Not again :-(

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russ

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I can’t believe how kin hard it is to buy a boat. The dealer has just emailed to say the price has risen in order to cover the repair costs. £85k for an 05 S34. I don’t think so.
Totally fed up with whole boat search.
 
russ said:
I can’t believe how kin hard it is to buy a boat. The dealer has just emailed to say the price has risen in order to cover the repair costs. £85k for an 05 S34. I don’t think so.
Totally fed up with whole boat search.
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that's what their surveyors ,found yours would find more .
 
Thats top money. If its right and you can just do it and enjoy whats left of the summer.

I paid £70K for our S34, late 2005 with D4s - 1500 hours. It needed a new canopy (3K), about to come out for antifoul, polish, outdrive repairs (steering rams and cables/service (2.5K+). Needs cockpit upholstery over winter (1.5K), choosing to do cabin upholstery and carpets to modernise colours etc. (3K). Just had new LED lights around cockpit fitted and RGB LEDs in the cabin at £600. Wife wants Oceanair blinds fitting as well :-(

So our 70K boat is 81+K investment - however it will be near perfect cosmetically and mechanically. We bought our boat knowing it needed a little cosmetic TLC but was sound underneath. I wouldn't pay £85K for it needing work but if it was pretty perfect with a warranty then I might
 
russ said:
I can’t believe how kin hard it is to buy a boat. The dealer has just emailed to say the price has risen in order to cover the repair costs. £85k for an 05 S34. I don’t think so.
Totally fed up with whole boat search.
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I'm confused. Doesn't the price normally drop to cover repair costs..?
 
Bbroomlea said:
Thats top money. If its right and you can just do it and enjoy whats left of the summer.

I paid £70K for our S34, late 2005 with D4s - 1500 hours. It needed a new canopy (3K), about to come out for antifoul, polish, outdrive repairs (steering rams and cables/service (2.5K+). Needs cockpit upholstery over winter (1.5K), choosing to do cabin upholstery and carpets to modernise colours etc. (3K). Just had new LED lights around cockpit fitted and RGB LEDs in the cabin at £600. Wife wants Oceanair blinds fitting as well :-(

So our 70K boat is 81+K investment - however it will be near perfect cosmetically and mechanically. We bought our boat knowing it needed a little cosmetic TLC but was sound underneath. I wouldn't pay £85K for it needing work but if it was pretty perfect with a warranty then I might
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I understand your comment as your achieving a boat that meets your expectations.
I would rather have a turn key boat but I’m not sure this one would of been that perfect for the price.
There’s another that’s been on the market for a very long time. Which is either priced too high or has surveyed problems.
It’s local but having the D4 and dph as your aware they have their faults which are too technical for a novice like myself to diagnose.
 
russ said:
I understand your comment as your achieving a boat that meets your expectations.
I would rather have a turn key boat but I’m not sure this one would of been that perfect for the price.
There’s another that’s been on the market for a very long time. Which is either priced too high or has surveyed problems.
It’s local but having the D4 and dph as your aware they have their faults which are too technical for a novice like myself to diagnose.
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If its not perfect then its definitely top end.

D4's are really not that bad - far more modern to helm, no smoke, smooth running and no whining superchargers. Servicing costs more but I did two engines in 3 hours so not that hard to do. The outdrives seem to be pretty solid other than steering rams needing replacement fairly regularly. Cables are 1 in 5 year at worst case jobs.

Despite the simplicity of the KAD32's I think the D4's make the S34 feel far more modern and IMO the package to go for. Having said that a couple of AD41's might still be my preferred choice if on a late boat.

We were 3 surveys in and just went for it in the end. The other two S34s we pulled out of were not good. Both had major issues that extended beyond wear and tear and maintenance. One was neglect and the other bad luck!

Hope it all works out
 
Well our 2004/5 S34 with KAD32s was a stock boat and was asking £85k when we bought it last year and in a market where boats were (and still are) selling fast it wasn’t outrageous in my view. Top end yes but it was a boat that would sell. We all like to think we can get a bargain and turn our noses up when something is asking more than we think it might be worth and sometimes the deal gets in the way. I have always been one to negotiate strongly but on this occasion we wanted a boat (an S34 specifically) and had been looking for a while with one failed survey. This one was a good example (but not perfect) and it had only just come on the market so a bargain wasn’t going to happen. We wanted it so we did the best we could (less than asking but not a bargain). We have spent more on upgrades (preference as opposed to necessary) and she is now tip top and we love it - we could have walked away and continued to chase the good deal and who knows, we might have found a better deal or we might well still be boat-less, but we are not and whilst we may have spent more than we would prefer we are happy and enjoying our pastime. It might sound a bit trite but life is too short - bereavements over the last couple of years caused us to think differently.....perhaps a little more pragmatically :)

Obviously I don’t know the boat or the dealer Russ so maybe it isn’t worth going for - at the end of the day you need to be happy.

Interestingly a D4 engined model was also on at the same time but we preferred the KADs - each to their own :)
 
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Russ, you are doing this all wrong.

I, on the other hand, have got this process down to a tee, as Mrs FP pointed out the other day.

