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Old 08-20-2022, 05:14 PM   #21
Badbart56
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Originally Posted by wiredgeorge View Post
Do big rig truck drivers still have to be able to back up? That is what kept me from the big bucks! Oh yeah, and driving through city trafic.... no bueno.
Yeah but looking at some of the drivers we've seen, you wouldn't know it. There's truck drivers and there's truck drivers. These companies get what they pay for.

But if you can handle a truck, pay attention to detail, and have a good attitude you can make a really good living. And there's always a need for GOOD drivers.
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Old 08-21-2022, 03:24 AM   #22
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I get mixed info. I’ve talked to people at the dealership where I used to sell. The salesmen say it’s coming to a screeching halt. I think I mentioned in another thread that I went in on a Saturday and seven salesmen where sitting around talking to each other. That was very, VERY rare mid day on a Saturday when I worked there (before COVID). The new sales manager and GM are both from the car industry and know nothing about RVs. I talked to them and asked how they plan to train the salesmen when they don’t know anything about RVs? (brought that up because some of the other guys mentioned they don’t do any product knowledge training anymore). Their response was they’re still setting record sales numbers and don’t need product knowledge, they just need to stick to the sales process (same tactics they use in car sales). So managers saying still doing record sales, salesmen saying it’s slowed way down. I tend to believe the guys I know that were in it before, during, and after COVID. I offered my services to train on product knowledge, they just laughed at me.
We just got home from a long extended trip and we passed more RV dealers than I can keep count and their lots were packed to the hilt with RV's, looked like Walmart parking lot on a Saturday. The local lots around here look the same way.
We sold our old 5ver last summer and purchased a new 5ver early fall, soon as I could find a dealer who would deal. Interestingly, the MSRP on our 5ver has risen almost 50% from the MSRP last fall. I suspect few people pay that price however, a 50% price increase, ummm, leads me to believe we'll see ALOT of RV's sitting on the lots, not to mention grocery, fuel prices, etc.
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Old 08-21-2022, 06:11 AM   #23
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We just got home from a long extended trip and we passed more RV dealers than I can keep count and their lots were packed to the hilt with RV's, looked like Walmart parking lot on a Saturday. The local lots around here look the same way.
We sold our old 5ver last summer and purchased a new 5ver early fall, soon as I could find a dealer who would deal. Interestingly, the MSRP on our 5ver has risen almost 50% from the MSRP last fall. I suspect few people pay that price however, a 50% price increase, ummm, leads me to believe we'll see ALOT of RV's sitting on the lots, not to mention grocery, fuel prices, etc.
I don’t know for sure, but I can assume it’s the same everywhere. When I was in sales, I’d say at least 40% of our customers really had no business owning an rv. Their debt to income made it almost impossible to get financing. Fortunately we were in a period that the banks were very lenient. They were buying what they could afford, well realistically, what they could get approved for. I think the prices have pushed a lot of those customers out. When they used to be buying a $10-15k rv, those prices are now $20-25k. Combine that with the higher prices of day to day living, I doubt many of those people will be buying. The guys I know that are still selling have also told me bank approvals are taking longer and getting harder.

The lot down here isn’t any different than other places, inventory levels are above 150. The most I ever saw on the lot was 180. That was typically our spring, pre-summer rush inventory, not late summer/early fall.
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Old 08-21-2022, 07:19 AM   #24
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I think we all knew that the break-neck pace of sales the past 2 years wasn't sustainable, that there would, indeed, be an end to that pace. We knew that the unknown end of Covid lockdowns would eventually come. We knew that many first time buyers would eventually decide they don't like vacationing this way and we would see a large pool of slightly used RV's on the market. We knew that there would simply come a point of attrition. We didn't know exactly when this would all occur but it appears that that time is here.

What we still don't know is what the glut of new RV's in addition of the growing glut of used RV's will do to pricing. Units must be sold or once-booming dealers and sales lots go out of business. It will be interesting to see what's next.

I'm just grateful that we bought our new rig about a year before Covid hit. So we've got time to watch it all unfold before make any new-purchase decisions.
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Old 08-21-2022, 08:26 AM   #25
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I just returned from a round trip from Houston to Knoxville Iowa. I did not see one transporter. Granted I wasn’t specifically looking.
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Old 08-21-2022, 09:12 AM   #26
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I just returned from a round trip from Houston to Knoxville Iowa. I did not see one transporter. Granted I wasn’t specifically looking.
I've seen a few on I-75 going to Florida (we run from Kentucky to Florida every week) but not nearly the numbers that used to be just a few months ago. The one I talked to a couple weeks ago said he had to sit in Elkhart for 10 days before he got one to bring south.

