Recent % discounts off "real" Grand Design MSRP? my 31% discount story on new 2024

[wilderness way]

As we know, there are dealer-reported MSRPs, and there are actual Grand Design official website MSRPs. Amazingly, there can be great variation in such. One would think that MSRP for a given year/model would be fixed, but it turns out it's not. Go to the GD website to see the "real" MSRPs. Any other MSRPs reported by dealers may be "fake news".

We this week purchased a new 2024 25DBE which is a new GD model for this year. We got a 31% discount off "real" Grand Design MSRP. We paid tax and title on top of that price. Other than the tax and title, the 31% discount was "all in" and there were no doc fees or prep fees or any other arbitrary made-up charges on top of that. To get that price, I had to finance through the dealership's lender on 15 year loan at 8.3% with no prepay penalty after 6 months. I'll pay it off in 6 months and eat the approximate $1,200 in amortized interest charges over that 6 month period. Bank gave RV dealer a kickback on the loan, as standard in the industry. (I've been told some dealers can make as much or more in finance kickbacks on a given sale as they can make on the unit markup, depending on how high of a rate loan you agree to).
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By not paying cash, I'll make about 2.5% in CD interest on the money over the 6 month period, which offsets the above $1,200 interest cost by about $700, making my net out of pocket to do the financing deal for 6 months at about $500. For that $500 net cost, I got the 31% discount on the purchase.

The GD dealer we dealt with is part of a large national chain and is one of the highest volume RV dealers in our state. Incredibly, they said they sold a total of 2 RVs in December. Two. Ouch. Lots of overhead there on a few acres with a bunch of employees and millions of floor planned units setting there, with big interest carrying costs.

Now is the time to cut deals it appears. As spring comes around, they'll be less and less aggressive on price. But right now, many dealers seem to really want to deal, and seem determined to make sure 2024 doesn't turn out to be another down year on volume for them. There are some dealers which won't survive a replay of another 2023 in the industry, coming off the 2022 they had. Dealers setting on any 2022 units are under water big on them (MSRPs dropped in that timeframe after Covid was "solved", and interest carry costs have racked up on them). Even 2023 leftover units are likely very worrisome to many dealers with incoming 2024 units coming their way now.

Anyone else care to share recent purchase discount % on GD "real" MSRP, after all doc fees/prep fees/other charges? It may help those negotiating now for their own purchases. An RV dealer will be very happy to sell you their product at as high a price as you're willing to pay. Your job (it can be a hard one) is to try to keep them from doing so to you, yet still allowing them a fair profit to stay in business and keep their workers employed to support their families.

[Captcolour]

To my knowledge, there is only one MSRP for a given RV at the time it was built. If list prices changed after the unit was built (up or down), the MSRP on that given RV doesn't change. When we bought ours in April 2021, it was built in July 2020 so the MSRP on the sheet was lower than the GD website said at the time. Perhaps @huntr70 can confirm.

[huntr70]

To my knowledge, there is only one MSRP for a given RV at the time it was built. If list prices changed after the unit was built (up or down), the MSRP on that given RV doesn't change. When we bought ours in April 2021, it was built in July 2020 so the MSRP on the sheet was lower than the GD website said at the time. Perhaps @huntr70 can confirm.

Yeah, there is only one true MSRP. Every GD product comes with an MSRP sheet in the owners packet.

Our dealership does increase the MSRP on our website by the true freight cost.

There may be some dealers that add other things into their "MSRP" but all GD come with the GD MSRP.

Each MSRP is set at the time it is built. If costs go up, so does MSRP. If costs go down, so do MSRP.

One thing to consider is that not all manufacturer's run on the same mark up. So, trying to use an industry standard of "I'm getting XX% off MSRP" is simply a waste of time. Keystone is different than Forest River, Forest River is different than Brinkley. Brinkley is different than Alliance....etc.

[trailrydr]

On autos.... seems that I heard at one time by a friend of mine who sold new cars that the "New Car Sticker" price was influenced by the Dealer... and not just the add-ons, shipping, advertising, prep, etc.. Would assume the same for all listed pricing on (transportation related) vehicles on lots.

But yes... there is only one manufacturer current "MSRP". Edmunds used to be a trusted site.... that showed auto true MSRP, Invoice and current discounts without year-end hold-backs. Not sure other than a dealers factory build pricing sheet, where one could find the actual Invoice price.

[goducks14]

What dealer?

[trailrydr]

What dealer?

Ford................

[goducks14]

Ford................

Question was for the OP since the thread is about 31% off MSRP of a Grand Design trailer.

[wilderness way]

Blue Compass in Lexington KY this week gave me 31% discount off real confirmed GD website GD msrp on a 2024 new model which just launched. Includes prep and dealer fee. I paid tax and title. I wasn't asking for actual recent discounts received on new units from any brand other than GD. I know each brand is very different on how they structure msrp relative to dealer net cost in unit. I'm concerned only with GD in this post. Goal is to help GD buyers get uniform fair deals. The same dealer would have been totally happy to charge me $7,500 more for the very same unit, plus $8,500 in various 5 year extended warranties. Because that's just the way this all works.

[Captcolour]

Blue Compass in Lexington KY this week gave me 31% discount off real confirmed GD website GD msrp on a 2024 new model which just launched. Includes prep and dealer fee. I paid tax and title. I wasn't asking for actual recent discounts received on new units from any brand other than GD. I know each brand is very different on how they structure msrp relative to dealer net cost in unit. I'm concerned only with GD in this post. Goal is to help GD buyers get uniform fair deals. The same dealer would have been totally happy to charge me $7,500 more for the very same unit, plus $8,500 in various 5 year extended warranties. Because that's just the way this all works.

Did you look at Campers Inn in Louisville (actually across the river in Indiana)? We bought our Solitude there. Were great to work with and the service department has been good as well. We bought our first 5th wheel (Keystone Alpine) from Northside when they were part of Colerain RV. Sorry but was not impressed with them including the service. Hopefully they have gotten better.

[kb0zke]

One thing I learned from our experience is that the dealer's reputation is worth quite a bit. There are three Grand Design dealers within about 200 miles of us. Since we were going past Las Cruces, we stopped there and eventually bought there. Big mistake. I don't know about the other two dealers' reputations, but all three are part of big chains. I've about decided that I'd rather buy from a a dealer that isn't part of a chain IF that dealer has a good reputation. A dealer who is part of a chain AND has a good reputation might also be acceptable.

Price isn't always a good indicator of a good deal unless you are willing to toss the warranty and take care of things yourself.

Steve, there wasn't any paper that I recall with all of the stuff on our trailer that looked like an MSRP sheet. Would GD customer service be able to send that to me if I gave them the VIN? It won't change anything, but it would be interesting to see what, if anything, we actually got "off" the price.