,,,who's got the smoking best deal on financing...
Cash does.
I'm with Eric on this issue. Problem is that most boats only lose value, they never gain it. We paid almost three times in dollars for the cabin cruiser we have in the PNW than the same boat cost new in dollars in 1973. But that does not mean the boat gained value. It didn't. In fact, it lost a lot of value.
The dollar difference represented inflation and the loss the dollar's value between 1973 and 1998. The same boat was still being made in 1998 and it cost over three times in 1998 dollars what we paid in 1998 dollars for the then-25-year-old version of the same boat.
Financing something that loses value means you are paying more for something that will not reflect that additional cost as it continues to get older. You're simply paying more for it than the asking price.
Financing can have advantages, of course, particularly if the cost of financing--- the interest--- can be written off in some manner. And it's often the only way to get something one really wants but can't afford.
When I was a teenager a family friend who was an extremely successful businessman--- among his achievements was conceiving and founding a company he called Telecheck----gave me a piece of advice I've never forgotten and have always lived by. And that is "Never finance your toys."
As to who has the best financing that is an almost impossible question to answer because it depends on the location, the current economy, and the policies of each individual financial institution.
We've noticed that credit unions often offer good rates simply because many if not all of them are non-profit organizations. But there may be as many exceptions to this observation as there are examples, I don't know.
