Dealer markup

[ken!!]

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What is the markup on a new class c rv?

 

[Tom]

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What is the markup on a new class c rv?

As much as they can get away with. If you're looking for a ball park to negotiate price, our members have reported as high as 28-30%, but many were less than that.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

My guess would be close to 40% and you should be able to get at least 30% off of the "real" MSRP, not the fancied-up version many dealers like to mock up.

Good time to buy from what I've read, dealer lots are stocked, new registrations are down 24% and the dealers are looking to make room for 2024 models, many getting incentives from the manufacturers to move the 23s off of the lots.

 

[Kirk]

markup on a new class c rv?

RV markup is a very closely guarded secret and while you will see a lot of ideas, a friend who owns a small dealership told me that it actually varies a great deal from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer. There is no mandated MSRP like in the auto industry and most RV builders do not supply one. I was shown what the dealer had on our most recent travel trailer purchase and it was just a sheet that listed the base model and all options in a typed format. He told me that was pretty typical. Any price sheets that you see in or on new RVs is created by the dealership for display and my have little relationship to the actual cost to the dealership.

RVDA Reports Industry’s Financial Benchmarks​

RVDA's report found gross margins on new RV sales averaged 18.7% in the first quarter of 2022. Gross margins on used RVs averaged 20.4% in the first quarter of 2022. The gross margin on new RVs is the highest recorded by Spader/RVDA data in at least a decade.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

You may see an MSRP on the manufacturers website for some base configuration, but it doesn't have much meaning at the dealership (see Kirk's reply). The dealer's wholesale cost is probably on the order of 60% of that MSRP, but varies a lot by brand and model. Often a lot of the dealer's revenue comes from the sale of financing, extended warranty contracts, and dealer services add-ons like "paint protection", etc., so the actual RV price is often heavily discounted.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

I was told by my dealer that the manufacturers are always throwing incentive pricing to dealers at different times of the year to move inventory and keep their manufacturing plants running. This coincides with what Kirk mentioned in his post.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I think that's a factor too, but not as much as it is in the auto industry. RV factories only build-to-order and their assembly lines aren't 24/7 continuous, so they can and do slow or shut them down as orders decline. But there are dealer incentives of various sorts and even volume purchase discounts.