Warning on RVDirect for those currently looking.

gilpinbrewer · 06-28-2014, 06:48 AM

All,

Just to give a fair warning on RVDirect if you have or plan on looking/buying through them. From what I read, I read mostly positive reviews, but I am going through a big headache with them right now and they have been very uncooperative, to put it lightly.
First if you plan on letting them finance it, you will probably not have an issue other than you wont get the best rate you could on your own. I think most people fall into this catagory.
However, if you plan on bringing your own financing, the bank requires an Invoice that has the pricing on it so they can determine loan to value and RVDirect will not share this with anyone who brings external financing. This will either force your bank to walk away or increase your down payment requirement dramatically. I am working with Essex Credit who is a Good Sam/Costco partner and the lady told me she has not run across this as long as she has been doing this. No where do they tell you this until you start your own financing process.
So buyer beware....

Bob Landry · 06-28-2014, 03:59 PM

I would walk from any dealer who would not give me a copy of the purchase agreement with the total sales price on it.

If you are really dead set on using this seller, I would get the selling price(surely you know what that is) and go with a letter of credit from your back that would cover the financed amount.

filmtex · 06-29-2014, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Landry

I would walk from any dealer who would not give me a copy of the purchase agreement with the total sales price on it.

I believe this is illegal in both California and Texas. And like Bob, I would walk away as well.

gilpinbrewer · 06-29-2014, 02:06 PM

Unfortunately, since I ordered the unit and put a deposit, walking away I would forfeit the deposit. If I could get my deposit back I would walk away in a second. The bank says they will still fund the loan if I double my down payment, so that is probably what I will end up doing.
I had quite an exchange with RV Direct yesterday and I believe what they are doing is illegal. The fact that they will only share the Invoice with the banks if they do the finance and not if you bring your own financing does not sound kosher. My bank even told me they never have seen this before and it appears they are forcing you to finance through them. I did file formal complaints with the NY State BBB and NY State Attorney General. It may not change my situation, but at least it may bring to light of an either illegal or very unethical way of doing business.
I repeatedly asked RVDirect to show me on the contract I signed where it says "If you bring your own financing, RV Direct may not be able to provide your bank with all the necessary financing document" or something to that matter. Of course I could not get a straight answer and between the sales person Jeff Blair and the Financing Manger Kristine Roy, I got conflicting answers. It is obvious what they are doing and if I need to double my down payment, I will, but I will make sure everyone out there knows what kind of a dealer this really is.

dave-g · 06-30-2014, 04:40 PM

they must have given you a price to order it. use that. I do don think you handed them a blank check.

bsmith0404 · 06-30-2014, 04:53 PM

I don't like what they are doing with you, but it also seems the bank is being a bit stubborn as well. When I financed my new Alpine I did a loan app and was pre-approved for a certain amount pending loan to value comparison by the bank (standard response). When I asked the bank what they showed as value for the RV, they asked if it was new or used. I told them it was a new RV, they then told me the value for a new RV is whatever the final purchase price, plus tax, title, license is. Basically, the total price out the door is the value/amount the bank would finance.

gilpinbrewer · 07-01-2014, 05:05 AM

I agree, I think the bank is also being stubborn about this. They would not accept the MSRP from a Pro-Forma Invoice the dealer gave me. After some hard searching I found an Invoice on their website for my order and it appears to be the dealer Invoice. I sent that over to the bank and talked to them and she thought that it might work and was going to run it through the underwriting and get back to me right away. Well no call back, even after leaving 2 messages yesterday. I am hoping this is a good sign that they were able to move forward because I was told I would have to make a decision on how we move forward if they didn't get this Invoice. I am going to ping them this morning and will post an update when I have more information.

Hoojs12840 · 08-11-2014, 08:01 PM

I've bought plenty of vehicles with outside the dealer financing. Never had a bank require the dealer to give them the INVOICE. Buyers order with the price, tax, tags and all the names and insurance yes.

Some dealers will share the invoice some don't. Nothing illegal about that.

No bank is going to use the dealers price to establish loan to value. They already have that information. They just need the year/ make / model and significant options. Same thing you would do if you looked up the trade value of a RV. Most banks use NADA regardless of vehicle type.

bsmith0404 · 08-12-2014, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoojs12840

I've bought plenty of vehicles with outside the dealer financing. Never had a bank require the dealer to give them the INVOICE. Buyers order with the price, tax, tags and all the names and insurance yes.

Some dealers will share the invoice some don't. Nothing illegal about that.

