New Bennington-dealer discounts

GreatLakes87

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Hello all

shopping a new Bennington in Great Lakes region. What is roughly the discount of MSRP that you are seeing from dealers?
 
It varies from dealer to dealer and also by model
 
I think it really depends on what you are purchasing. If you are getting a base boat without many add-ons price may be a bit more fixed. If you option your boat out to the nines they have more room for discounting. There have been other threads on this topic recently so take a look and see if you can find them. I had a couple dealers price out a G series for me last spring and it was about 30% discount. The dealer I got the best price at is a large volume dealer not on the water so they don't do on the water delivery. If you are already a seasoned boater it may not matter but as someone new to this I was torn. I ended up holding off for a year on making my purchase so I will be purchasing here in late fall. In speaking to the dealer they said prices for the LX (name for new G series) is about the same so I'm anticipating not a big jump in price. My smailler dealer that has excellent customer service and will come to my lake (50 miles away from them) for delivery was $1500-2000 more. Depends on what is important to you. We are in central MN.
 
I think it really depends on what you are purchasing. If you are getting a base boat without many add-ons price may be a bit more fixed. If you option your boat out to the nines they have more room for discounting. There have been other threads on this topic recently so take a look and see if you can find them. I had a couple dealers price out a G series for me last spring and it was about 30% discount. The dealer I got the best price at is a large volume dealer not on the water so they don't do on the water delivery. If you are already a seasoned boater it may not matter but as someone new to this I was torn. I ended up holding off for a year on making my purchase so I will be purchasing here in late fall. In speaking to the dealer they said prices for the LX (name for new G series) is about the same so I'm anticipating not a big jump in price. My smailler dealer that has excellent customer service and will come to my lake (50 miles away from them) for delivery was $1500-2000 more. Depends on what is important to you. We are in central MN.
I have heard 30% from other people. My local dealer looked at me like I had three heads when I was discussing discounts. Rediculous
 
I have heard 30% from other people. My local dealer looked at me like I had three heads when I was discussing discounts. Rediculous
Through the Bennington build a boat website you can send your dream boat to a dealer for pricing. If you aren't sure about your local dealer just put in a different dealer and they will get back to you for pricing. Are you looking to buy a "floor model" or custom order one? If you are looking for one in stock there will be some good pricing on closeout 2020 models. If you are looking to order then you can try the above. As I said it depends on what your priorities are. Rock bottom price or service and customer service. I may spend more money to go with a dealer who can do water delivery and teach me a bit about boating versus just the best price. I'm new to this and want to make sure I know the secrets of launching a boat, care for my Bennington, ect...
 
Dealers have more room on the Q's & R's than they do on the S models .Dealer volume also contributes to the amount . You cant use what percentage I got . I just bought my 3rd from the same dealer who is also a friend
 
GreatLakes87 [Moderator edit] XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. He is a real stand up guy and was beyond helpful throughout the entire process. Not to mention their service department is top notch as well.

[Moderator notes] Good discussion so far. Please refrain from the exchange of specific dealership/sales person names & information in the public forum. Please use the private message feature for such conversations.
 
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Jack is right. You will get more off MSRP on Q and R series boats than S class. We built an R class SB and S class entertainment dinette boat last year. We could have gotten just over 20% off the R class SB and only 11% off the S class......Definitely more wiggle room the more the boat cost......
 
GreatLakes87 [Moderator edit] XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX He is a real stand up guy and was beyond helpful throughout the entire process. Not to mention their service department is top notch as well.
What was your overall discount they offered if you don’t mind me asking ?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[Moderator notes] Good discussion so far. Please refrain from the exchange of specific dealership/sales person names & information in the public forum. Please use the private message feature for such conversations.
 
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GreatLakes---What type of boat are you looking at? If you give us more details of your situation we can offer you more thoughts. Don't think of it as discounts (dealers may give you that puzzled look) think of it as the best price. As others have noted it's not apples to apples. If someone has purchased multiple boats with one sales person and got service done at the dealership chances are they will get a better price than you and me as someone walking through the doors purchasing their first boat. Do you want rock bottom price or customer service? So many factors. Your situation and the boat you are looking at would be helpful.
 
This year is certainly not ideal for buying a boat either. Sellers market, not a buyers market. Lower inventory due to spring factory shut downs. Higher sales and demands for boats due to people not traveling and spending on outdoor recreational items. I would think “normal” negotiated amounts off MSRP are not in play with many dealers currently.

