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Is SV Series Really No Haggle

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Innsbrook

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Hello all,
Just bought a lake house and looking to take the plunge into boating as well. Restrictions at my lake require electric and 16*8 max size. Was at the local dealer comparing an 16SVL to 16SL.
I do have a couple questions as I’m new to boats. Salesman added in a $660 hydraulic power lift for the Torqeedo engine and insisted I would need it? Also, little interest in haggling as I’d have to order since they don’t have either in stock. He said the SVL is no haggle price but did agree to knock off freight and prep. After perusing the forums looks like 15-25% discounts are normal so wondering if I should pursue another model or if the promotion on the SV is so good that they aren’t discounting much. Any experiences or advice would be appreciated.
 
Don’t fall for it, everything is negotiable. Especially now with Covid19 boat sales should slow considerably down and they’ll be paying juice on any unsold product. There is probably less margin on the lower end models but to say it’s no haggle means they’re checking your IQ.

For reference my SXP on order was somewhere around 28% off MSRP. And there’s still probably a lot of fat on that number. But these guys need to make a living - if the profit on one of these is $5k, think of how many boats they have to sell to make payroll, pay utilities and then pay themselves. If a low volume dealer it means they can’t give it away... so go find a high volume dealer to get best pricing.
 
Thank you for the advice. I will keep looking. Any recommendations out there of high volume dealers in the Midwest? Seems like there are some 2019 out there still but finding one in electric is probably a very low chance so I’ll probably be ordering one.
 
I don’t agree. Those SV models sell at very low prices. There is not much to negotiate.
 
Alicedream said:
I don’t agree. Those SV models sell at very low prices. There is not much to negotiate.
Click to expand...

Ditto. The price you “build a boat” is what you should pay. Now the prep and freight, yeah I’m guessing they can negotiate that, and any options they may add at dealer.
 
We bought our 20SVF at a boat show and I was talking to the sales manager about the price. He said he could only work with $500 dollars and at that he was not making hardly anything on the sale. If you build one on the Bennington site it will come in with a no haggle MSRP and what we bought our for was right on that price. So it’s as close to no haggle as it comes.
 
Supply and demand folks. If no one buys the inventory on the shelf then the price will drop, even at a loss if need be.

Again I’m not suggesting these are high margin products. But to suggest you can’t get a better deal by shopping around or negotiating with the dealer is just not good advice even if the result ends up the same. I will call my dealer and see if I can get some insight into this, but I suspect what others are suggesting is that if you do a custom retail build, those prices are locked by Bennington’s system and the dealer cannot change those. But if you are looking to buy a boat that was ordered for inventory then there may be wiggle room.

I’ll report back.
 
Updating the group.

Spoke with my dealer and he said that 20’ and below CURRENT year models have NAP - nationally advertised pricing - that dealers stick to. This is for the price of the boat only, and that any add-ons like motors, electronics etc not from the factory is between you and the dealer, and frankly where the dealer tries to increase his margin. So in the OP’s case, assuming a 2020 model, calling around to others dealers will likely yield the same set price for the boat.

For models over 20’ and non-current models it sounds like dealers are free to advertise what they want.
 
Thanks everyone for taking the time to weigh in. You gave me the confidence to move forward. I put a deposit down this afternoon on an order for an electric 168 SLV. I did get three bids and the dealer I wanted to use ended up with the best price after some negotiating. No Haggle did mean it with all I spoke to but as some indicated I got some others discounts. No prep or freight fees, free delivery and lesson, free $400 in dealer options and free shrink wrap and storage for the first winter with delivery both ways. Ended up being close to $2K less than the others. Small electric boats are so niche that finding any new or lightly used in my area is very tough so ordering was really only option since we want one for the summer.
 
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