No bank is going to use the dealers price to establish loan to value. They already have that information. They just need the year/ make / model and significant options. Same thing you would do if you looked up the trade value of a RV. Most banks use NADA regardless of vehicle type.

I have to say I disagree with you. My bank (USAA) valued my new RV at the price I paid plus TTL. I applied for the loan on-line, it came back approved "pending value". When I called USAA to ask what they showed as the value of the camper, they stated on a new camper they value it at the price I pay plus all fees, tax, title, and license and they go 100% on the loan. They only use book value on used RVs.

x96mnn · 08-12-2014, 03:03 AM

Sounds to me like the dealer gave you a price they knew no other dealer could match with the expectation they would make their money through the kick back from the loan they gave you. Shady and I hope you can get it worked out as they are now trying to make you walk away.

gilpinbrewer · 08-12-2014, 05:16 AM

Yeah I did get this resolved, however, it was really a PITA. RV Direct would not budge, but I was able to work with the bank and gave them the Invoice I got off the web and they also used the seedealercost website and they were able to make an exception for this requirement. In the end it worked out but not without a lot of effort on my part. I would have no problem using Essex Credit again as they have been great. Now as far as RV Direct goes, if I had to do it over again, I would not go through them. There are enough other dealers online that are close in price to them I would try someone else. After seeing their facilities in Des Moines, it is obvious they are a volume dealer with not much care or thought put into their dealership presence.

Pmedic4 · 08-14-2014, 10:10 AM

You also wouldn't be prohibited from purchasing it from them and their financing and then re-financing with another lender, say a credit union within a short period of time. My son bought a car from a dealer, and ended up with a high interest rate. I should have went with him, but didn't so he was paying about 11.9%, when the current car rates were in the 5-6% range. We refinanced less than 30 days after the original purchase/loan on the car, through a Credit Union, which he had never used before and they had a promotion to get new members, with a 2.9% rate, so honestly he came out ahead by pure luck and the promotion timing. The difference in payments was almost $50 per month, so it was definitely worth the time to check around.

When we bought our RV 2 years ago, the rate offered by the dealer and what we found checking at the credit union, it would have been about 0.20%, or about $3.15 per month. I almost thought I could have negotiated it with them too, but it didn't seem worth the trouble at the time.

robo · 08-14-2014, 02:56 PM

They should tell u the msrp ie the window sticker. That is federal law i beleive

**JRTJH** · 08-14-2014, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robo

They should tell u the msrp ie the window sticker. That is federal law i beleive

Last year, when we were shopping for our current Cougar, we looked at the same trailer with the same options at 6 or 7 different dealerships and the MSRP at each of them was different, some by as much as $4000. So, I'd suspect that the MSRP is not a "Keystone generated price" but rather is a price set by the specific dealership based on the marketing territory and the "salesmanship" of how much they want to "reduce the MSRP" to make the sale more attractive.

We didn't find any difference in a Cougar XLite 27RKS with an MSRP of $39,000 with $12,000 off and the same trailer with an MSRP of $33,000 and $6,000 off. They both wound up costing $28,000 out the door. If a dealership wanted to advertise that trailer in a TV ad for $20,000 off MSRP, he'd just have to set his MSRP at $47,000. He'd still get the same $27K for the unit. Look at some of the nationally advertised RV sales ads and you can find the same "unit number" with different MSRP's from month to month. As they sit on the lot, the "amount of savings from MSRP goes up" but the MSRP goes up to match.... It's all about marketing, not about standardized sales pricing.

I'd think based on my experience (look at the same RV around your area) that MSRP's are just imaginary marketing tools. It's NOT like the automotive industry where the factory puts the "sticker on the window". I don't know of any "federal law" that requires "fair marketing" practices on RV's.

outwest · 08-14-2014, 07:14 PM

@JRTJH - I"ve noticed the same thing - different MSRPs for the exact same model trailer with the exact same options.

bsmith0404 · 08-15-2014, 02:52 AM

That's why I like to look at NADA, not only the new price, but a used price for a 1, 2, and 3, year old unit. I know they change things from model year to model year, but typically not that much and it gives me a good idea what mine will be worth in a few years. When we bought our current 5er, we were working a deal on two different trailers, two different dealers. The MSRPs were $35k different, I could only get the price down to $7k difference. The NADA difference for a new and 1 year old used unit was $20k. So although the "MSRP" had a $35k diff, the NADA was only $20k. In the end, we liked both units, but went with the more expensive one, $20k more value for only $7k more. I even checked with the insurance company, based on their value of the trailer if it were to get totaled today I would pocket several thousand....much better than being upside down in it

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