Buying a new yacht -- do dealers "deal?"

Ben,

I'll let others chime-in on negotiating. My better judgment falls victim to my emotions. But, there’s a good thread on YF titled “Purchasing a New Yacht”. This may provide some answers for you…

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/g...purchasing-new-yacht.html?highlight=negotiate


BTW… I’ll assume you’re looking at the Voyager series if it’s a 56' Carver. These boats represent one of the best price-points in the market, as Carver squeezes a lot of amenities into these models, but herein lies the problem… is the space provided sufficient for extended “Voyagers”. If it’s a cruising couple, the answer might be yes… if you enjoy each other’s company. Throw kids into the equation and a cruise ship isn’t large enough!

I have a friend that’s in the same boat as you are. He’s been keeping checks & balances on several brands & models. In this range, there’s one boat that tops a very short list. Have you looked at the 56’ Neptunus? I chose to do a review on this boat because I think it truly stands-out. We’re also beginning to see a lot more of them on the water too. Here’s a link to the review…

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/neptunus-yacht/5028-review-neptunus-56-flybridge.html


I’ll follow this thread in hopes of finding some wisdom on negotiating. Currently, I’m in the market for a new girlfriend.

Ben,
I'm sure yo uwill get a different answer from everyone who responds, but let me give you my $.02. First, if you have your heart set on the 56 Carver, could you have a backup dealer to use in case your dealer is not flexible enough? I do that when I buy a car (although there arte more car dealers than boat dealers). I'll work one dealer against the other for the best price. When you're dealing with $1M yachts, no salesman wants to lose that deal. Are you buying new, floor/demo model, one year old, etc. Those items could give you leverage in your negotioation. You may also want to pick out another backup boat, from a different line. Don't ever let a salesman know your heart is set on one particular boat, otherwise he has you. Let him know you are still deciding between the 56 Carver and 55 Sea Ray. Let him make an offer, tell him you want to compare against the Sea Ray, go back to him and ask him to sharpen the pencil with discounts of added features. Let him work for your money. Get them to throw in extras like full tank of fuel, captain training, free delivery, maybe slip space for a few weeks/months, depending were you are. I watched my dad, when he bought his first boat (a 34' Silverton) walk out on the dealer when he thought he was getting screwed. Dealer came back groveling, added a bunch of items at no charge. A good learning experience. And with the economy slowing, delaers don't want to lose deals
Good luck.
Capt Tom

PS You may also want to consider buying at a boat show. Dealers give some of the best discounts on the last days.

Getting 20 percent is a huge discount. Such margins I have only seen on really small boats. If you get 5 percent over here, you should be happy. And usually you get it as add-ons, which anyway is the best since you will always need extras on a new boat.

Personally I never try to knock the price down, my experience is that if I pay the asked price (more or less), the after sales service is always much better..!

This can also be called a better deal...

Sounds like typical salesman jargon to me. September is the end of the boating season for most of the U.S. I can't see people getting in line to buy a boat in September - in the northern states - when they can't use it until the following April or May? Maybe I'm wrong... I haven't worked a show in your neck of the woods.

With regards to "boat show pricing"... it's been my experience there are good deals to be had at the shows. Manufacturers and dealers spend a LOT of money for space/slips at these events and they want to move boats! Although I've only visited a few select shows around the U.S., I can tell you the prices I've seen at the Lauderdale and Miami International Shows are consistently favorable.

If we're speaking about brokerage boats, it's not unusual for an owner/seller to help a broker cover the cost of a slip at one of these events. To me, this is pretty good indication of how serious the seller is. The prices I've seen on brokerage boats at these shows reflect the same.

Lots of good thinking on this thread for Ben. Allow my ramblings...

I concur with Lars in regards leaving a little on the table, so to speak, to achieve a more Lexus-like level of service satisfaction.

Over the past quarter century, and aside from such deviations as the odd recession and 9/11, new boat sales follow a bellcurve which peaks in May/June, about what you'd expect. A major MLS used to publish this.

The Fort Lauderdale & Miami boat shows-- and these are national in nature drawing from all corners of the U.S.-- see manufacturers sell a handfull in October and multiples of that in February. Again, this is over the long haul: the 2005 Ft. Laud. show attendance was comparatively small, and the expected pent-up demand for Miami 2006 did not exactly unpent.

The Seattle crowd is tough-- they actually come out in the rain, for gosh sake, to attend boat shows.

As CaptTom pointed out, the length of time that your particular heartthrob has languished on the lot carries an awful lot of weight in your negotiations: the ability to decipher the HIN on the transom will help greatly here. When the Mfg'er's floorplan runs out and bank curtailments begin on a particular hull, the dealer will indeed wield a sharp pencil.

Ah, there's nothing like the smell of a new boat, all shiny, fresh bilges, so, yes, it's an emotional purchase.
But don't lose sight of the fact that more stuff will need fixing during your first 12-months.
That one-year old boat over there for sale? A nice price depreciation and all the niggling problems sorted out to boot.

Well, I haven't bought/sold any yachts. But in the production boat world most of these first year sales are the result of the buyer not using his new boat anywhere near as often as he expected. Tieing up a lot of his $$ without much "return". So he bails. I expect this happens in the yacht realm as well.

Kelly Cook

Kelly brings up a good point. And, there are a million other reasons why one-year old boats come up on the market.

Production boats are complex. With a lot of the bits outsourced ( and who made the call to procure that pump--the Purchasing Dep't. for, perhaps, cost reasons, or did the Engineering Dep't. demand a pricier one?) from other manufacturers and put together by fallible human hands, no, this ain't yer BMW.

I'd have to concur with Kelly's statement... often, boats aren't used as much as anticipated, or priorities change, or family and business issues come up, etc, etc. It's rare to see someone selling a new boat due to bugs. In recent years, this has become less of an issue as components have continually evolved.

For yachts, which have dozens of integrated systems and 100's of components that ALL have to work seamlessly, this is substantially more challenging. Also, due to the nature of custom built yachts that have specially fabricated features (usually per the owner's request), you are working with one-off, pioneering type mechanisms/systems.

If you've ever invented and/or developed a product, or a technology, you'll completely understand the hurdles that builders face. Consumer type products often go through multiple evolution cycles. On custom built yachts... you've got one shot to get it right! This why custom built AND production built boats will sometimes have a few bugs to work out initially.

Whoops! I didn't see Loren's post. I think he summed it up very well.

FLIBS is this weekend. Cut your best deal! Haggle, barter, trade your wife... whatever it takes!