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Old 03-15-2015, 11:53 AM   #15
GFC
Guru
 
City: Tri Cities, WA
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,406
Car makers produce cars by the millions. Costs can be amortized over those millions of units so the "per unit" cost is relatively small. Not so with boats.

Part of what comes into play in the pricing of new boats is the fact that when any manufacturer makes a boat there are hundreds of moulds involved to make the fiberglass parts, and those moulds have a finite life. The moulds are expensive to create and that cost doesn't get amorized across hundreds or thousands of boats.

Speaking for myself, I could never afford to buy a new, large boat. I have a loan on my boat because I didn't want to take funds out of my retirement accounts to buy a toy. We can afford the payment and insurance and other costs, so that isn't a problem. I also didn't want to use a home loan to finance a toy. I could have done that but would have possibly put our home in jeopardy and I would never do that to avoid a slightly higher interest rate.

I also bought a boat that was 15 years old when I bought it so it was well down the depreciation curve. A new boat will lose approximately 1/2 of its value within the first five years. The next five years takes another 1/3. The next five another 1/4. So by the time it gets to be 15 years old it's getting down to a point where it becomes affordable for a lot more people.

I got lucky and bought my boat during "The Great Recession". I did my homework and bought it in the Detroit area where unemployment at that time was running about 30%-35% in the auto industries. NOBODY was buying boats, or any toys for that matter.

I negotiated hard and bought my boat for what I feel was a very good price. The dealer hated me when the deal was done because I held the trump card all the way through the negotiations and I wasn't afraid to play hard ball with him. He needed to sell the boat--I didn't need to buy his boat and let him know that in subtle ways.

By the time we struck the deal and signed the paperwork he would hardly speak to me and was almost rude in his emails.

That's OK though. I got the boat I wanted at the price I wanted and he had to take my trade to make the deal.
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Mike and Tina
1981 Boston Whaler 13'
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