My process goes like this:

1.) I see a boat at Wuton Barters that I like.
2.) I put in an offer - my existing boat with almost no issues is p/x'd for tens of thousands of pounds less than I paid for it.
3.) The survey throws up a long list of issues with the potential purchase.
4.) I manage to negotiate almost nothing off the price to fix those issues.
5.) The newer boat is purchased, and the issues are resolved by me spending ££££.
6.) I see another boat that I like, go to Step 2, rinse and repeat.

:ambivalence:
 
FlowerPower said:
Russ, you are doing this all wrong.

I, on the other hand, have got this process down to a tee, as Mrs FP pointed out the other day.

My process goes like this:

1.) I see a boat at Wuton Barters that I like.
2.) I put in an offer - my existing boat with almost no issues is p/x'd for tens of thousands of pounds less than I paid for it.
3.) The survey throws up a long list of issues with the potential purchase.
4.) I manage to negotiate almost nothing off the price to fix those issues.
5.) The newer boat is purchased, and the issues are resolved by me spending ££££.
6.) I see another boat that I like, go to Step 2, rinse and repeat.

:ambivalence:
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Now that made me smile :)
 
Brokers aren't having an easy time of it at the moment, poor loves. Very low stock levels and much of it junk. That combined with owners who think their boats are worth far more than they are means that the issue is compounded, meaning the brokers need to keep the prices high just to meet their overheads.

Boats in good order are selling well, as are some of the grotty ones, but only after a very considerable pricing haircut (desperation sales).

There's no easy answer other than to either (i) pay "too much" just to secure something (maybe its better than the money sitting in the bank?), (ii) wait for the right boat at the right price (it might never come!) or (iii) find the right seller - someone desperate to sell or who you can convince that you will be the "right" new owner of their pride and joy. Having bought and sold four boats in the last two years, I've seen quite a few different sides to the story.

If it was me, I'd be making a low offer and stand back. You will lose some, but unless its a boat you really want, you won't regret the fact. If it is what you truly desire, then increase your price pain threshold.
 
russ said:
It’s a dealers stock boat. So they’re doing the repairs in order to sell with a dealer 3 month warranty. There must of been more faults than they were aware of when taking it in as a p/x.
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Very odd logic by the dealer. They'd presumably originally priced it at as much as they thought they could get for it (why would you sell it for any less?), how on earth do they think that fixing things that are broken is adding value?

As you say, sounds like they found more wrong than they thought and would quite like you to pay for that problem please.

Echo the comments above regarding KAD 32/D4 by the way. Twin KAD 32 are more of a Sealine S28 or Fairline Targa 29 kind of engine in my mind. Might work okay on a S34 when the boat is fresh in the water and light on gear and people, but I suspect that at the end of the season, bit of growth on the hull, few friends on board, full tanks and all your gear and suddenly you're going to find yourself working them very hard.
 
ari said:
Very odd logic by the dealer. They'd presumably originally priced it at as much as they thought they could get for it (why would you sell it for any less?), how on earth do they think that fixing things that are broken is adding value?
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If the boat had new covers and upholstery, new turbos, new fuel lines, new outdrive shafts, new heat exchangers, newly tested injectors, new props, etc then it would certainly add value in my book.

ari said:
Echo the comments above regarding KAD 32/D4 by the way. Twin KAD 32 are more of a Sealine S28 or Fairline Targa 29 kind of engine in my mind. Might work okay on a S34 when the boat is fresh in the water and light on gear and people, but I suspect that at the end of the season, bit of growth on the hull, few friends on board, full tanks and all your gear and suddenly you're going to find yourself working them very hard.
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I agree, our T34 is pretty much the same dimensions and I would miss the extra power that the KAD44's give, despite us normally cruising at 3000rpm / 25kts.
 
If you look back on the forum the old chestnut of KAD32s in an S34 comes up with the underpowered comments almost exclusively coming from people who don’t or haven’t owned one - no offence intended :)
Inevitably an owner comes along and reports that they are perfectly adequate - to quote one they are more cruiser than sports but no issues with performance year round. There then follows one or two comments conceding that they must be okay because Sealine might have known what they were doing and they were by far the most popular engine choice in the S34.

All of this featured in my research before deciding what we wanted, which was a KAD32 engined S34 so this time round I am that owner who can report that the KAD32 is well matched to the boat, providing all the speed we want and perfectly adequate for our cruising needs and with the benefit of a palatial engine bay for comfortable owner maintenance - as long as that is allowed :)

No question it wouldn’t keep up with Pete’s Targa 34 but then that wasn’t in our list of requirements :)

Horses for courses - no issue with choosing a higher powered boat but don’t do it on the basis of a mistaken belief that the smaller engines are no good :)
 
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Greg2 said:
If you look back on the forum the old chestnut of KAD32s in an S34 comes up with the underpowered comments almost exclusively coming from people who don’t or haven’t owned one - no offence intended :)
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None taken :)!

At the end of the if "overpriced" boats are still selling then they're not actually overpriced. Regarding this overprice dealer boat, if it's had all the normal stuff replaced and is a minter then its worth serious consideration. You don't want it to be "the one that got away".
 
petem said:
You don't want it to be "the one that got away".
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Wrong thinking, P.
When looking for a used boat, such thing as the bargain of your life that got away simply does not exist.
What do exist are other opportunities you are not yet aware of.
 
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