I agree, everyone needs to make a profit, but my job is to minimize the profit made by others from me. And local dealers can be very price competitive; really, by charging me 20% more for a one year older model and less add-ons. And gas and motels to go pick it up; yup, my bride of 47 years will have to spend a night or two in a motel with me to go get it. That is called vacation or bonding. And the two weeks on the road after the pickup seeing America as we try out our new toy, yes that is painful, may take another 47 years to get over the trauma.
And service after the sale, that is a good one. This is my 5 RV from various size trailers to a large MH, the first 4 purchased from dealers. They wanted $1100 for a MH tire that I decided to buy from a local tire dealer. Same brand for $450. Or the time I needed generator work and they wanted over $3000. I took my unit to a generator dealer for less than $600. Or 2 months ago when I needed a weight equalizer, anti-sway, etc hitch. The local dealer wanted $699 if I bought their trailer for 20% more; I ordered the same Reese hitch for less than $300 on the internet. The dealership that I will pick up the trailer from will install and align at no charge. Yep, service after the sale sounds like a good deal. After buying about 8-10 new cars in the past 40 years I learned that you only use dealerships for warranty or insurance claim work. Their prices are double and service slower with no improvement of service rendered.
When we began taking cruises (16 completed now) we used a local travel agency. Every time we needed assistance our local agent was on a trip and we had to seek resolution from the cruise lines. The last 10 cruises were purchased on line. You ask any of those discount agencies why you should deal with them and they will tell you ?service after the sale?, but have a problem like getting injured and needing to cancel the rip and the discount agency can?t help you, you need to contact the cruise lines.
Service after the sales is a good line but a meaningless one that means if is not warranty or paid by insurance, fix it yourself or buy/fix elsewhere. In the end the manufacture pays for the fix or you get overcharged by a dealer.
My experience shows that you should buy at the best price on a product from a known manufacture. Yes, buy from the local dealership to keep them in business so I can get warranty work.
I will take my nearly $5000 savings, buy a quality extended warranty and use the local dealer for warranty work that they will gladly do. There will be enough $ left over for my expensive trip to pick up the unit. Gee, there might be enough left over for some repair work when needed.