Many of them are looking for something else to do. It's not unusual for it to drop off after September but as others have said, the lots are full, the dealers just don't need any more inventory.
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Old 08-21-2022, 10:20 AM   #27
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Anyone looking to buy should wait until Jan/Feb (unless you’re looking for something very specific). What will happen if the dealers can’t get rid of last years inventory, the manufacturers will place incentives to help them move them. Every winter dealers get pots of money from the manufacturers that they can use as an incentive to close a deal. It’s up to the dealers how they apply it. Many times you’ll see manufacturer cash discount on a sales ad. The dealers don’t want to carry the inventory so they don’t place orders, the manufacturers need the new orders so that’s when all the discounts start coming out.

If you go to a dealer and the sales person is pushing you towards a particular brand, it’s most likely because they have a big sales spiff on it. That’s also an indicator where you can make a deal. As a salesman, I’ve actually called my factory reps and asked for some help in pricing to close a sale. Sometimes I was able to get an extra $500 off. Doesn’t always happen, just depends on how much they want to help out. There were times when I was told they’d already given the dealer a lot of cash, get the manager to take it from there.

Only issue with that time of year, you’re stuck with what’s on the lot. If you want something specific and plan to order, don’t expect any breaks, the dealer wants to move what they have and so does the manufacturer.
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Old 08-23-2022, 04:57 AM   #28
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Originally Posted by bsmith0404 View Post
Anyone looking to buy should wait until Jan/Feb (unless you’re looking for something very specific). What will happen if the dealers can’t get rid of last years inventory, the manufacturers will place incentives to help them move them. Every winter dealers get pots of money from the manufacturers that they can use as an incentive to close a deal. It’s up to the dealers how they apply it. Many times you’ll see manufacturer cash discount on a sales ad. The dealers don’t want to carry the inventory so they don’t place orders, the manufacturers need the new orders so that’s when all the discounts start coming out.

If you go to a dealer and the sales person is pushing you towards a particular brand, it’s most likely because they have a big sales spiff on it. That’s also an indicator where you can make a deal. As a salesman, I’ve actually called my factory reps and asked for some help in pricing to close a sale. Sometimes I was able to get an extra $500 off. Doesn’t always happen, just depends on how much they want to help out. There were times when I was told they’d already given the dealer a lot of cash, get the manager to take it from there.

Only issue with that time of year, you’re stuck with what’s on the lot. If you want something specific and plan to order, don’t expect any breaks, the dealer wants to move what they have and so does the manufacturer.
When you're looking to buy is there a percentage off MSRP your looking at? Like 25-28 percent?
Thanks
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Old 08-23-2022, 06:18 AM   #29
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When you're looking to buy is there a percentage off MSRP your looking at? Like 25-28 percent?
Thanks
That is really hard to say because of factors that affect that. For example, shipping is a huge difference. Dealers are paying over $2 per mile for shipping (recently it was actually around $3 per mile). using $2 per mile as an example, a dealer i250 miles from IN pays $500 shipping compared to a dealer that is 1500 miles away that pays $3000 shipping. Take that math and put it in a $100k trailer and it’s not that big of a deal .5% vs 3% Put it on a $25k trailer and it’s a lot different 2% vs 12%. I actually lost a sale over $250 dollars to a dealer that was 250 miles away. I tried explaining to the guy that the other dealer was actually making more money because we were paying about $450 more in freight (at that time). I also explained he’ll spend more than that on gas if he has one warranty claim, at least two round trip drives to the dealership. His comment was $250 buys a lot of beer.

There’s also difference on items such as PDI, batteries, and LP. Those are a fixed price that every dealer incurs. You can’t get a discount on them. Some dealers factor them into their MSRP, some dealers add them in after the negotiated price. If they add $500 to MSRP and you get a 20% discount, that’s $100 off those items as well. The sales side of the house is still paying the parts and service side the full amount (yes, many dealers break the sections up and charge each other for work/parts). So that fixed price will affect the percentage off you can negotiate, although it’s not as big of a deal as the shipping cost is, it still adds up.

I can’t speak much for todays prices, I’ve been out of the game for a year and a half, but it used to be anything over 20% was doing pretty good. Different brands carried different value.

Different brands also had different margins. For example, I hated selling Grand Design Transcends. People always came in expecting at least 15-20% off and hoped for more. They would read somewhere on the internet that they should be able to get XX% off MSRP, there’s always that guy that says he won’t buy unless he can get 30% off. That wasn’t gonna happen. The norm was around 7%. Even at that I didn’t make crap on commission because the margins weren’t there.

