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Non-current Discounts of MSRP

Potomacbassin’ said:
Keep in mind custom orders need to be transported, so if dealers don't have other orders to fill out the load (my dealer said they come in batches of 4 or 5) , these costs can't be spread out. I've even heard some boat manufacturers force their dealers to carry inventory so they then try to get customers to buy whats on the floor.
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That makes sense, too. I think when a dealer has boats on order, both pre-sold and stock, pre-sold boats can be put onto the transport truck where a stock boat would have been, in order to fill that pre-sold order. I could be wrong, but it seems like that could be a possibility.
 
Scott1 said:
I just bought a Bennington I found on line. 2025 24LXSSB with a 250 Yamaha SHO. MSRP was $139,000, sale price was $112,000. He gave it to me for 102k delivered to me. Delivery was $2400.
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Nice! Be sure and post some pictures.
 
Scott1 said:
I just bought a Bennington I found on line. 2025 24LXSSB with a 250 Yamaha SHO. MSRP was $139,000, sale price was $112,000. He gave it to me for 102k delivered to me. Delivery was $2400.
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If "we" ask, what did you get for your 2014?
 
LaurencetheAdventurer said:
If "we" ask, what did you get for your 2014?
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My local dealer didn't have the boat I wanted, I hated not using him. I still have my 2014 and a couple people have already told me they want it so I will sell locally. If not, I would've traded it in just to make things simpler.
 
In July last year I found a new 2023 20SVL, yeah, I know, the lower end of Bennington it had a 90hp on it which is what caught my attention, dealer said Bennington asked the to take 40 of them and they would help with " under the line" rebates, he wanted $33k, after much haggling,, and driving off the lot, ee agreed on $29k for the boat and $2500 for a 2024 magic Tilt aluminum trailer, which is import down here in the salt water, when I was researching msrp it looked like $44k plus trailer. When we picked it up Yamaha announced the day prior they were adding an additional 2 yrs to the warranty. Which was icing on the cake, we have 35 hours on it now, and look forward to every weekend so we can be out in the bays and intercoastal waters down here, not sure if that's considered a good deal, however, it was good for us, being just me and the wife of course.
 
I use 30% as a rule of thumb but it's not always accurate and of course it will horrify some dealers. That, by the way, is on the CURRENT model year. Leftovers are a whole different story. You should be able to get more off of the price they post but it takes some finesse.
 
The Rock on High Rock is 20-30% off, all day, every day, but they might not sell to you with other dealers in your area. Dealership protection rights with some manufacturers. Their newest dealership up at SML is incredible. LOT of boats. Big place. Much bigger than High Rock. I can't remember, but maybe 8 drive thru service bays ??
 
BigD said:
The Rock on High Rock is 20-30% off, all day, every day, but they might not sell to you with other dealers in your area. Dealership protection rights with some manufacturers. Their newest dealership up at SML is incredible. LOT of boats. Big place. Much bigger than High Rock. I can't remember, but maybe 8 drive thru service bays ??
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I've never heard of a dealer not selling to someone because of another dealer in the area. Most of the time it's because the local dealer doesn't have what the customer is looking for. I don't even think that would be legal? Car dealerships do it all the time.

Edit: I just looked up the law and it can be legal to not sell a boat or vehicle to someone not local. From what I read the manufacturer may encourage this to prioritize sales in geographical areas but don't force it. I haven't ran into this problem, I've bought 2 Benningtons from out of State even though I have a local dealer and never was questioned about it. I would love to buy local but 1. I'm not ordering a boat and paying close to suggested MSRP 2. The local dealer doesn't seem to order many sporty high HP Tritoons.
 
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Scott1 said:
I've never heard of a dealer not selling to someone because of another dealer in the area. Most of the time it's because the local dealer doesn't have what the customer is looking for. I don't even think that would be legal? Car dealerships do it all the time.

Edit: I just looked up the law and it can be legal to not sell a boat or vehicle to someone not local. From what I read the manufacturer may encourage this to prioritize sales in geographical areas but don't force it. I haven't ran into this problem, I've bought 2 Benningtons from out of State even though I have a local dealer and never was questioned about it. I would love to buy local but 1. I'm not ordering a boat and paying close to suggested MSRP 2. The local dealer doesn't seem to order many sporty high HP Tritoons.
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I said SOME manufacturers have territorial sales restrictions and didn't necessarily call out Bennington and what they do and don't do. Just something to watch out for. I have experienced it first hand. Some dealers abide by the rules, and some don't at the risk of losing the dealership. "We can't sell you a boat because dealership A and B are closer to you. Unless they don't have it and you don't want to order". First question is always "where are you located" ?
 
BigD said:
I said SOME manufacturers have territorial sales restrictions and didn't necessarily call out Bennington and what they do and don't do. Just something to watch out for. I have experienced it first hand. Some dealers abide by the rules, and some don't at the risk of losing the dealership. "We can't sell you a boat because dealership A and B are closer to you. Unless they don't have it and you don't want to order". First question is always "where are you located" ?
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Yeah, I knew you weren't just talking about Bennington. I live in Maine and my local dealers never had the inventory for what I wanted. I've found my two best deals in Indiana. The most recent is still on the showroom floor waiting to be delivered to me when I give him the go ahead. I just can't see paying 150k to custom order a boat when you can get it for 100k off a showroom floor. This one I purchased is not even a left over, it is a 2025 and got 40k off the MSRP. I'd love to be able to find that deal locally but just can't.
 
BigD said:
I said SOME manufacturers have territorial sales restrictions and didn't necessarily call out Bennington and what they do and don't do. Just something to watch out for. I have experienced it first hand. Some dealers abide by the rules, and some don't at the risk of losing the dealership. "We can't sell you a boat because dealership A and B are closer to you. Unless they don't have it and you don't want to order". First question is always "where are you located" ?
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That's crazy. It shouldn't matter where you're "from." I've never heard of this before.
 
FightinIrish said:
That's crazy. It shouldn't matter where you're "from." I've never heard of this before.
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I have run into this with Bennington in the past and recently with Barletta. Not so much anymore with Bennington because I think they backed off around the time they changed owners but that's just a guess. I am of the opinion that it's a form of price fixing and therefore illegal. If you press the matter, the dealer will acknowledge it's a "suggestion" or a "guideline" and not a hard and fast rule but all they have to do is quote you MSRP to make you go away.

I was recently shopping for a grand piano and Yamaha does this as well. With Yamaha, it's okay if you're out of their area and are buying in person but they will not quote you a price remotely so you can't call and have one shipped to you (not that you should do that with a piano anyway).
 

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I agree with all of our pals on this site who say do NOT pay $10K more than you should simply because you THINK you’ll have to wait for warranty service.
club.benningtonmarine.com club.benningtonmarine.com

This has probably been covered a bunch on this forum over the years. It happens for reasons, maybe not great ones from a buyers perspective, but not unusual.
 
The boat I just bought this week was a 2024 holdover from the winter boat show. The marina needed to get rid of it, so they sold it to me at cost. Gave me an incredibly generous offer for my trade-in as well. I could not resist. It's all about the timing and situation.
 
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