Jayco Dealership Experience

I gathered some interesting primary research on the Jayco Jay Flight 267bhs today.  These trailer guys are more old school than the local Lincoln dealership, but after about 100 questions I go all the answers I needed price-wise.

As a starting point, the dealer website clearly has 2 Jay Flight Swift 267bhs models for 23,999, one of which is here:http://www.livelifeoutdoors.com/products.php?id=9177

But when I went in to get some pricing they told me it was $25,999.  I mentioned the website price and they just said they have problems with their website.  I was turned off right from the start but soldiered on.  I took a look at the unit, I mean it has everything we need with an electric awning and front jack which is nice.  Right away he went to the $105 bi-weekly payment, which is over 20 years.

My next steps were to reverse engineer that payment since each dollar on 20 years of bi-weekly payments is about $500.  Using my handy dandy excel spreadsheet and their 5% rate I come up with a price before tax of about $30,500.... which is $4,500 more than the already jacked up $26,000 selling price.  Just as another note, if you amortize a camper over 20 years you pay about $20,000 in interest at 5%.  More than likely we would keep it a few years and unload it but would have next to none of the principle balance paid off in a few years with a 20 year loan.

Anyway I had to figure out what made up that $4,500... and here it is.... extended warranty up to 7 years ($2,000), pdi ($600), bank fees ($300), sway bars ($300).... and that was it, so I am still $1,300 short even with all that foolishness added in.  Then it hit me, they were "including" a $1,000 gas card, actually I was probably just pre paying for $1,000 gas.  

So obviously this won't work for me, I don't mind paying for what I like but I'm not going to pay more than I should for what I like.  I am going to go back to the dealer but I am getting a sour taste already.

Random Travel Trailer Findings....

So we have been looking at travel trailer info for a few weeks now, as usual I am spending wayyyy to much time online researching the topic, here are a few initial findings:

There are tons of travel trailer brands but if you beat your way through it all you will find most of them sell basically the same things at a few different trim levels.

Most travel trailers companies are owned by two major corporations which may be why the lineups are so confusing.  They want to keep them all independent but the similarities are hard to ignore. Many of the websites are like a copy and paste of one another.

It is difficult in many instances to find online prices.  For most you have to email to get pricing.  For local dealerships like say.... Jayco.... at Coastal Outdoors they won't even give you a price list, you have to ask for prices individually.

Which leads me to my next finding... these guys are stuck in 1975 with respect to meeting customer demands.  It could be because they are used to dealing with customers who don't use the internet... no that can't be it..... customers who don't realize they can find pricing for exact models online..... no that can't be it..... customers who don't care about pricing..... no that can't be it.   I can't figure it out.

These things are not meant to last long.  Most come with one year warranties and some like Jayco come with two but they are not super durable.  More to the point most are dragged around offroad to parks with kids running wild and the parents running wilder......  so they take abuse.