Good news for us is that house is listed. Even in this terrible market, it is priced right.We decided to sell the house first, and live in the new 5th wheel we have decided on(finally after a long search) 'till our F/T date, June of 2012. We are self-employed and have a 6/1/2012 sale date on our business.So, we went to our "friendly" local RV place, where we had purchased before,and with whose service we have been very pleased. Prior to the visit, we had done some online research and found that out of area, the exact same unit is available for much,much less than this dealer's "Our Price", which was 91% of the stated MSRP. I have a written quote from a dealer at quite a distance from me,but even if I paid for transportation, I'd still be more than 13K to the good, buying from the distance dealer, whom I have checked out, on an owners forum,and has high marks.(They even offered to store it for me free, 'if I wanted to come for it, which would save me another 2K).When I showed the local guy this, he literally flipped out. I asked him for his best price, no reply,when I told him I had a price much closer, from the closest other dealer (300 mi away), which was still $5,000 better than his, I again asked if he would give me a "best price".To date, no response(a week ago) It is obvious I have to go out of area.One of the jerk at the dealer's comments was that they wouldn't perform wnt'y work if I didn't buy from them.BS, I know, and I have contacted the mfgr.(Open Range) to complain, but what is the reality here? Do any of you have any experience buying at a great distance? The best price is 1200 miles away. Is it worth paying more to have a close service relationship?Since I'm going from a TT to a 5er, I do need to have hitch work done. I would assume it's best to have that done with the specific unit in place.
At my age, I've bought a lot of things, including several RV's but never had someone trying to sell me something act like these local people.Same guy we bought from last yr, too!Soon as I let him know we had reseached things, he became Mr.Hyde. With all the stress of selling things from the house, as well as selling the house itself,we feel that having the unit we'll live in early was worth something, in terms of convenience, but not what this guy tried to extract from us. I was hoping (foolishly) to have a pleasent local buying experience Any experience/advice about distance buying will be welcome. Thanks in advance.
Richard
janni said
07:52 PM Mar 24, 2011
I know how you feel. I have lived in a few different cities and always bought my homes, cars, etc.where I lived. I was raised to keep your paycheck circulating in your hometown. We had a similar situation when we bought our coach and ended up buying in a different state even. I guess when we left, our new home is on the road so any work we need done will be done(on the road) It wouldn't be bad if they would come a little closer to your other quotes.
Our experience in the last year buying(and selling) long distance has been good. If we would not have found this coach we were looking at them all over the US. If you do your homework(making sure warranty in order, clear titles, lots of phone calls with solid answers, and as much paper trail as you can get) things usually work out fine. Majority of people are honest I have found.
Good luck to you!
GENECOP said
08:18 PM Mar 24, 2011
The local guy showed you his true colors, buy out of town, deal with the work as you have to, I would not do business with those guys even if they matched the price, G
GSF63 said
08:36 PM Mar 24, 2011
We went through this same experience a year ago. We got lucky and when we showed the owner of our local rv center he decided to match the price from the wholesaler that was 300 miles away. I was glad to keep the money local but I would of traveled to save the $14,000 that I saved by a little research.
2fortheroad said
09:33 PM Mar 24, 2011
Sounds to me that your local dealer is haveing money problems and wants you to pick the tab.
I'am with Gene, these people need to go away. I would not ever go back, warranty or not.
Bill Adams said
06:43 AM Mar 25, 2011
By chance have you made a personal visit to the dealership with an appointment to speak with the owner? If not, you might want to consider this option. However, if you are selling your house and buying an RV, do you have plans to travel? If so, the local dealer may not be an issue anyway. Get the best deal, pack up the 5er and hit the road. The only one losing in that deal is the ignorant dealer and/or sales person.
Terry and Jo said
07:20 AM Mar 25, 2011
Richard,
Since you will be full-timing in about a year, I would advise that you go with the better deal financially. I would also suggest that you get in touch with the factory and ask that if you needed warranty work, would it be OK for a "free lance" RV tech company to perform that work. There are normally other RV repair facilities available, especially in the larger cities. Check in your local area, contact those facilities to see if they could work directly with the factory before you contact the factory.
Should it be that your distant dealer is the one I mentioned in my private message reply to you, I can say that they have been great people to work with. If it is my dealer, use the e-mail address I gave you and contact me again. If I can help in some ways, I'll be glad to try to help.
