Quote:
Originally Posted by hddecker
8K are you kidding me. What kind of margins are these guys working with...
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I hear you... if i hadn't been standing there with him during the entire process, I'd have thought he was lying to me.
In my opinion, these guys are working with huge margins... and have lots of markup in their prices. As an example, the MSRP on the rig I'm pulling right now is over $105K... yet I bought the unit for just a little over $60K.
At the show last year, there were over 1,200 different rigs of every type from pop-ups to full blown Class A's being shown, from every single manufacturer in the business... and the final tally from the end of the show was over 3,400 RV's sold that week. That number has steadily climbed each year, and I'm told the brands have a grand wager each year on who sells the most.
While I'm somewhat new to the RV world, I have a few friends who have been going to this show for many years... and also know a few people from my motorcycle groups who work on the factory floors building these things (not necessarily from Dutchmen, but other brands). As such, by what I can gather, I think sometimes they (the manufacturers... not the dealers themselves) will slash the price of a unit to barely making any profit at all, so long as it keeps units moving out the door, and their brand name on the road. I think that began when the economy turned south, and they were doing anything to simply keep their doors open, and their employees paid... but has continued on today.
Bottom line... I know they do it. Hell, I was simply doing some research on an XLR rig at last year's show... asking about options & checking prices... when the Forrest River rep asked me point blank how low he had to go to get my business from him that week. I kept telling him that I was only shopping at that point & doing research, and he kept going lower & lower.
As for the quality issues... I know, and I agree, which is part of what I want to speak with them about. I've been out with my rig 3 times already in the short time I've had it, and so far I like RV'ing. But if things can't get better than they are, there are other hobbies & interests where I can put my recreation dollars... and I intend to let that be known. Oh well.. we'll see.