Quote:
Originally Posted by LifeIsGood
I recently read a book called, How to Buy an RV and Save Thousands, by Don Wright who spent 20 yrs writing about the RV industry (Trailer Life, Camping Life, etc.) and also worked in market research for 7 yrs for two of the big RV manuf. - Holiday Rambler and Newmar. He says that dealers typically mark up each of their products between 30-40% earning gross profits between 23-29%... So I'm thinking that whatever the MSRP is, offering 20-25% lower should be a fair deal, but maybe not.
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Linda, Experience tells me that TM doesn't have the markups in them as do the type RV you refer to above. We bought our TM from Dinuba RV when they were located in Dinuba. At the time, they gave us 10% off the MSRP without our asking. It took a bit of negotiating, after we identified the options we wanted, to get an additional 5% off.
The MSRP is a "ficticious" price, so that is not the place to start. Research shows that you need to find out as much as you can about the dealer invoice and work from that number. In the case of TM, it would be wise to offer the dealer a price that is about $1,000 above his invoice, if he'll share that info in the first place (my un-educated guess is about 25-30% below the MSRP). The reason I use $1,000 is that the dealer is due his profit for ordering and preparing the unit for delivery to you and it seems fair for a unit between $20K-$30K.
On used trailers, always offer a lower price than you think it is worth, based on NADA Guide pricing, and let the owner counter-offer. You should wind up somewhere in the middle between what the listed price was and what you offered.