Terry
rclvnv said
04:53 PM Mar 25, 2011
Thanks to all of you. I'd be inclined to take the advice to buy out of town without question, if I were free to go on the road today. The fact that we will live it it locally for a yr., could be problematic. It will then become our home, and even if the local has to perform wnt'y work for us, I wouldn't want to be at the back of the line, as we will be operating our business,still. Since our business is school-related, we will be gone most of June,all of July,and half of August, this year.We do plan to travel extensively, once we are done with the business,(we are considering taking less for an earlier sale),as our kids are in DC and the Tampa area. Once on the road, I would, as Gene mentioned deal with what is needed,as needed.
Local guy called today.(wonder if that's because I contacted the mfgr?) Said he had some "numbers" for me. Since I had a lot of work today, I told him he'd need to call back tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what he has to say. I am not optimistic,and am inclined to tell him where to go, in any event, but I'll see what he has. Terry, I've kept the link you gave me, thank you.I'll contact them if, as I expect, the local guy is wasting my time.
Richard
Not all who wander are Lost.
rclvnv said
05:22 PM Mar 27, 2011
Seems I have to eat a big helping of crow!I couldn't understand why the behavior of my favorite dealer seemed so out of sync with past experience.They kept asking me to come by and saying they would make things right. I didn't want to sit there and do the back and forth. There was none of that, we showed up, and they had the numbers very much in line.It was obvious now, that we just weren't communicating effectively via e-mail. We bought the Open Range from them today, and they more than met the distance price. They simply wanted to preserve the asking price, but more than made up for the cash difference via our trade. Over all, the price was better than the distance price. Since we wanted to have the unit before the house sells, to facilitate the downsizing,it was necessary to finance in the interim, and they got us financed @5.25%.We will pick-up the new rig on Thurs. The owner was involved in the transaction,personally, as well. Perhaps my cynical attitude was at the root of it all, don't know, but again thanks to all for listening and especially to those who ofered sound advice. We are now one step closer . At this stage of our lives, you don't get a lot of time to correct missteps,so your support has been a real comfort.
Richard
2fortheroad said
05:53 PM Mar 27, 2011
Congradulations on makeing a deal on your soon to be new home!!
Now the fun starts, what to keep and what goes, and where to put it. Have fun and enjoy.
-- Edited by 2fortheroad on Sunday 27th of March 2011 05:54:14 PM
Terry and Jo said
11:01 AM Mar 29, 2011
Congratulations, Richard. A lot of people aren't aware of the value of dealing face to face. Sometimes in e-mail messages and phone calls alone, the one on the other end doesn't really realize to whom they are communicating.
I'm glad things worked out price wise and you'll have the comfort of knowing you don't have to "call-in" someone else for warranty work. (Presuming, of course, that their service department is a good place to have repair done.)
In my experiences in the past, I have always liked face to face deliberations. Then both parties can get the feel of whether a person is honest or not. (Believe it or not, I was a car salesman once upon a time.)
Good news for us is that house is listed. Even in this terrible market, it is priced right.We decided to sell the house first, and live in the new 5th wheel we have decided on(finally after a long search) 'till our F/T date, June of 2012. We are self-employed and have a 6/1/2012 sale date on our business.So, we went to our "friendly" local RV place, where we had purchased before,and with whose service we have been very pleased. Prior to the visit, we had done some online research and found that out of area, the exact same unit is available for much,much less than this dealer's "Our Price", which was 91% of the stated MSRP. I have a written quote from a dealer at quite a distance from me,but even if I paid for transportation, I'd still be more than 13K to the good, buying from the distance dealer, whom I have checked out, on an owners forum,and has high marks.(They even offered to store it for me free, 'if I wanted to come for it, which would save me another 2K).When I showed the local guy this, he literally flipped out. I asked him for his best price, no reply,when I told him I had a price much closer, from the closest other dealer (300 mi away), which was still $5,000 better than his, I again asked if he would give me a "best price".To date, no response(a week ago) It is obvious I have to go out of area.One of the jerk at the dealer's comments was that they wouldn't perform wnt'y work if I didn't buy from them.BS, I know, and I have contacted the mfgr.(Open Range) to complain, but what is the reality here? Do any of you have any experience buying at a great distance? The best price is 1200 miles away. Is it worth paying more to have a close service relationship?Since I'm going from a TT to a 5er, I do need to have hitch work done. I would assume it's best to have that done with the specific unit in place.
