Back to the main site

Dealer Dropped Bennington

G

Gidzig

Member
Messages
8
Reaction score
4
Hi Everyone-

Last year my wife and I purchased a new 2025 20’ M L-Bench tritoon with a Yamaha 150SHO. Just recently, our dealer, who has been our dealer of choice (this is our fifth Bennington, second Tritoon), informed us that they were no longer handling the Bennington line. What, if needed, do we do about warranty issues????
 
Gidzig said:
Hi Everyone-

Last year my wife and I purchased a new 2025 20’ M L-Bench tritoon with a Yamaha 150SHO. Just recently, our dealer, who has been our dealer of choice (this is our fifth Bennington, second Tritoon), informed us that they were no longer handling the Bennington line. What, if needed, do we do about warranty issues????
Click to expand...
I hate replying with this answer: Who and where is your next closest Bennington dealership. That’s going to become you next warranty contact point. So sorry to hear your local preferred is no longer handling the Bennington line. I’d imagine a heads up last year (if they could have) would have been nice in the new boat decision making process.
 
Vikingstaff said:
I hate replying with this answer: Who and where is your next closest Bennington dealership. That’s going to become you next warranty contact point. So sorry to hear your local preferred is no longer handling the Bennington line. I’d imagine a heads up last year (if they could have) would have been nice in the new boat decision making process.
Click to expand...
Kinda stinks. Marina is on the lake and our boat is in a rented slip. The marina has been wintering, shrink wrapping, taking out, storing and launching all the boats for decades. We don’t have/never needed a trailer.

The brand new Bennington dealer (as of November, who doesn’t even have any Bennington boats in stock, formerly a Tracker and Harris dealer) is just off a highway, not near any water.
 
Sometimes, a dealer can perform warranty work and Bennington can reimburse the dealer. That being said, the cause and or reason of discontinue may hinder that idea.
 
Just out of curiosity, did your previous dealer pick up another pontoon brand ?
 
Gidzig said:
…We don’t have/never needed a trailer…The brand new Bennington dealer (as of November, who doesn’t even have any Bennington boats in stock, formerly a Tracker and Harris dealer) is just off a highway, not near any water.
Click to expand...
Are they very far? Maybe they will provide courtesy trailering to dealership, or do it for a small fee. As for your other off season storage needs, I would think you could still have the marina on the water do all of that.

Our Bennington dealer isn’t on the water, but for $50 each way pulls and tows the boat. So we can handle warranty and Bennington specific needs with them. As a result we have never owned a trailer ourselves either.

We then store it in doors in off season with an on-the-lake marina (non-Bennington) who pulls it, does winterization and summer prep for us, and puts it back in in the spring. So again, no trailer on our part needed. Perhaps you can handle your boat similarly?
 
Gidzig said:
The marina has been wintering, shrink wrapping, taking out, storing and launching all the boats for decades.
Click to expand...
No reason the Marina can't continue to do this work, and the annual maintenance. So you are just left with warranty work - as noted, the new dealer may offer a trailering service, your existing marina might offer a trailering service, my lake has several valets. For small items, maybe DIY or for the ease, let the local shop do the work and save the headache.
 
My dealer sold out in early '25 and gave up the territory to another marina. Then they jacked up the slip fees 20% and made some ridiculous demands on the slip owners, so I took my business elsewhere. These things happen so you just need to realize having a dealer close to your wet slip is actually a luxury many don't have. 1st world problems.

I never needed a trailer either so just put an order in for one, should be here in February. It's an opportunity to take the girl on the road and explore new waters!
 
Potomacbassin’ said:
My dealer sold out in early '25 and gave up the territory to another marina. Then they jacked up the slip fees 20% and made some ridiculous demands on the slip owners, so I took my business elsewhere. These things happen so you just need to realize having a dealer close to your wet slip is actually a luxury many don't have. 1st world problems.

I never needed a trailer either so just put an order in for one, should be here in February. It's an opportunity to take the girl on the road and explore new waters!
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, we moved to a townhouse in a 55+ neighborhood 5 years ago. We cannot have boats, RV’s, etc in our driveway for more than 48 hours to load/unload gear. No safe place to store a boat, except a self store yard. Guess a trailer doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in our situation, as much as it would be fun to explore.
 
Gidzig said:
Unfortunately, we moved to a townhouse in a 55+ neighborhood 5 years ago. We cannot have boats, RV’s, etc in our driveway for more than 48 hours to load/unload gear. No safe place to store a boat, except a self store yard. Guess a trailer doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in our situation, as much as it would be fun to explore.
Click to expand...

It probably comes down to what the warranty issue is vs the hassle factor. When my boat was slipped at the selling dealer, I'd have every little thing looked at and repaired/covered just because it was so convenient. But now that I'm a bit further away I'm more likely to let the little things go. Just live with it or DIY. But yeah that's a bummer.

Future me has eyes on a specific center console brand and the closest dealer is 2-3 hours away. If and when I pull the trigger I'm going to have to accept the added hassle factor of warranty work. Boat ownership is seldom easy!
 
Cannot get an answer which came first -

If Bennington pulled the line after 25+ years with the dealer, or if the dealer dumped Bennington and that’s why the now have Premier and Evotti!

The dealer still has more than a dozen 25 and 26 Bennington toons in stock.
 
Gidzig said:
Cannot get an answer which came first -

If Bennington pulled the line after 25+ years with the dealer, or if the dealer dumped Bennington and that’s why the now have Premier and Evotti!

The dealer still has more than a dozen 25 and 26 Bennington toons in stock.
Click to expand...
This sounds like a mess. The dealer wouldn't order '26 model Benningtons and then drop them, so you can draw your own conclusion as to how these events played out.
It's common knowledge that Evotti is primarily former Benny employees, so...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top