discount-vs-markup

May 14, 2004, 01:40:34 pm

I've chimed in on this one before. Usually these topics die a natural death, but this one doesn't seem to go away so I wouldn't want the opportunity to pass without putting in my two cents worth:
After spending the past 20 years prior to retirement in the car business, I can speak with a limited amont of knowledge and a lot of experience on what appears to be an exercise in futility.
We had folks come in with elaborage models they had drawn of a car purchase: This equals that, bla, bla, bla. Unfortunately they spent a lot of time for naught.

With all due respect to the thesis, I wouldn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no true MSRP in the car business and certainly none in the RV business.

To attempt to identify what the dealer paid is not only impossilble but also very meaningless when it comes to what you, the consumer will ultimately pay.

It has been said before and remains true that only way to determine whether you have the best deal is to comparison shop with at least two or three dealers on identical vehicles and factor in convenience and the "feel good" factor in dealing with them.

Why? Because dealers all have different acquisition costs for identical vehicles, based on volume and incentives from the manufacturer, rebates, etc, etc. Some will deal closer to their actual cost because they want to move the iron. Others have a fixed margin that is often dictated by some bottom-line management decision and all of the MSRP and cost knowledge you have is useless!

Folks who pay full asking price for RV's or other vehicles will almost always leave a lot of money on the table. There are a few exceptions. If you really want a brand new model and there aren't many on the dealers lots, you will have to pay for it, irrespective of MSRP. On the other hand, if you buy from a dealer who is seriously overstocked and running to the bank to cover his flooring costs, he will probably sell at cost just to keep the doors open.

After all of the above, I can say that I probably did leave some money on the table when buying brand-new because the dealer had the very model I wanted and I was ready to go right then! I felt good about the discount and never looked back.

Larry
Intrigue
10762

Re: discount-vs-markup

Reply #1 – May 16, 2004, 04:02:53 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 9786

From: "Larry Hanson" larry.hanson@...> (snip) > With all due respect to the thesis, I wouldn't want to be the bearer of bad

news, but there is no true MSRP in the car business and certainly none in the RV business. (snip)

I don't know if they still do it, but, when we bought our old '00 Winnebago Minnie Winnie Class C in '00, there was a Winnebago Industries price sticker on the window, similar to the Monroney (sp?) sticker on new cars. And it was a factory ... not dealer ... sticker, for sure.

Dick (& Geri) Campagna
'98 36' Intrigue #10571
Mfd: 11/97

(in Max Meadows, VA)

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