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Buying Boat out of State?


lib135

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It seems dealers, only want to deal with people that live in the area. I want to have a couple dealers compete over the best price on a boat for me. is this legit? Can I buy the boat from a dealer in a neighboring state if the price is better? Any thoughts on this?

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It seems dealers, only want to deal with people that live in the area. I want to have a couple dealers compete over the best price on a boat for me. is this legit? Can I buy the boat from a dealer in a neighboring state if the price is better? Any thoughts on this?

IMO they do not want you to do that. but that is just my thought :)

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You can buy the boat where you want, but it will be difficult to get a couple dealers in a bidding war like you can when you go to buy your next Chevy. There are not enough of them, and your local daler has the advantage because that's most likely where you will want to go to get your warranty/service work done.

It may not be the best situation (for the customer), but that's the way it is.

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I have 4-5 dealers within a 3 hour drive of me. The out of state dealer, is offering a better price, but I told him I was local, he said he wanted to make sure, because he "didn't want to step on anyone's turf.

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A Dealer outside the State can't actually sell you a Brand New boat.. (I found this out the other day) If they have a used one that you are intersted in I think it is open season but as far as a new 07 goes I think they have a contract with Malibu prohibiting them to sell new boats outside of their jurisdiction... BICBW.

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I brought my boat out of state. There were no listed dealers in NJ at the time and I might have been in 'his jurisdiction'. I traveled to other states too and dealers were more than willing to sell me a boat. I had to pay the sales tax in NJ at the time of registation and had to bring the license plate and registation from my other boat trailer to take delivery. I planned on doing all of my own maintanance so the distance to the dealer was not an issue to me and I knew the Bu's are very dependable so I didn't worry about service. Besides there was an Indmar authorized service place near me. Knock on wood the Bu has been troube free for four summers now. So there are a few things to consider if you decide to go outa state. Oh, there was a recall on the fuel crossover hoses that you had to go to your dealer for replacement, but I talked him into mailing them to me but only after I mailed him the bad ones. I'm guessing he needed them to get the labor reimbersment.

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When I ordered my 2000 Response the local dealer (St Louis MO) was losing Malibu & going to Mastercraft. I did not like him or think he was a good dealer. His service manager was a part time high school kid! I called a dealer in Michigan and he had to check with Malibu before he would price a boat for me. By the time my boat was built Malibu had a new dealer in St Louis. Now in 2007 Malibu has another new dealer in St Louis. That's 3 dealers in the last 8 years.

I am very much against Malibu's effort to keep dealers from selling out of their territory. It allows for crappy treatment and service by a local dealer.

Edited by BillFooter
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They are not allowed to sell outside their assigned territory. Malibu is very diligent about protecting the dealers assigned area. Fact is they really need to be kicking the dealers behind about customer service! They pulled my dealers contract with no notice in a full of crap situation and they were the #1 Malibu dealer in Tenn. Took it away from owners and gave it to their Gen. Mgr.! Ain't that some crap! He was the guy that was supposed to be in charge of making everybody happy! Anyway they were reprimanded for ALMOST selling to somebody in another state till the other dealer screamed.

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I stopped by a dealer out of my territory and looked at a 2006 demo boat. He told me that he was not suppose to sell a demo boat outside of his territory until March of the following year. I would think the same would be true for non-current models.

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I stopped by a dealer out of my territory and looked at a 2006 demo boat. He told me that he was not suppose to sell a demo boat outside of his territory until March of the following year. I would think the same would be true for non-current models.

Hey now,

You know I'll hook you up with a good deal ;)

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My brother-in-law fell in love with my 247 last year at Lake Powell. He was in town for the SLC boat show and we spent all our time at the Malibu dealer and he is now convinced. He has a mastercraft X-30 and now he wants to dump it and upgrade. He wanted to go ahead and buy a boat right at the show, but the dealer told him he couldn't sell it to him since he was from out of state, and that quite frankly, he'd get better service if he bought from his local dealer. Fine. We understood.

He went home, went to his local dealer, and they want an extra 10 grand for the exact same boat! They kept giving him excuses about why they have a higher price like different options etc, so he had my dealer fax over the exact specs he had looked at here, and they were identical. His dealer just told him too bad and walked away!

Now we are trying to get the Malibu reps involved, but so far, it looks like he has to pay an extra 10 grand for the honor of doing business with his local dealer. Simply amazing.

Shouldn't my money be good wherever I want to spend it? I can go to Denver or Vegas to buy a Mercedes and still get it serviced here by my local dealership.

Malibu really needs to re-think this one.

