Is an RV show....

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

A good place to buy?  Do you think the best "deals" are there?

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I think the best deals are used or last year's model that they haven't sold.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I think the best deals are used -- a few years old, especially on motorhomes.  Let someone else work the kinks out while saving a ton of money.

[rcarpe06 4]

We bought our 2014 Class A model in September last year.  They were significantly reduced in price as they were trying to make room for the 2015's.  About a month or so later, we went to the local RV show and they had the new 2015 version of what we purchased but for a lot more money.  In my opinion, RV shows aren't necessarily the best time to buy a unit, but it's definitely a great time to see a wide variety of floor plans.

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

I think they are a good time to see a lot of different floor plans and options under one roof to help with making lists of likes\dislike, and must haves\nice to haves.

As the others said you can get a great deal on a leftover model from the previous year or end of the current year. The current camper we have is a 2013 that we purchased new in December of 2013 and we were able to pick it up for about 36% off MSRP for this model. We were initially looked at models that were a year or two old but were able to pick up ours for less than what we were seeing the used ones for.

Now, with that I am having to work through all the warranty items on ours, and it has spent a lot of time at the dealer for that. But, since ours had been in for service so much Forest River extended our initial warranty to compensate for some of the time it was out of service.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Thanks Fiends :)  

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

I have bought two trailers in my life, a pop up and the hybrid. I first shopped around the internet at pricing, I than got a quote from RVDirect.com or RVwholesalers.com depending on model. I also than looked at the MSRP of the trailer where I was looking to purchase and deducted 30% from that and compared to pricing I have found. Both times I got my 30% off of MSRP as my purchase price.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

[ependydad...Doug 176]

I did very similar to Norm. Because I was ordering my camper- I was able to approach 2 wholesalers to establish what "rock bottom" pricing was and then I contacted the 4 closest dealers to me that carried the brand that I wanted (ranging from 60 miles to 250 miles). I contacted each via email with a request for their best pricing for the camper with the list of options that I wanted. As much as others disagree, I also laid-out that I don't negotiate and since I was contacting 4 dealerships, they had 1 chance to give me their best pricing. Ultimately, I did still have to negotiate a bit. But, at the end of the day- I was happy with the pricing that I got.

 

Here's my write-up on it:

How I Negotiated for my RV

 

I don't know if she was talking crap or what, but the closing/paperwork lady at the dealership gushed over how much of an incredible deal I got and she couldn't believe the owner came so far down in price. Who knows- I was happy with my pricing and her input stopped mattering. :)

[DinDavie 37]

Things you need to know are the mark up is usually 35-40%.  Dealers have to make money to stay in business.  Dealers borrow all their money to buy the product from a bank who then requires them to pay 25% each quarter until the unit is sold or the year is up, whatever comes first.  Dealers are not motivated to negotiate too deaply when they do not have much of their money in the unit but as the year goes by they become more motivated.  If the unit is new on the lot don't expect as good a deal as you would find in September thru November.  By then they have a lot of their own money in the unit and are anxious to see a return on investment.  The things you must also consider are the quality of the dealership, the quality reputation of the manufacturer, and the desirability of the floor plan they have in stock.  Its best if you do not get emotionally involved in the deal and do not take your kids to the negotiations.  NADA resale values for specific units can be a good indicator of the general quality of the units a manufacturer.  I did this by constantly checking on a unit on my dealers lot over the internet.  I new it was on the lot for over a year and I knew it was not the color I wanted.  During the discussion I mentioned that I was in route to look at a used Class C that was listed at $50,000.  The Class A unit he had was not green,  and I liked green and the batteries and tires where already a year old.  In Florida that is very important.  The list price was $110,000 and I picked it up after they cleaned it for $70,000

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Things you need to know are the mark up is usually 35-40%.  Dealers have to make money to stay in business.  Dealers borrow all their money to buy the product from a bank who then requires them to pay 25% each quarter until the unit is sold or the year is up, whatever comes first.  Dealers are not motivated to negotiate too deaply when they do not have much of their money in the unit but as the year goes by they become more motivated.  If the unit is new on the lot don't expect as good a deal as you would find in September thru November.  By then they have a lot of their own money in the unit and are anxious to see a return on investment.  The things you must also consider are the quality of the dealership, the quality reputation of the manufacturer, and the desirability of the floor plan they have in stock.  Its best if you do not get emotionally involved in the deal and do not take your kids to the negotiations.  NADA resale values for specific units can be a good indicator of the general quality of the units a manufacturer.  I did this by constantly checking on a unit on my dealers lot over the internet.  I new it was on the lot for over a year and I knew it was not the color I wanted.  During the discussion I mentioned that I was in route to look at a used Class C that was listed at $50,000.  The Class A unit he had was not green,  and I liked green and the batteries and tires where already a year old.  In Florida that is very important.  The list price was $110,000 and I picked it up after they cleaned it for $70,000

 

Thank you... good advice.