Mixed with that is all the above advice. Model of boat can have some impact. Dealer inventory can have a big impact. Other competitors in their sales region can have an impact. So many things...

I negotiated to 32.5% off MSRP on my eventual spec’d and dealer ordered SSBXP back in 2017. That was part of a 2-3 week negotiations process. I had some other boats I was looking at with other dealers, and actual refundable deposit down on another boat actually. I also was able to benefit with some pre-boat show discounts during spring planning turnover in Nov/Dec.

I say all of that to point out there are just so many variables. However, as best I can answer what you want to circle back to in the above replies: 20% of MSRP is considered an industry norm prior to 2020.

Sometimes less when a lower end boat, or small inventory dealer, or during the busy buying season. Also very common to get above that when buying in the off season, during turn over, during boat show specials and industry incentives, when dealing with a high volume dealer or when ordering very expensive models with lots of options providing more “fat” in the pricing.

Prior to 2020 I would NEVER order/buy a new pontoon unless I was at 25% off or more. Why? Seems over confident? Simple. I am aware there are many dealers across Michigan (and likely tons more than I remotely know of), confident in being patient to get best timing on incentives/seasonal change over/etc, and confident if negotiated in good faith between a few places somewhere along the line I and the dealership will reach a good deal for both of us - one that gets me to that number minimally. This year? I wouldn’t have counted on that panning out at all.
 
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Thanks so much for the feedback. From the discounts that I’ve seen recently from dealers it has been a struggle to even get 20% off. Your advice gives me confidence that maybe I can get the 32% like yourself if I wait and buy my time. [Moderator edit] XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX?

[Moderator notes] Good discussion so far. Please refrain from the exchange of specific dealership/sales person names & information in the public forum. Please use the private message feature for such conversations.
 
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I bought both of mine in Michigan. Can't remember the discounts but they were around 28% I think. I bought my current boat from a dealer in Mecosta -Lakeside. They gave me a killer price but their post sales service was subpar. My first Bennington came from Whites Landing in Fenton. Good group there all around. I live a couple miles from the Wilson location in Brighton and they were a pain to deal with. Granted this was 7 years ago so maybe they've changed since.
 
I recently (last month) got quotes on an L series from four California dealers, and they ranged from 18-25% off MSRP. Fortunately my preferred (closest, and have heard good things) dealer came in with the best price. They were surprisingly busy with new orders even though most won't be delivered until next year. I'll probably take delivery in Feb 2021.

It seems the bigger Bennington dealers have an easier time "coming down" than the smaller shops, which might limit your ability to shop around...
 
Wow, you shouldn't have trouble in Michigan. I'm in NC and nearly bought a Benny from two different MI dealers who were MUCH more aggressive with the discounts than anywhere else I found. The only reason I didn't was because a somewhat local dealer came through with a decent price on a leftover. This was a couple of years ago though and things have changed.

The old rule of thumb was 20-30% depending on model but prices have risen dramatically over the past few years (with no significant increase in costs) so I'm sure margins grew a little too. That 32.5% figure above sounds encouraging but for me it's blown out by how crazy high the MSRPs have become. It's industry wide, I'm not blaming only Bennington.

The other factor is all time record boat sales due to the pandemic. Dealers and factories are still floating on money cloud 9 and probably thinking it's going to continue like that indefinitely. Of course it's not but you might have to wait for THEM to realize it.
 
[SNIP]but prices have risen dramatically over the past few years (with no significant increase in costs) so I'm sure margins grew a little too. That 32.5% figure above sounds encouraging but for me it's blown out by how crazy high the MSRPs have become. It's industry wide, I'm not blaming only Bennington.

Yes, you are correct, there are a lot of variables at play here, but I do think materials costs have increased and the supply chain has become much less reliable. Take aluminum, for example, I found this after some quick googling:

"Aluminum increased 41.75 USD/Tonne or 2.31% since the beginning of 2020, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity."
 
Yes, you are correct, there are a lot of variables at play here, but I do think materials costs have increased and the supply chain has become much less reliable. Take aluminum, for example, I found this after some quick googling:

"Aluminum increased 41.75 USD/Tonne or 2.31% since the beginning of 2020, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity."

And my Understanding with Aluminium is it saw a very large increase the last 1.5 years. So that 2.31% is on top of other recent increases since about 2017-18.
 
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