Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Best Time to Buy a Boat

Whether you are looking for new or used, it’s no secret that fall is typically the best time to buy a boat if you want a bargain.


Used Boats
The current owner of your next used boat probably wanted to get one more season out of her, and is now under pressure to sell before the holidays or before incurring winter storage fees. You’ll likely find a little more selection of used boats for sale earlier in the fall, but as the days get colder there are two types of sellers – those that decide to take their boat off the market until the spring, and those that are really going to be flexible if you make them an offer. There are thousands of boats for sale listed on FirstBoat.com through their affiliation with UsedBoats.com, and thousands more boats available for auction through FirstBoat’s EBay affiliation. Whether you are more of a buyer or a bidder, look around and make an offer… you never know what you might be able to get this time of year from a distressed seller.

New Boats
As for new boats, dealers are showing 2011 models, and have already started to mark down any leftover 2010 model inventory to make room for the newer boats. Dealers, too, will often surprise you with what they will take on an older model boat. If the dealer is simply holding the boat for the manufacturer, and didn’t pay for it, they may have some significant incentives from the manufacturer to sell that boat to you at a steep discount rather than send it back to the boat maker. Browse FirstBoat's directory of boat manufacturers to choose a brand of boat and find a local dealership.

Supply and Demand
Unfortunately for buyers, despite overall low boat sales this past year, supply is not on your side right now when it comes to finding new 2010 models leftover on the lot. Boat manufacturers aggressively shut down production factories over the past two years to stay lean, so there are less new 2010 boats to be found than you might expect in a down economy. If you’re not having luck finding a great deal on a new boat at your local dealers, you might try seeing what you can find at the next big boat show, where sales reps are under pressure to sell a lot of boats to justify the expense of exhibiting at the show – you may just get an offer to buy a boat that you can’t refuse!

What About You?
What’s your experience? Have you bought a new or used boat recently? Are you shopping for a boat and not finding the deals you’d expect in this economy? Are you a dealer who is practically giving boats away to turn inventory, or not discounting at all because business is so good? Please comment at DailyBoater.com and let us know.

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1 comment:

  1. The NMMA agrees in this NY Times article that winter boat shows are a great time to buy a new boat. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/your-money/06shortcuts.html

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