RV Dealerships - How You Can Win When You Are Buying An RV

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the RV inspection and Care podcast and video I'm Dwayne I'm a certified RV inspector and today we're going to be talking about RV dealerships and how you can buy an RV the right way and avoid a lot of trouble and frustration while saving money you know RV dealerships are often truly more about sales than they are almost anything else I mean they may have a service department but the reality is that the vast majority of RV dealers have the sales department driving the dealership and unfortunately many have adopted tactics from car dealers and I think we've all had our experiences in the past with high pressure car dealers and that whole sales process is designed to get as much money out of every customer that comes through as they possibly can and not always prioritizing getting that customer the product that they need so with this kind of sales process facing them many RV buyers make huge mistakes they spend way too much money for the RV that they buy or maybe they buy an RV but it's the wrong one for their style of travel and camping or maybe they get an RV that has all kinds of hidden problems that they're not aware of and they will deal with that later on well the point is that you can avoid all of these issues and problems that I just went through if you follow a few simple steps that I'm going to cover today and let's go ahead and let's get started number one do your research before you buy anything and when I say research a lot of folks go oh no I don't want to do that well actually some research can be a lot of fun for instance if you're a newbie or a newer RV buyer well then you need to get familiar with the different kinds of RVs that are out there and the floor plans that are available the way I recommend to do that that's fun is go to as many RV dealers as you can you're not going to buy anything at this point you're just going there to look and you go through RV after RV all different kinds all different sizes and you're going through them with a purpose not just to look at them and say oh this is nice I like that or I don't like this no what you want to do is go in find out how livable that kind of RV is sit in the chairs get into that dinette get in and out of that see how easily that works for you go in the back and lay in the bed see how comfortable it is a stand in the shower sit on the toilet you know go through and imagine yourself living in that RV now if you go through enough RVs this way you're pretty soon going to figure out the things you like and the things you don't like you're going to find out what type of RV really works for you and very often you get a real feel for the kind of floor plan that fits you as well now that you have all that information that research done that was fun well then it takes a little bit more and it's going to take a little concentration here you need to find out which brands produce the best quality products see you know what type of rub you want now find the quality Brands there's a few ways to do that number one you can go through and you can do a lot of research online in forums and websites and all that and probably come up with a pretty decent list however if you'd like to shorten that time and get right to the quality products I have created some guidebooks that'll help you do that they focus on all the different kinds of motorhomes and also on fifth wheels and they will give you the quality Brands manufacturers and models for you to start with first that'll be the best place to start when you're looking for an RV and that will give you a real leg up as you're going through this process now the last thing you need to do is get a feel for the cost that of the RV that you're looking at in other words what should you be paying one of the best places I have found for Price research is rvtrader.com now don't go on there and just search in your area no it's actually good to search all across the country to get as many RVs to look at and and to just to find out what the prices are and that way you'll get a real feel for what you should be spending see by now you know what the type is that you want to get the type of RV you should know the brand you probably know the models so search Nationwide and get an idea for the starting prices that they're going for and then you'll know where you should be negotiating from okay at this point you got your homework done all your research is done now it's time to go to the dealer and start the buying process the first thing that I'm going to tell you here is don't accept whatever the RV sales person tells you you know you have to understand that many RV sales people don't really know a whole lot about the RV that they're selling you and they are sales people so unfortunately in many cases they're going to tell you almost anything you want to hear so it's okay to listen to them just don't put total trust in everything that a salesperson is going to tell you about that RV there's a lot of RV buyers that did that and they regret it now now the other thing about buying an RV and something you need to be ready for when you go to the dealership is financing now if you're going to pay cash you don't even have to worry about this but if you're going to finance the RV light probably the vast majority of buyers do then you need to have your RV financing pre-arranged this is very important I made a video on it just a few weeks back and I highly recommend that you go through that video and learn about how to finance your RV the right way you see the finance department in an RV dealership is one of the biggest profit centers if not the biggest profit center for the entire dealership why because they're usually not really offering you a great deal but that gets lost in all the monthly payments that they work out for you so have your financing pre-done in fact get pre-approved for your financing before you even get to the dealer now if the dealer gives you a better deal on financing well then that's fine but if not then you have your financing ready to go and you will save a ton of money that way my next point in the buying process is insist on getting any new or used RV that you buy inspected before you take delivery now you may meet with some real resistance on this there's a lot of dealers out there right now that don't want RV inspections why well again let's get back to that original thought that most RV dealers are driven through the sales department so they don't want anything to slow that sales process down they want to move you right along while you're excited and you're really into buying and get this thing done as quickly as possible well the inspection slows down that process you see the dealer goes to Great Lengths to stay in control of the buying process but when you demand an RV inspection you are in control and that's very important now RV dealerships unfortunately often will know that there are problems with RVs sometimes even with new RVs they're very well aware of it what they want to do is allow you to buy it take it out and camp with it and use it and then find the problems then come back to them you see they've already gotten paid they've got their money so they have no real incentive at this point to be very quick about taking care of things and they will fix it for you but they'll put you at the back of their service department line and get to it when they're ready well this is very frustrating this is very irritating and the internet is filled with examples of this taking place at RV dealerships getting the RV inspected is the first step to avoid all that because here's the next thing you want to do when the inspector is done with their report they'll give you a list of issues for that RV problems that need to be fixed in fact you can call it kind of like a punch list that you would get for a new home that you're buying once you have the punch list in hand you can then do one of two things with it you can tell the dealer that you want to negotiate the price further to reflect all the issues you're going to have to fix after you take delivery or you can demand that they fix those issues now before you take delivery either way you win out in that scenario now it's so important that you do that before you take delivery because after you take delivery there's very little incentive for them to be quick about solving your problems but you're still not done even after you've got the inspection done even after you've given the punch list to the dealer and you've gotten the issues fixed they've come back and said they're fixed you need to verify that they have been fixed or repaired you need to make sure they've actually done what they said they would do don't ever take an RV dealership's word that everything was fixed the way it should be it may have been fixed to some degree but not to the way it should have been and sometimes it's not even fixed at all so verify it it may even call for you to get the RV inspector back and have them verify that everything was repaired and is functioning correctly or you can do it yourself or even find someone you know that knows about RVs who can verify it but the point is don't take delivery of an RV until you're sure that all these issues have been repaired if you have left it up to the dealership to do that all right now having gone through this process that I've talked to you about today these steps for assuring that you get a good RV it may sound like there's just nothing but bad RV dealers out there and that's not the truth I don't want to paint all RV dealerships with a wide brush because there are some that are very customer oriented and they want to help you and they want you to get the product that will work best for you but there's far too many RV dealers in this industry that are not like that you do need my friends to protect yourself when you're dealing with them if you'll follow the guidelines that I've given you today you will be able to get the RV that you want the RV that you need and the RV that will give you great service for years to come well that's it for now as safe and happy travels my friends until next time [Music]

Channel: RV Inspection And Care

Views: 9,989

Keywords: rv dealerships, rv dealers, rv inspection before buying, rv buying 2022, buying a used rv, what to know before buying an rv, process of buying rv, rv buying tips, rvbuying advice, buying an rv, buying a new rv, buying motorhomes, buying campers

Id: Qo99pMWigPk

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 19 2022