4 hours ago, Woodski said:

You could probably lift the back of the boat and not bend the shaft.

Good intuition, Woodski.  I just calculated the deflection of a 1.25" stainless shaft held 9" away from a 3,000 pound load.  The deflection would be about 0.22 inches or so, which is no doubt way under the amount needed to induce plastic deformation (i.e. create a permanent bend in the rod after the load is released).

Typically, in a bank owned sale like this, the dealer (or some other entity if repossession was to occur) would retain possession of the items (under close scrutiny of the bank) and someone would be available to show the product to potential buyers with the understanding the bank will reimburse the selling agent if that isn’t a bank employee.  The financial discussions will happen with the bank instead of through F&I at the dealership.  Realistically, you would very likely be able to take financing out on your own for this boat too.  I doubt you could do a trade in on it because the bank isn’t in the boat business and they are offloading assets, they don’t want another.  The dealer is definitely not going to take it on trade, they would have a harder time selling it.  
 

Jeff, you bring some interesting points up.  I had no idea dealers had to get preapproval for warranty work.  I’d have hoped they would be empowered to make that call for most things and just document it in the warranty claim.  Seems less efficient to have to adjudicate a blame before it’s completed. 
 

Full disclosure, I work for an automotive OEM as a service engineer and deal with warranty spend as part of my daily activities. 

I am working on dewinterizing and getting my 2011 23LSV back out on the water for summer. In doing so, I noticed some sloshing around when I jumped into the port side locker where the rear ballast tank is. Tank is empty but the entire section around where the hard tank is full of water. I was able to take part of the flooring out and access where the rear ballast tank pump is located and water is filled to the top. The entire section is filled with water. The starboard side is dry and the hull is completely dry as well. My assumption is that there are drain holes on each side of the stringers and my portside is clogged up. Does anyone have any idea where these drain holes would be located? I have not had any success in figuring out where these are. 

This may feel like an unpopular opinion, but I've been on both sides of this and have seen 3 dealerships up close and personal, including my own at one point. 

The dealers don't always get reimbursed for work that is viewed as warranty in the customer's eyes. Dealers will often have to "eat" a lot of the cost and labor associated with warranty work, which is why they have to make money on the sale of the boat. And in order to quickly get you back out on the water, will often do it by purchasing parts in advance to swap out knowing they might get questioned and fought on the claim. Imagine the flip side if the dealer decided to sit on your boat for a week in July just trying to get an authorization approved before they would even touch your boat for fear of not getting reimbursed. If you went out somewhere to find a killer deal, then arrive at a different dealer expecting them to do all the warranty work for you, some of which would likely cost them money to do, you'd view it a little differently. While there are some dealers that have shown themselves to do some shady things, there are also plenty out there just trying to make an honest living in an industry that constantly paints them as criminals.

Everyone want their dealer to have 30 techs just sitting at the shop waiting to turn your new boat in and out for service the same day in the middle of the summer, but also wants to be able to buy it at 3% over invoice. That just isn't a sustainable business model for a seasonal, luxury item that requires stock in the showroom.

For cars, you are correct. They make most of their money on service and warranty claims are much smoother and consistent. Not the case in the marine world.

What would the purchase of a Malibu from Tommy's look like right now? Presumably, the boat could be located at any of Tommy's 15-16 locations. Would the buyer be dealing directly with an individual from M&T bank? Seems unlikely, but I don't know, hence the question. Would there be a boat sales person / broker involved? Does Malibu corporate have any say in the disposition of Tommy's inventory? 

I have purchased foreclosed real estate before and there was still a real estate agent representing the bank/owner. And in the late 90's I almost purchased a Nautique from a dealer in the pacific northwest (I am in SoCal) that lost their dealership arrangement with Correct Craft and was looking to unload the last 8-10 boats they had in inventory in advance of that effective date. The dealer provided me with their invoice and supporting details of their floor financing as assurance that the prices were rock bottom. But that dealer was not in default with their lender. 

Just curious.