Boat Show Discounts on New Sailboats

[Haguesail]

A colleague will be shopping for a new sailboat in the 33-37 foot range at the upcoming HISWA boat show in Holland. Any guidelines or recent experience in obtaining meaningful dealer discounts at one of the major shows? While I expect it varies greatly by dealer, it would help in general to give him some guidance an what traditional or achieved discounts might apply. Thanks, Chris

 

[nickfabbri]

Well according to my dealer, the discounts you can get are normally in the region of 5-10% although this is normally made up in "extras" . There are however one offs, especially if you buy their ex show boats. These are normally offered at greater discounts. I found out, that if you want an ex show boat most yacht manufacturers spec one boat for the european shows. If you get in early enough you can spec it yourself, have it trawled around the shows and then get it afterwards. Even greater savings which I hope to capitalise on myself.
Oh, and you will also apparently get better savings at the end of the show if they have poor sales figures.

 

[Tranona]

Suspect big discounts are a thing of the past. Builders are probably more interested in maintaining margins having worked through their excess stock and scaled back their production to meet demand rather than just building to keep the factory busy.

You will only find out when you start negotiating.