Best thing I can tell anyone is to internet shop. Keep in mind differences such as shipping costs and options. A lot of dealers up north don’t order with 2 ACs, most down south do. Are batteries, LP and PDI included? Use that info to negotiate the best price you can and don’t travel too far away from your local dealer unless the savings is significant and you have the ability to do some work yourself.
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Old 08-24-2022, 02:51 AM   #30
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That is really hard to say because of factors that affect that. For example, shipping is a huge difference. Dealers are paying over $2 per mile for shipping (recently it was actually around $3 per mile). using $2 per mile as an example, a dealer i250 miles from IN pays $500 shipping compared to a dealer that is 1500 miles away that pays $3000 shipping. Take that math and put it in a $100k trailer and it’s not that big of a deal .5% vs 3% Put it on a $25k trailer and it’s a lot different 2% vs 12%. I actually lost a sale over $250 dollars to a dealer that was 250 miles away. I tried explaining to the guy that the other dealer was actually making more money because we were paying about $450 more in freight (at that time). I also explained he’ll spend more than that on gas if he has one warranty claim, at least two round trip drives to the dealership. His comment was $250 buys a lot of beer.

There’s also difference on items such as PDI, batteries, and LP. Those are a fixed price that every dealer incurs. You can’t get a discount on them. Some dealers factor them into their MSRP, some dealers add them in after the negotiated price. If they add $500 to MSRP and you get a 20% discount, that’s $100 off those items as well. The sales side of the house is still paying the parts and service side the full amount (yes, many dealers break the sections up and charge each other for work/parts). So that fixed price will affect the percentage off you can negotiate, although it’s not as big of a deal as the shipping cost is, it still adds up.

I can’t speak much for todays prices, I’ve been out of the game for a year and a half, but it used to be anything over 20% was doing pretty good. Different brands carried different value.

Different brands also had different margins. For example, I hated selling Grand Design Transcends. People always came in expecting at least 15-20% off and hoped for more. They would read somewhere on the internet that they should be able to get XX% off MSRP, there’s always that guy that says he won’t buy unless he can get 30% off. That wasn’t gonna happen. The norm was around 7%. Even at that I didn’t make crap on commission because the margins weren’t there.

Best thing I can tell anyone is to internet shop. Keep in mind differences such as shipping costs and options. A lot of dealers up north don’t order with 2 ACs, most down south do. Are batteries, LP and PDI included? Use that info to negotiate the best price you can and don’t travel too far away from your local dealer unless the savings is significant and you have the ability to do some work yourself.
thanks for your reply, some interesting facts to ponder on!
I'm a firm believer in internet shopping to an "X" radius from us. Comparing apples to apples looks like the biggest difference buying from dealers would be shipping costs. Thanks again!
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Old 08-24-2022, 04:29 AM   #31
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I just recently traded in my travel trailer for a bigger one. Many dealers were selling units quickly in the price range I was looking in 20k - 30k. I would make plans to go see one on the weekend, only to have it sold during the week. I even had one sold while I was talking to a salesman about it. I believe the market has slowed a bit but it is not dead yet.
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Old 09-28-2022, 11:30 AM   #32
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Looks like people are still buying:

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...2-Results.html
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Old 09-28-2022, 01:02 PM   #33
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Lots here are full plus we're starting to see discounts off MSRP.
Went to CW for some parts. Since I was "unsupervised" I checked on the inventory
Could be good news if you're in the market...
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Old 09-29-2022, 07:54 AM   #34
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Common sense will tell you that the RV manufacturers were cranking out units and lots will no longer be bare but will be filling or full. Interest rates are shooting upwards due the Fed Reserve jacking up prime to combat the record breaking inflation and since folks have actual less discretionary income (price rises faster than pay checks) and interest rates rising, makes sense that not only the RV market but tow vehicle market will be cooling off. In addition, fuel costs must dampen many folks urge to drag a camper and camping may be one of the first things to slow down especially when many camp ground owners are jacking up rates.

This is actually not a bad thing as the price of RVs; both new and used as well as tow vehicles has gotten stupid high in the last two years or so. Will allow poor people like me to perhaps re-enter the buying market as I pay cash for what I buy when possible.
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Old 09-29-2022, 11:49 AM   #35
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Common sense will tell you that the RV manufacturers were cranking out units and lots will no longer be bare but will be filling or full. Interest rates are shooting upwards due the Fed Reserve jacking up prime to combat the record breaking inflation and since folks have actual less discretionary income (price rises faster than pay checks) and interest rates rising, makes sense that not only the RV market but tow vehicle market will be cooling off. In addition, fuel costs must dampen many folks urge to drag a camper and camping may be one of the first things to slow down especially when many camp ground owners are jacking up rates.

This is actually not a bad thing as the price of RVs; both new and used as well as tow vehicles has gotten stupid high in the last two years or so. Will allow poor people like me to perhaps re-enter the buying market as I pay cash for what I buy when possible.

Just a thought for you, maybe you already do this, but don’t ever tell a dealer you’re paying cash for an RV. Tell them you’re willing to finance with them if they can get you a good rate. They get kickbacks from the banks on loans so they’re typically more willing to negotiate a better price for you if they also think they’re going to get the financing. You can then either take their loan and pay it off right away or just pay cash when you do the final paperwork.
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