At my age, I've bought a lot of things, including several RV's but never had someone trying to sell me something act like these local people.Same guy we bought from last yr, too!Soon as I let him know we had reseached things, he became Mr.Hyde. With all the stress of selling things from the house, as well as selling the house itself,we feel that having the unit we'll live in early was worth something, in terms of convenience, but not what this guy tried to extract from us. I was hoping (foolishly) to have a pleasent local buying experience Any experience/advice about distance buying will be welcome. Thanks in advance.
Richard
We went through this same experience a year ago. We got lucky and when we showed the owner of our local rv center he decided to match the price from the wholesaler that was 300 miles away. I was glad to keep the money local but I would of traveled to save the $14,000 that I saved by a little research.
Sounds to me that your local dealer is haveing money problems and wants you to pick the tab.
I'am with Gene, these people need to go away. I would not ever go back, warranty or not.
Richard,
Since you will be full-timing in about a year, I would advise that you go with the better deal financially. I would also suggest that you get in touch with the factory and ask that if you needed warranty work, would it be OK for a "free lance" RV tech company to perform that work. There are normally other RV repair facilities available, especially in the larger cities. Check in your local area, contact those facilities to see if they could work directly with the factory before you contact the factory.
Should it be that your distant dealer is the one I mentioned in my private message reply to you, I can say that they have been great people to work with. If it is my dealer, use the e-mail address I gave you and contact me again. If I can help in some ways, I'll be glad to try to help.
Terry
Thanks to all of you. I'd be inclined to take the advice to buy out of town without question, if I were free to go on the road today. The fact that we will live it it locally for a yr., could be problematic. It will then become our home, and even if the local has to perform wnt'y work for us, I wouldn't want to be at the back of the line, as we will be operating our business,still. Since our business is school-related, we will be gone most of June,all of July,and half of August, this year.We do plan to travel extensively, once we are done with the business,(we are considering taking less for an earlier sale),as our kids are in DC and the Tampa area. Once on the road, I would, as Gene mentioned deal with what is needed,as needed.
Local guy called today.(wonder if that's because I contacted the mfgr?) Said he had some "numbers" for me. Since I had a lot of work today, I told him he'd need to call back tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what he has to say. I am not optimistic,and am inclined to tell him where to go, in any event, but I'll see what he has. Terry, I've kept the link you gave me, thank you.I'll contact them if, as I expect, the local guy is wasting my time.
Richard
Not all who wander are Lost.
Seems I have to eat a big helping of crow!I couldn't understand why the behavior of my favorite dealer seemed so out of sync with past experience.They kept asking me to come by and saying they would make things right. I didn't want to sit there and do the back and forth. There was none of that, we showed up, and they had the numbers very much in line.It was obvious now, that we just weren't communicating effectively via e-mail. We bought the Open Range from them today, and they more than met the distance price. They simply wanted to preserve the asking price, but more than made up for the cash difference via our trade. Over all, the price was better than the distance price. Since we wanted to have the unit before the house sells, to facilitate the downsizing,it was necessary to finance in the interim, and they got us financed @5.25%.We will pick-up the new rig on Thurs. The owner was involved in the transaction,personally, as well. Perhaps my cynical attitude was at the root of it all, don't know, but again thanks to all for listening and especially to those who ofered sound advice. We are now one step closer . At this stage of our lives, you don't get a lot of time to correct missteps,so your support has been a real comfort.
Richard
Congradulations on makeing a deal on your soon to be new home!!
Now the fun starts, what to keep and what goes, and where to put it. Have fun and enjoy.
-- Edited by 2fortheroad on Sunday 27th of March 2011 05:54:14 PM
Congratulations, Richard. A lot of people aren't aware of the value of dealing face to face. Sometimes in e-mail messages and phone calls alone, the one on the other end doesn't really realize to whom they are communicating.
I'm glad things worked out price wise and you'll have the comfort of knowing you don't have to "call-in" someone else for warranty work. (Presuming, of course, that their service department is a good place to have repair done.)
In my experiences in the past, I have always liked face to face deliberations. Then both parties can get the feel of whether a person is honest or not. (Believe it or not, I was a car salesman once upon a time.)
Good luck with the downsizing.
Terry