How to deal with the MSRP silly dance?

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jymbee

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 20, 2018
Posts
3,517
Location
Upstate NY
There's probably someone somewhere that went to buy an RV, they were told the MSRP price and they said "Ok" and bought it. But I think that most everyone shopping these days knows that the MSRP for RVs is not a price you should ever just accept.

Is there any kind of rough formula that can be used to get an idea of a more realistic base price that a dealer might at least consider? Perhaps a range of prices-- or would such a calculation be too simplistic given the number of variables at play? For autos there's resources such as the Blue Book and often you can find friends or acquaintances that have purchased something similar. For RV's on the other hand I don't know where to start to come in with that initial offer to a dealer (assuming buying new).
 
Someone most likely has much more experience and data than me but......

There is a dealer that advertises a minimum discount of 25%.  I'd say that's a good starting point.

I've purchased two RV's a little more than 25% off of MSRP and 1 with a little less.  I negotiated for the 1 with less than 25% over the course of 2 months and walked out twice; and once they didn't call me back so I'd say I was close to bottom dollar on that one.
 
You generally get the best deals late in the month when the sales team is looking at quotas. That assumes a traditional walk in dealer. Sending out quote requests isn?t quite the same thing. For towables, you can get 30-35% off unless the unit is in high demand. Motorhomes seem to go for 20-30% off, but more variability there. Note the best prices are not at the start of summer travel season, but in August or September especially on the current year model. Of course the selection is generally lower too. I will caution you to check out reputation and service along with price though. As Marty said, the PDI a dealer goes through and how quickly they fix items on a punch list are very important. I willingly will pay a bit more for good service, not 5 or 10% maybe, but some.
 
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