so..........how do yo know a good deal?

[wrenchnone]

OK so we have decided on a manufacture and a floor plan. Luckily we have a dealer here in town. They made us an offer today and I'm trying to figure out if it is a good deal.
The unit is a 2015 Coachman 254DSX. The MSR is $32,575.25 and they'll sell it to us for $20,500 plus tax and licensed. Whacha think?

[tsetsaf]

wrenchnone wrote:
OK so we have decided on a manufacture and a floor plan. Luckily we have a dealer here in town. They made us an offer today and I'm trying to figure out if it is a good deal.
The unit is a 2015 Coachman 254DSX. The MSR is $32,575.25 and they'll sell it to us for $20,500 plus tax and licensed. Whacha think?

FYI you can ignore MSRP it is a made up number for RVs. Have you researched online for this same unit at other dealers? What is their price?

[Community Alumni]

TomG2 wrote:

The dealer is not selling you a used, no warranty trailer, so the NADA guide may not even be close to purchase price.

From my experience, the NADA used price is fairly close to the low retail price on a new unit when comparing in the current year. You can't do it as of yet for this year, but soon you'll be able to compare the price for a new and used 2015 trailers. My point was to give the OP and idea of how much the trailer would be worth from day 1 not necessarily set a target price. If a trailer is showing a used value of $22k and has a sale price of $32k then it's probably not a "good" deal.

[VT_Skier]

We looked for two yrs and learned a lot. Finally after finding what we both liked it was time to see what dealers with in a 400 mile radius could do, well the dealer furthest away was willing to give us 30 percent off MSRP and the dealer two hrs away finally met there price but one of the owners who I dealt with was less than pleasant throughout the process when I went to pay for it he didn't even acknowledge that I was there even though he was talking with my salesman in front of me.....Well since we bought it in late November they are storing it for us until spring which is when we will do the pdi which I gave the salesman a list of things we expect to cover one thing I did do was withhold $500.00 to be pd after a successful PDI. I am waiting to take delivery of the TT in spring and at that time will do a review of his dealership for his sake he should hope the pdi goes well because as of now he might get 5 out of 10 stars

[NanciL]

To me; if it is exactly what I want and it is within my budget, I would get it and write them a check for it.

Jack L

[SabreCanuck]

Ron3rd wrote:
Sounds like a pretty good deal. To double check, get quotes from rvwholesalers.com and rvdirect.com. These will be the lowest prices and compare from there.

This is exactly what we did. Found a floor plan that we liked, I made some calls/emails and got multiple prices from multiple dealers. Some were far away but we were willing to make a trip out of it anyway.

Our situation may have been different because we bought the specific trailer 800 miles away. I made sure the dealer knew we had ZERO intention of ever seeing them again and we stood by our word.. It made a difference on the negotiations. My wife doesn't believe in Warranty because she has me to fix it. LOL

At any rate, we knew what all of the prices were everywhere and could determine if it was a good deal or not.. I also would pay slightly more locally for the same trailer if the dealer had a good rep.

[ddrueckh]

A good deal is one you are happy with. There will always be someone who paid more and someone who paid less. Getting around 30% off of Manufacturer MSRP is what most shoot for.

[TomG2]

proxim2020 wrote:

wrenchnone wrote:
proxim2020 what is a good way to look up used value?
xteacher I'm pretty new at this.........what is WDH?

Nada Guides You can look up the value of new and used trailers. I'm not saying the used value is the price you should pay because the dealer needs to make money. But it will give you an idea if you're overpaying or not.

The dealer is not selling you a used, no warranty trailer, so the NADA guide may not even be close to purchase price.

[Community Alumni]

wrenchnone wrote:
proxim2020 what is a good way to look up used value?
xteacher I'm pretty new at this.........what is WDH?

Nada Guides You can look up the value of new and used trailers. I'm not saying the used value is the price you should pay because the dealer needs to make money. But it will give you an idea if you're overpaying or not.

[Ron3rd]

Sounds like a pretty good deal. To double check, get quotes from rvwholesalers.com and rvdirect.com. These will be the lowest prices and compare from there.

[4X4Dodger]

wrenchnone wrote:
Thanks to all. This is an out right deal.......no trade and I have no reason to doubt the integrity of the dealer. he is including some hoses'and a battery. and I agree 100 % with the statement that the price will be a distant memory in 12 months. Just curious what people thought. Thank you

Sounds Like a very good deal.

About the battery; I would be sure it's a group 27 at minimum and preferably a group 29

Be sure to do a COMPLETE GO THRU OF EVERY SYSTEM AND NUT AND BOLT ON THE ENTIRE THING even if this takes up 8 or more hours ( which it might to do a really thorough inspection.)

Get a roller and get underneath the unit and make sure everything is ok there.

Have them check tire pressures

And ask them to give you at least one tank of propane.

Hook your TV to it and check every light, marker, stop, flasher, brake etc. And brakes

Make sure dual systems run on both Propane and electric.

Turn on all aircons.

Make sure ALL manuals are present for all systems.

If they make you a promise to get something or take care of somethng they dont have or cant do right now get them to put it in an email to you. (In writing) right then and there.

Well you get the idea....

Congratulations and good luck.

PS and dont give them the check or authorize payment until everything no matter how little is fixed to your satisfaction.

[BillB800si]

Your price definitely is good.
Be sure you're happy with the floorplan. There's very little kitchen counter space for food prep etc... The bed is a RV Queen 60" x 74" (not residential 60"x80")... plenty of storage space available.
Happy trails,

[hawkeye-08]

You know you got a good deal when their is a fair exchange of value. This means that you feel good about giving your money for what you receive in return. The seller should also feel they got a fair exchange of value in the case of a dealer that may be servicing the trailer after the sale. Some dealers may give a little on the initial sale thinking they will make it up on the maintenance and service down the road.

If there are some other dealers you can get a quote from, perhaps that would put you at ease. For us, we had a budget in mind and we did not purchase until we got the deal we wanted. We walked away from several deals before finally getting the trailer we wanted. We were not trading our old trailer so were not without trailer. When we got our new (used, but new to us) trailer, we sold the old one in a few days, again for fair exchange of value.

[spoon059]

WDH is weight distribution hitch.

Your price seems to be roughly 1/3 off MSRP. That's a decent price if its true. The hard part seems to be nailing down a true MSRP from the manufacturer. If you like the floorplan and are satisfied with the quality then 66% of MSRP seems good.

Like others suggested, have them throw in stuff like a weight distribution hitch (and have them set it up correctly if you don't know how to) and other "starter stuff" like hoses, chocks, sewer hose, etc.

[wrenchnone]

proxim2020 what is a good way to look up used value?
xteacher I'm pretty new at this.........what is WDH?