Dealers and Dealerships

[Camp I am]

Originally Posted by Jim & Kay

Here is a photo of the Toyota & Cougar HC at Lakeshore RV Center -- they permitted me to spend 2 nights there, waiting to get the hitch installed. They furnished water & electricity and gave me the opportunity to check things out before heading back to VA.

Congrats on your new rig. I'll second you enthusiasm on Lakeshore RV 6 years ago we had a simular positive experiance with them, I bet we even camped on the same pad you did Saved us on our first TT purchase almost $4000.00 so the trip from WI was worth it. This past go round their price was good, but we found a dealer close by in WI that had exactly what we were looking for on the lot, and gave us more than Lakeshore was going to on our trade in so in this case we were better off buying localy but my wife and I both agreed we missed the awesome experiance we had the last time with Lakeshore, those guys run a great business.


Happy Camping

[reubenray]

I went to a second dealer today and he was about $10,000 higher than the first one I went to. Their website cost was even less than they was quoting me. Their website cost was still $4,000 without all the extras that the first dealer had in his deal. The extras was the hitch, free RV night, starter package, PDI, propane and pressure regulator. Everything I would need to for the first outing. The second dealer cost only included the hitch.

The first dealer was a locally owned dealer in Louisiana. The second was big company with offices all over Texas.

I may go ahead and get in touch with Lakeshore to see what type of deal they will have.

[JRTJH]

Not sure where you're looking in Louisiana, but there are a lot of family owned RV centers in the state. Many of them are really good to work with. CENLA Camping in Alexandria is one that comes to mind. There are many others.

As for the list of inclusions you mentioned in the cost of purchase, one was the PDI. Keystone pays the dealer for that, if the dealer is including it in your purchase price, then he's charging you for something that's already being paid by Keystone. You may be able to negotiate that out of the purchase price if you address it with him.

[reubenray]

I have checked over and over for Keystone dealers with the Cougar HC models and only found Primeaux of Carenco. I could not get any info on Cenla of Alexandria. Is that the dealer just North of Airport Road coming from Shreveport?

Another dealer I am checking the next trip back home from Dallas that is in McComb, MS.

[JRTJH]

Cenla Camping Center is not a Cougar dealer, so they won't have anything you're looking for. Bus Supply Company in McComb, MS has a couple of 291RLS in stock. No pricing listed, so you might call them and see if they are competetive. When we lived in Jackson, MS, a lot of people bought from Bus Supply rather than the dealer in Jackson. I haven't had any dealings with either, so I can't comment on them.

[Johnnyfry]

When I bought my 318SAB I checked with a couple of midwest "wholesale" dealers for a price. It was about $10K below my local dealer. I printed out the quote and took it to the dealer. I told them that it would cost me about $500 to drive to Michigan and what could they do?

They came within about $800 of the "Wholesale" dealers price so we bought local. I couldn't have been happier, going local is best if they will work with you. Easier from the Tax and registration standpoint and certainly if anything goes wrong. We were not going anywhere for a couple of months and they allowed us to leave it on their lot for free. The promptly informed us of a circuit breaker recall and attended to it promptly when we took it in.

John

[reubenray]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Cenla Camping Center is not a Cougar dealer, so they won't have anything you're looking for. Bus Supply Company in McComb, MS has a couple of 291RLS in stock. No pricing listed, so you might call them and see if they are competetive. When we lived in Jackson, MS, a lot of people bought from Bus Supply rather than the dealer in Jackson. I haven't had any dealings with either, so I can't comment on them.

When we head back home in two weeks (working in Dallas) I plan on stopping by Bus Supply to see how competitive they are. We drove a hour and a half one day between Christmas and New Years and they was closed.

There is another dealer (Paws Paws) that is only about 20 minutes from our house. But we went there once and their entire setup made us want to run as fast as possible to get away.

[rjsurfer]

Originally Posted by Johnnyfry

When I bought my 318SAB I checked with a couple of midwest "wholesale" dealers for a price. It was about $10K below my local dealer. I printed out the quote and took it to the dealer. I told them that it would cost me about $500 to drive to Michigan and what could they do?

They came within about $800 of the "Wholesale" dealers price so we bought local. I couldn't have been happier, going local is best if they will work with you. Easier from the Tax and registration standpoint and certainly if anything goes wrong. We were not going anywhere for a couple of months and they allowed us to leave it on their lot for free. The promptly informed us of a circuit breaker recall and attended to it promptly when we took it in.

John

I tried that with my local dealer and he wouldn't budge, so off I went to Michigan to pick up my Cougar and save $4,000 to boot. Low and behold six months later when I needed a small part I called the local dealer up and he was out of business, why wasn't I surprised.

Ron W.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by reubenray

There is another dealer (Paws Paws) that is only about 20 minutes from our house. But we went there once and their entire setup made us want to run as fast as possible to get away.

Having been born and raised in South Louisiana, I can comment on that "mentality" because I'm "of the culture" Paw Paw's reminds me of the traditional LA method of handling problems.... "One more glass of strawberry wine and then we'll talk about it" My impression was they're really into the "handshakin' and backslappin" but not so great at the "fixin' and maintainin"