West Coast RV purchasing

[bobbyg123]

Getting ready to pull the trigger on my next RV, and I'd like to hear from the West Coast folks on here who have purchased recently. For those not located out West, we typically pay $5K or more for comparable travel trailers sold in the Eastern and Central time zones due to shipping costs incurred by the dealers.

I've worked in sales & marketing throughout my career, and I certainly know how to negotiate a deal; however I haven't been able to do better than 20% off of MSRP for this purchase. I'm wondering if your experiences out West are similar?

Part of the problem is that I've been negotiating with Camping World, and they've never been (from my experiences) willing to "do anything" to make a sale. With that said, this particular Camping World is a highly regarded dealership and they're located fairly close to my home. I'm willing to pay a bit extra for that.

[chr_]

Go to Oregon or Idaho and buy from a mfg directly, or go to Arizona and buy a slightly used one for much much less than they cost new.

Drive it home and camp in it along the way...

[LeBout]

We bought our most recent TT last Spring from CampingWorld near Boise, Idaho and although the negotiations were challenging at times we found them willing to negotiate. The one difference is we bought a used unit instead of new.

[carringb]

Check with Curtis Trailers. They had a nice 2015 Outback which was my second choice, and right off the bat they offered it to me for 30% off MSRP. No hassle. Very pleasant no-pressure visit.

In the end, I decided on an Outdoors Creekside because I trusted the durability better that the Keystone, and it had double the carrying capacity. I had to go to Dennis Dillon RV in Boise since none of the Oregon dealers had one in stock (31KQBS, which is actually 39' tip to tip). They were also great to work with, and sold it for a similar discount however it was a 2014 MY (Outdoors/Northwood change model years later I think).

BTW - It looks like the Keystone Bullet 296bh might be an obsolete model? The 296BSWE appears to be the replacement model.

Keystone also has the Outback terrain 299TBH which is even more spacious. Looks to have an 8500 GVWR but the extra GVWR seems to be add extra CCC, not dry weight. Curtis has them advertised for 25% off MSRP, but they have several of them in stock so you could probably work a better deal than that.

[dadmomh]

We live in TN but bought x2 in OH. Saved over $4000 on the HTT and more on the TT after travel expenses. Treat it as a mini-vacation with a really big souvenir. The standard next question is re service.....not a problem. You can drive a bunch of miles and still come out way ahead sometimes.

[Nunyadamn]

Are you only interested in hearing from people in the PNW?

I have a good story for Richardson's RV in Menifee, CA - I had been writing back and forth with the internet guy (I live in AZ by the way). My wife was able to go take a look at one of the 4 trailers on the lot that we were interested in on a Saturday. She said it had all of the features we were looking for, so I got in my truck and headed for CA on Sunday. I went down on Monday when they opened and didn't tell them who I was - got a standard salesman. Looked over the trailer, went to make the deal. He wouldn't go lower than $27500. I said $27000 out the door and he just kept telling me they would never go lower. I left, e-mailed the internet guy an hour later (I was sure the salesman would call me - I told him I was going to head home in a couple hours and give me a call if they changed their mind - he was slightly rude by telling me there was no way they would go lower and I should go buy from World Wide RV).

Internet guy (who was in Riverside - just a few miles up the road) said he could do $27162 out the door on the exact serial number I went and looked at. Bought the trailer over the net that day and picked it up the next - no, I did not see the salesman on the floor.

Also, why was I looking in CA when I live in AZ? AZ (World Wide RV) wanted $29000 for a 2013 and $34k+ for the 2014 out the door and would not budge. I had to drive 6 hours each way, but saved nearly $7000 by going out of state and got a year newer than I was originally contemplating(out the door including taxes).

Moral of my story, don't limit yourself to nearby places. Make the calculation on what you can save at a distance you can stomach driving. I was really close to driving from AZ to IL or ID.

P.S. World Wide RV still has those two trailers on their lot. I bought in May 2014.

[bobbyg123]

Yea, I'm fully aware of CW's reputation within the industry. My problem is that I'm limited by 2 critical factors. Trailer GVWR and my trade-in. If I didn't have a trade, I would have no trouble ordering a rig from the MW and having it delivered. My trade is in fair condition (at best), and I simply don't have the time to clean it up and repair it to where I would feel comfortable selling it privately.

The other, bigger limiting issue is that I'm looking for a specific BH slide floorplan with a GVWR under 8,000lbs. After an exhaustive search, I've settled on the Keystone Bullet 296bh. By the time I filtered my search down, I'm only left with a handful of dealers in the NW that have this model. That explains my negotiation challenge. The good news is that I've already got Camping World down from $33K to $26K. Not great, but it's a start. 🙂

[rugermark2]

I have found that CW is not willing to negotiate at all. I tried dealing with them just a few weeks ago. I ended up going to one of there competitors in Portland OR, and I was able to get 30% off the MSRP. Most of the dealers in Portland buy local, Keystone is built in Pendleton, Forest River in Dallas, and Northwoods in LaGrand, Dutchmen is local but avoid them. I would suggest going to a different local dealer.

[Caboose66]

Bobby... I'm just up the road from you and definitely ran into the same thing. Prices were way inflated with shipping costs used as an excuse. I understand the need to pay for shipping, but not at 2X or 3X the actual shipping costs to the dealer.
Admittedly, I did not look at the Oregon built trailers. I cant recall why but I think it was a combination of price and lack of the exact layout I wanted.
Bottom line is that I ended up buying from Holman in Cincinatti, Ohio area. I contracted with my own shipper and took care of everything via phone and e-mail.
Yes, there was some hand-wringing about buying sight-unseen but everything turned out great.
I would recommend looking into it as an option. If for nothing else than a well-informed bargaining chip with the local dealers.
Feel free to PM me if you would like more or specific info on my experience, shipper used, etc.

Dean

[goducks10]

Try Northwood or Outdoor RV units. We bought our Northwood from Thunder RV in La Grande, Or. Best transaction I've had in years. Great people to work with. Northwood and Outdoor RV trailers are built in Oregon right near there. That and the fact that they're solid well built units and that I don't have to pay shipping costs on them made it an easy decision. Plus if I have some major problems then getting factory repairs done is easier. I've had great customer service over the phone for a couple warranty fixes. My be tougher calling to Elkhart to get that easy help, but also it could easily depend on the manufacturer.

JMHO but I have heard very few good things about CW. Their prices are high. Must be because the word 'camping' is in their name and people think it's the place to go to.

ForestRiver also builds some good units and are located in Dallas Or.

With that being said if I were to look else where I would go thru one of the wholesalers online and go pick it up my self. I could save $8-10,000 over buying an Elkhart made unit locally. It's $3000.00 for shipping alone to get out to the west coast and on top of that they inflate the prices out here figuring no one will travel back east to get one.

[hddecker]

Have you looked at the campers that are built on the west coast?

That alone is going to save you a big chunk of the shipping dollars. We looked at the Lance units when we were shopping and in hind site wish the we would have gone that route over Dutchmen.