Fatboydiesel
New York
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Joined: 07/29/2012
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Would you buy local or travel a bit to pay 3000 less for a cougar?
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texasjayco
Texas Hill Country - west of Austin
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Joined: 12/27/2007
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That's a tough one....
I like saving money as much as anyone
BUT
1) I like to use local merchants as much as possible
2) I think your local guy may not be so accomodating if you need service but didn't buy from him
3) Your local guy probably has more overhead, but I would use the other guy's price to at least meet in the middle on the price of the local unit.
My .5 cents
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Bionic Man
Colorado
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We traveled about 300 miles to save several thousand dollars on our first fifth wheel. Gave the local dealer a chance to match or come close to the offer but they refused.
It turned out ok for us although service did prove challenging at times. If it was a matter of saving less than $1000 I'd say go local. More than that, make the trip.
2012 RAM 3500 Laramie Longhorn DRW CC 4x4 Max Tow, Cummins HO, 60 gallon RDS aux fuel tank, Reese 18k Elite hitch
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WI Bowhunter
Shiocton, WI
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I would try to make my local dealer match. If he can't get close, travel. You need to figure travel/fuel costs to get the one further away.
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2011 F150 Supercrew, 4X4 3.5 Ecoboost, 145" wheelbase, 3.73 gears, Max trailer Tow package
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Fatboydiesel
New York
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I'm at 30500 plus 400 to bring it half way to me plus 190 doc fee... 31090... Probably cost me 300 on my end to drive half way. So I am at 31390. Local guy wants 32999 plus freight and prep (1054) plus doc 225 temp tag 35 and 125 motor vehicle fee totals 34438.00... What to do lol
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Artemus Gordon
Redding California
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I bought my new Montana in Texas. Best price over all dealers in Ca. Saved over 20k. Yes that's the number. Had zero problem with service. Montana has backed the product and dealers have been cooperative. So my opinion is you give them the chance, it's up to you to make the decission. Good luck!
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skipnchar
Topeka or somewhere else
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MY choice would be to travel a few thousand miles and get 8,000 off on the RV  There really are few if any down side issues with buying out of town (I've never had any myself). Yes you may find a few dealers who don't want to work on the RV but those dealers usually don't have a very good service department (or they WOULD want the work). Manufacturers only pay ONCE for a repair so the second or third try is on the dealer so with a poor service dept. they don't want to work on any they don't HAVE to work on. It's a pretty good means of weeding out those dealers when choosing a repair location.
You CAN expect to receive service where they may service their own sales first but I've never even ran into that. As for the COSTS of going to pick up the RV....That's what I purchased it for, to travel so can't really say that travel is a BAD thing
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josten367
Columbia, MO
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Depends if it's a wholesaler selling at the $3000 less or not. Local guys can't match the wholesalers and they also have it out for them. If you buy local you will get better and quicker service than out of town.
Example:
My A/C quit on me a month ago. Called local dealer to do the work (under warranty). Service guy said that they could do the work but since we didn't buy it from them it would be 2-3 week wait to get it in. If I bought it there it would be like 1-2 weeks. Wow. He said that people buy from the wholesalers and never go back and save all that money. When in turn you take it to the local guys for warranty work the local guy doesn't make any money or loses money on it. If the work takes 5 hours and the manufactorer thinks that it can be done in 2 hours, the local guy eats the 3 hours. So, I don't blame the local guy for being upset, plus they have bills to pay also. By the way I found a dealer for the A/C and shipped it in and I installed it and gave the labor money to the dealer for helping me.
I would go local if you could and suppose local guys. Saving money is good but some of the wholesalers don't care after the sale.
2012 Palomino Puma Bunkhouse 5th Wheel 295KBH
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blangen
South Dakota... and everywhere.
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Have you, yourself, seen the RV that's a ways away? If not, go look before you do anything. I recently went looking across the country for a specific unit of a specific year. What was most interesting in this search was the differences in condition. I found units in the hands of what one would think were quality, large dealers that were nothing near the quality of the one we purchased. Pictures lie. Our thought was that spending a day or two and airfare was a much better investment in getting a good unit than just taking a chance and seeing what arrived. So... your question of local vs distance may well be answered when you look (assuming you haven't already) at the distance offering.
* This post was
edited 07/31/12 02:40pm by blangen *
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car2900
Mount Juliet, Tennessee
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Fatboydiesel wrote:Would you buy local or travel a bit to pay 3000 less for a cougar?
If you could get your local dealer to get down within $1000, I say buy closer to home. I live 16 miles from my dealer. Have had to take it back a couple of times for warranty items. I figure I have saved a lot in fuel cost and time already.
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