How much you can negotiate on a new boat?

[Doubleplay]

What was your experience buying new with the options you want? Any discount from the factory list price or none? I'm talking about mass production boats not custom?
Is it different in different part of the world?

[grantmc]

The world is a big place with many countries, and there are thousands of manufacturers and dealers.
What's the point of the question?

[NPCampbell]

Originally Posted by Doubleplay

What was your experience buying new with the options you want? Any discount from the factory list price or none? I'm talking about mass production boats not custom?
Is it different in different part of the world?

At US boat shows like at Annapolis and Miami you will routinely find boat's with a price sheet for the "sail away" price. I think they are typically always less than the published price.

[nightowle]

The short answer is: Yes, there are discounts from list. A "sail away" price that represents less than list is to motivate buyers to take what's on hand. Third party add on options such as electronics or canvas are the most negotiable parts from dealers. Why? Because these are usually added after delivery and the dealer will just pass along any "insider/volume" discounts they recieve to the buyer as an incentive. Keep in mind, there isn't a great deal of margin in marine manufacturing and selling.

[Doubleplay]

Originally Posted by grantmc

The world is a big place with many countries, and there are thousands of manufacturers and dealers.
What's the point of the question?

I didn't know that there are thousands of mass produced sail boat manufacturers.
Thanks for enlightening me. What's the point of your post if you have nothing to add?

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Doubleplay

What was your experience buying new with the options you want? Any discount from the factory list price or none? I'm talking about mass production boats not custom?
Is it different in different part of the world?

As far as options go, if they are not factory installed options (and most add on stuff isn't) You should just contract someone to install it. That's what most brokers do. It can run the gamut from terrible work to OK work. Your requests get poorly translated to the installer etc.
Ordering a boat to spec can be very frustrating. Lead times blown, stoppages for things, things done different than you expected, problems in trucking etc etc.

[mvweebles]

Right now, boats are selling very well. You may be lucky to find the one you want at asking price let alone a discount. At least in US

[Doubleplay]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Right now, boats are selling very well. You may be lucky to find the one you want at asking price let alone a discount. At least in US

Having lived and sailed in many countries I have no intention of buying in the US where new sailboat prices are highest in the World. European delivery ex VAT is always my preferred way.

[FabioC]

In my experience, if you are buying a "package" deal configuration that the dealer has put together on a boat that he/she has in stock already, there is limited room for negotiation, if any. If you are ordering a new boat that is not in stock yet, there may be some room to negotiate how it is configured, but it depends on how popular the model that you are ordering is.
Where you may have better luck is on all the extras that you may want to add on top of the package deal at the time you buy the boat. For example, if you want to add electronics, you may be able to negotiate some discount on the installation labor, etc. Occasionally, the dealer may have some other equipment in stock that is willing to let go for a favorable price in order to close the deal. In general, though, do not expect major savings. The economics of boat dealers is not the same as car dealers.

[SV-Viento]

Originally Posted by Doubleplay

Having lived and sailed in many countries I have no intention of buying in the US where new sailboat prices are highest in the World. European delivery ex VAT is always my preferred way.

Would you or someone else be willing to elaborate on advantages to European purchase? We are in the US and looking at European manufacturers. In one case there is a North American rep we can work with. However the leading candidate is smaller builder that we would work with directly. Game plan is to take European delivery - sail a season or two and ship to home. Sorry for the thread tangent