Malibu just lost its biggest dealer

[wheelman]

Wizard lake is no longer a Malibu dealer. 

[oldjeep]

any idea why?

[Sunscape fan]

I called them 2 days ago about a warranty issue.  They didnt say anything to me about it.  Do you know if they're still gonna do  warranty work?

[WakeSwagger]

This is certainly news worthy! I think MN Inboard has them beat for "biggest dealer", but this a huge loss nonetheless! 

[oldjeep]

8 minutes ago, WakeSwagger said:

This is certainly news worthy! I think MN Inboard has them beat for "biggest dealer", but this a huge loss nonetheless! 

wizard lake was biggest north American dealer, MN inboard biggest us dealer

[ryangb]

MN Inboard beat them by 1 boat this past year.  Yes, it is def a big loss. Not sure who will be the new dealer. Big mistake by Malibu if you ask me. 

[WakeSwagger]

I will certainly miss seeing their designs! Some of the best looking color schemes have come through Wizard Lake Marine. 

[wheelman]

I think we will be seeing a lot more nautiques in BC and Alberta.  

[ahopkins22LSV]

That is interesting. You would think Malibu would have something else lined up in that area because of how large of a market it is.

[IXFE]

I wondered about this... ever since they gave Malibu the middle finger on the M235

[Raimie]

1 hour ago, IXFE said:

I wondered about this... ever since they gave Malibu the middle finger on the M235

How so... I must have missed something.

[Cayute]

Did wizard sell any m235s?  Last time I was in performance not long ago they still had the one they had at the boat show

[Sunscape fan]

42 minutes ago, Cayute said:

Did wizard sell any m235s?  Last time I was in performance not long ago they still had the one they had at the boat show

Both Performance Watersports and Wizard still have the first ones they ordered.  Not really surprising considering the cost.  

[catalac]

The guys at WIzard Lake have been fairly open with customers on how poorly Malibu has been as a partner the last couple years all at the same time Nautique has been bending over backwards to help build the business. Pretty sure Malibu corporate treated wizard as "What have you done for us" vs nautique who act like "what can we do for you". Just watching their web site looks like about 4 nautiques sold this winter for every 1 Malibu.

Edited June 27, 2016 by catalac

[ryangb]

3 hours ago, IXFE said:

I wondered about this... ever since they gave Malibu the middle finger on the M235

Pretty tough to sell a wake boat for $230k, plus 5% tax in Alberta at the moment. Our economy is in the toliet.  That was boat show price, not MSRP. 

[Cory]

5 hours ago, IXFE said:

I wondered about this... ever since they gave Malibu the middle finger on the M235

Are you confusing Wizard with Seattle Boat?  Seattle Boat did not bring the M235 to the Seattle Boat Show.  

[IXFE]

48 minutes ago, Cory said:

Are you confusing Wizard with Seattle Boat?  Seattle Boat did not bring the M235 to the Seattle Boat Show.  

No, I am not confused.

This was a story reported here months ago.  It went something like this... Wizard said "NO" to the M235.  Not liking that answer, Malibu worked on the invoice for them and forced them to take ONE (which I believe they still have sitting on the lot).  Then at the boat show they basically told everybody to buy the G23 instead.  Or something along those lines...

When I read this I knew it meant trouble, and not just because of the economy up there.  If any dealer could move M's it was Wizard.  Every year they seem to be able to move scores of heavily loaded VLX's, LSV's, MXZ's, G23's, etc.  

And if the economy is really so bad up there, somebody forgot to tell Wizard.  They currently show 29 Malibus (17 with G4 towers) and 39 Nautiques (21 sitting on triple axles trailers) on their site.  

 

Edit:  I found one of the links... read before and after this.  @wheelman seems to know the story.

 

Edited June 27, 2016 by IXFE

[23LSVOwner]

17 hours ago, oldjeep said:

any idea why?

I heard Malibu dropped them.

[Cayute]

I always thought at the Shuswap even in the last couple years there was quite a few brand new g series... Quite a few malibus aswell but not as many brand new ones. So performance would be the only BC dealer now? 

Wizard was at the van boat show right? With all nautiques

whats the pricing on those nautiques though? Are those g23 and g25s not up around 200k+ aswell?

 

Edited June 27, 2016 by Cayute

[catalac]

I know of one guy for sure who bought an M235 from them but they do sell a pile of G boats, nautique gave them addition margin to work with this winter basis the Canadian dollar that made the Malibu's uncompetitive. 

Correction to my comment guy that had planned to buy an M235 went with a G23 he said $37,000 less than the M and better equipped.

Edited July 1, 2016 by catalac
Fact check

[TenTwentyOne]

1 hour ago, 23LSVOwner said:

I heard Malibu dropped them.

If true, that would be one of the dumbest business decisions ever.....

[ahopkins22LSV]

Just now, TenTwentyOne said:

If true, that would be one of the dumbest business decisions ever.....

Maybe. There could be a lot to that story right? If Nautique was giving crazy margins and Wizard was using that as leverage against Malibu, basically pushing them out on their own. From the stories posted on here it doesn't sound like Wizard wanted anything to do with Malibu this spring. Then I could see it, IF they have something else lined up in the area. Obviously they can't just loose that market. Of course it could be the exact opposite of that too...

[KentC]

This seems to be happening a lot.  I bought my boat from Great Wakes in Lenior City, TN.  The big dealer that was close to the factory.  Something went wrong last year and they dropped them as a dealer all of a sudden for a small no name dealer at the time in Clinton, TN.  There's definitely drama going on behinds the scenes.  It all doesn't make sense on the surface, but something obviously is going on.   

[wheelman]

2 hours ago, Cayute said:

I always thought at the Shuswap even in the last couple years there was quite a few brand new g series... Quite a few malibus aswell but not as many brand new ones. So performance would be the only BC dealer now? 

Wizard was at the van boat show right? With all nautiques

whats the pricing on those nautiques though? Are those g23 and g25s not up around 200k+ aswell?

 

Yes, wizard was not allowed malibus at the Vancouver boat show because Vancouver is performance's area. Wizard had Malibu for the interior of BC. 

[TenTwentyOne]

1 hour ago, ahopkinsTXi said:

Maybe. There could be a lot to that story right? If Nautique was giving crazy margins and Wizard was using that as leverage against Malibu, basically pushing them out on their own. From the stories posted on here it doesn't sound like Wizard wanted anything to do with Malibu this spring. Then I could see it, IF they have something else lined up in the area. Obviously they can't just loose that market. Of course it could be the exact opposite of that too...

I do agree with you on that.

 

The big "if" would certainly be if they had another dealer lined up.

I have some dealers that carry competing products as well as mine, and definitely some that promote one over the other. Rather than pushing product on them, or pulling my product out of their store, I focus more on maintaining a healthy relationship and working for them. We have never had an attitude that we are doing the dealers a favor by working with them. We always treat it as, the dealer is doing us a favor by working with us.

We will probably never know exactly what happened. I just hope it wouldn't be because Wizard simply liked moving one brand over another for a period of time. I would hope that Malibu could recognize that the tables can turn one way or another, and that wizard should have been able to market one brand over another, in certain times, if it benefits their business. They could never know. Next year, they might have been pushing Bu's harder again, because circumstances happened to better benefit their business at that time.