What if a manufacturer goes bust...

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LWR

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I was wondering what people's thoughts were on what the effect on residual values of a boat might be if a manufacturer went bust.

I know Birchwood went under a few years back, but I haven't been around boating long enough to understand the effect. If one buys from a big player (Sunseeker, Fairline, Princess etc) and they go bust, does the residual values of boats suffer badly? What about if a boutique name (Marlow, Aquastar, Trader) went under?

Just wondering how risky it is to have so much money tied up in a boat...

Thanks,

LWR
 
Probably not too clever if the manufacturer goes bust within the first 2-3 years of ownership, but old boats are old boats: the Sunseeker salesman isn't going to start salivating if you tell him you have a 1980 Model already.

(nothing against older Sunseekers: my point is that the link to the original company that built it becomes less relevant over time...)
 
I checked out Marlow and they are self financed - no borrowing plus they have a healthy order book and a good reputation.

Aquastar also have a good name and are busy building boats. Fleming are Ok as well.

I have no comment on the other make you mentioned.
 
to my knowledge before the managment buy out of Fairline a few years ago, it was passing a difficult moment,
with yearly production numbers going around 200 yearly from near the 300 mark
then the buy out happened and the slip with Peters also did cause they wanted him to buy more stock boats to retain the esclusivity for the dealership
the problems seemed to occur cause of certain not so succesful models like the 52 Squadron, 62 Squad (latest vers), 43 Phantom AC and 43 Phantom

I think its very easy for a builder to go in difficulty, competition is so hard,
it also depends what the top management does when it goes bust, what I mean is that I heard good stories wher they give the owner part of the not complete boat and there are others when people escaped with the money
 
A boat is just a big lump of fibre glass full of other companies products, as long as it was well built and designed in the first place, longterm residuals are unlikely to be affected. More worrying would be if the support for the engines or electronics went bust, Volvo, Caterpiller or Raytheon etc...

I seem to have always ended up with boats from defunct companies, Crusiers International, Picton Boats, but they seem to hold their value againest comparable manufacturers that are still in business.
 
I suppose also it depends on the reason the company went bust. If it was because the products were a bit crap perhaps, or getting very old fashioned as they'd not kept up with the rest of the industry, and because of that people had stopped buying them, then it's likely that people will also not want them as much second-hand and therefore values will appear low compared to its more successful competitors.

However in that case those lower values aren't as a result of the manufacturer having gone bust, more due to the lower desirability that caused them to go bust in the first place.
 
I think it is more a new design which does not work that can make a healty builder go bust

sometimes new models can be risky stuff, consider the wages that big companies have especially on the higher rated stuff and directors and surely it is easy to go wrong
some of these companies are more corporates and if there is no real dedication in the work it easy to put extra additional costs that make profit sour to nothing
 
Either way, if the reason for failure is less desirable boats then that will translate onto the used market irrespective of the closure of the manufacturer, just because they are less desirable boats.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I was wondering what people's thoughts were on what the effect on residual values of a boat might be if a manufacturer went bust.

[/ QUOTE ]You might be interested also in the typical broker viewpoint on that:
If the builder of a used boat you're looking at went bust, that's invariably because he used to build such wonderful, no-expense spared boats, that he should have asked much higher prices.
But he didn't, because he built boats for passion, not for profit.
Therefore, you can't go wrong with such boat - you'd rather hurry, instead, 'cause they're likely to increase in value, due to the lack of newly built ones.
 
With the boats i've had from bust companies, it isn't the quality or performance that was the problem, perhaps brand image and unconventional styling. It seemed to me that they just couldn't make enough profit or make the boat cheap enough. My current Spirit is easily as well built as a comparable Princess or Fairline of the same vintage, in fact better in number of ways, layout, huge range, and more boat for the money. This makes defunct company boats a good propositon, especialy for someone who wants something a bit different to the usual mainstream stuff. But the risk is low because the expensive bits that go wrong, are still Volvo, vetus, Raytheon etc...
 
[ QUOTE ]
With the boats i've had from bust companies, it isn't the quality or performance that was the problem, perhaps brand image and unconventional styling. It seemed to me that they just couldn't make enough profit or make the boat cheap enough. My current Spirit is easily as well built as a comparable Princess or Fairline of the same vintage, in fact better in number of ways, layout, huge range, and more boat for the money. This makes defunct company boats a good propositon, especialy for someone who wants something a bit different to the usual mainstream stuff. But the risk is low because the expensive bits that go wrong, are still Volvo, vetus, Raytheon etc...

[/ QUOTE ]

the last part is so true, you really need to have the value in the engineering of the boat
like prime engine and equipment makes
as for the GRP and joinery this can be done by many other people if something unusuall happens as good or even better to the manufecterer

still brand perception is very important in anything nowadays alltough med markets do have a more global approach when selecting a boat compared to Northern Europe customers
 
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