dealer would do the de-winterization when things warmed up - about a month later, up here in Maine. We found and bought our current rig on a February day with the temp about 10 F. Same deal - dealer de-winterized at the end of March and we did the full systems check (all sat.) at that time. Short answer - go for it !

[boosTT]

Buying anything off season is a good buy. Boats, motorcycles, sportscars and so on. An RV is no exception.

What I have learned is the off-season market from private party's is smaller. IE: not very many boats posted this time of year on craigslist.

[On_the_Lam]

Maybe ask the dealer to apply any upcoming show incentives to your purchase. Can't hurt to ask. Or, if you buy it and can't store it, perhaps negotiate winter storage into the deal, or maybe ask them for de-winterizing, etc if you have to make a trip back to get it in the spring. Lots of ways to work a deal.