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My brother-in-law fell in love with my 247 last year at Lake Powell. He was in town for the SLC boat show and we spent all our time at the Malibu dealer and he is now convinced. He has a mastercraft X-30 and now he wants to dump it and upgrade. He wanted to go ahead and buy a boat right at the show, but the dealer told him he couldn't sell it to him since he was from out of state, and that quite frankly, he'd get better service if he bought from his local dealer. Fine. We understood.

He went home, went to his local dealer, and they want an extra 10 grand for the exact same boat! They kept giving him excuses about why they have a higher price like different options etc, so he had my dealer fax over the exact specs he had looked at here, and they were identical. His dealer just told him too bad and walked away!

Now we are trying to get the Malibu reps involved, but so far, it looks like he has to pay an extra 10 grand for the honor of doing business with his local dealer. Simply amazing.

Shouldn't my money be good wherever I want to spend it? I can go to Denver or Vegas to buy a Mercedes and still get it serviced here by my local dealership.

Malibu really needs to re-think this one.

I agree that is rediculous... Obviously there has to be some sort of Competition clause in there but they need to be fair on price as well... Sounds like you need to sell your brother in law your boat and buy the new one from your local dealer...

Thaere has to be a way around that...

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The way I went around it on my 03 Wakesetter was to set up a PO box and not tell the dealer my actual address. I can't believe Croft was cheaper then any dealers he was just the opposite on the 03 when I bought it.

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I think this is totally fine

This allows Malibu to keep their pricing integrity intact.

Basically, by law, Malibu can't force the dealers to abide by those rules, they just strongly urge them to.

This keeps the dealers happy, the happier the dealers, the happier we are.

It also allows for Malibu and the dealers to stay in business

Look at it from a dealers perspective. If their going to do service on your boat, wouldn't you think they would like to get the initial profit's.

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Of coarse the local dealer wants the initial profit but this is AMERICA and I go where I can get the best deal, It is not smart business to turn away servicing a boat just because it didn't come from his dealership. The oil changes, scheduled maintenance and winterize de-winterize generates good profit, so to not service a boat is ridiculous. Malibu states "We can't force a dealer to service or do warranty repairs on the boat, because all dealers are owned and operated privately but we can try and strongly influence them to be a team player." Malibu should state in there process of becoming a dealer they can force the dealer to service any boat that is a Malibu reguardless of where it was purchased. They need to have some sort of control over there dealers.

Edited by jessem
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Malibu may be able to 'force' the dealer to service, but then they can't force the 'scheduling' of that work. The dealer may want to give preference to their customers, which is how the politics of allocating a limited resource (service hours) to their customers comes into play.

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The way I went around it on my 03 Wakesetter was to set up a PO box and not tell the dealer my actual address. I can't believe Croft was cheaper then any dealers he was just the opposite on the 03 when I bought it.

I was avoiding using names, but since you know Croft, they are cheaper than the dealer in Denver, where my brother-in-law lives. I was really surprised at the huge difference.

What he might just end up doing is buying it with his son's address since he is over here going to school.

By the way, how has Croft been for service since you didn't buy your boat from them? Just curious. So far I have been very pleased with how they have treated us.

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You CAN buy a promo boat, which is the best deal for the money imho, from an out of state dealer/promo guy. I did it in 05 and saw a savings of over 5k (37k v/s 42k) from a new dealer price. The boat was a RLXi with 100hrs. All warranties started at time of purchase.

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You CAN buy a promo boat, which is the best deal for the money imho, from an out of state dealer/promo guy. I did it in 05 and saw a savings of over 5k (37k v/s 42k) from a new dealer price. The boat was a RLXi with 100hrs. All warranties started at time of purchase.

I've got one right here...you wanna buy it?

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I think this is totally fine

This allows Malibu to keep their pricing integrity intact.

Basically, by law, Malibu can't force the dealers to abide by those rules, they just strongly urge them to.

This keeps the dealers happy, the happier the dealers, the happier we are.

It also allows for Malibu and the dealers to stay in business

Look at it from a dealers perspective. If their going to do service on your boat, wouldn't you think they would like to get the initial profit's.

We don't expect them to service any boat for free.... They are charging to service a boat are they not? I would imagine that the larger dealers have their service department separated from their sales department and there are managers to run both... I know if I was a dealer I would try and stay as competetive as I can and I would service any boat because whether I sold the boat to that person or not Income is Income and they are trying to run a business...

It just sounds that this dealer is being greedy and taking advantage of the territory rules that Malibu has set in place to protect them and does not deserve the business and is not working for it...

I say figure out a way to buy a boat from someone else and do what ever you can not to bring it to that dealer for service.. They do not deserve it...

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I'm not saying that the dealer won't service it. I also don't know what a dealer makes off of a boat. But what I know is these dealers are NOT car dealers, where they make money on service and financing alone. They need to sell boats to maintain profits.

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