Yep, don't go in there and pay full price.  You will walk out the door with Sucker written on your forehead.. You may not be able to talk them down several thousand dollars but you will get them down some..  I am currently in the marker for a trailer and looking at the same place my neighbor just bought his.  They came down $800 on his which is decent..

I would love to have a few trailer dealers jump on this question!  The majority of trailer dealers are not car dealers,  they do not mark trailers up like cars.  We all need to keep in mind that these businesses are just trying to keep their doors open.  Just to inform you trailer dealers do not get the benefits that car dealers do( huge hold backs, rebates, free flooring ect. ) No business can survive on selling a trailer at cost, or $100.00 over! Everyone has a choice to purchase a trailer, they can except the price or walk!  Just a little advice on expo and trade shows, you pay aprox. 5-10% more at those shows, they are a great place to see different models, but your not saving.  Go and support your local dealer, also another piece of advice,when you go into a dealership and act rude and demanding, you will get less, if you go in and be proffessional, and merely work with your salesman, you'll get much farther.  You can certainly get a good deal during he winter if your looking at a last years model, but remember that there's not a great selection on year old models.  Just another side note, with fuel prices and steel prices increasing most dealers will do all they can possibily do to earn your business!  Happy Trails...

I just bought a LQ trailer for the first time.  Here's what I found during my search.  MSRP on a new trailer appears to be around 20% over dealer cost. (the dealers I was working with would all be considered "small", given a really big dealership they may get a slightly better factory price)  Around here, (MT) most new trailers seem to have asking prices somewhere around 8-10% less than MSRP to start with, leaving less than 10% to work with.  All that being said, I found a "demo" trailer, 2007 model that had been used to go to trailer shows, and had hauled horses around some.  The dealer made me a deal as if it were a brand new trailer, full warranty etc.  I got it for 22% less than the best deal I could work out ordering one just like it.  I also got a fair trade-in price on my old trailer in the process. 

So, how much haggling did this deal take?  No matter how hard I tried to haggle, I couldn't get this trailer for any less than the first round of price negotiations.  (spent over a week trying) That was fine, I feel like I got a good deal anyway and I'm happy.   Good luck.

I speak here now for myself as a dealer that we ARE NOT OUT TO GET YOU!!!!! not saying that there isnt a dealer in this country that will "GET YOU" but thats not how us long term dealers are still able to "PLAY THE GAME" if we were "getting people" we surely would not still be in business... If a dealer has good customer support, a good service garage, informed and up to date staff then yes it take ALOT and I mean ALOT of money to be there for you. Like some of the other members have said, RV, horse trailer sales are not like car sales we dont get rebates from manufactures and kick backs. I dont sell anything on our lot that anyone has to have to get to work or take the kids to school or anything like that. If you come to our lot you are here looking for something to either fulfill a life time dream or to go and spend quality time with your family or to make your life and your horses a little easier. With that said I will say this about haggling everyone does it and I know this so therefore I as a sales person am prepared for that and I will give the anyone the best deal I possible can and still be here for them in a year when they need our service department to warrenty a fault fridge or A/C so they can be comfortable on the next camping trip with thier family. So keep these things in mind when you visit your local dealer... FOR THOSE WHO KNOW IT ALL--- if you think you can do a better job go get anywhere from 1-5 million dollar line of credit, go buy a million dollar piece of dirt and build a million dollar building so you can help people make thier dreams come true and then deal with people that seems to bring you down constantly and run your name into the dirt that you spent a long time planning and saving and not taking a pay check to buy!!!!

Thats all I got to say about that

Jess.....you fit the "A" typical stereotype salesperson profile.......too bad.....someday you will learn >>>>>"Sales is a balance between knowing when to talk and knowing when NOT to talk" .......

Customers are not given, they are EARNED.....what they giveth, they can taketh away the next time they need something....."repeat business"....repeat business does not usually come to someone who is only out for the money.....people are not that stupid in today's world expecially an educated trailer shopper......SO....keep it up Jess.....we will see you at McD's...

I don't post much but I had to jump in here. I resent the implication (and I'm not a dealer by any means) that all dealers are sharks out to get you. There are a wide variety of dealers out there with a wide variety of markups. Why else does the identical trailer cost thousands more at one place than at another? But we now have this wonderful tool called the Internet and more specifically this message board/advertising site. Of course dealears are looking to take you money...they are in the business of selling. But the smart ones, especially the web savvy ones, know that they'd better mind their p's and q's after the sale too or they will loose tons of customers to bad publicity. It's a very competitive market and they are going to do everything they can, within reason, to sell you a trailer AND to keep you happy after the sale. The dealer I bought my trailer from has jumped through hoops on multiple occassions to keep me happy after the sale. Repeat customers and reputation is key in this new era of online shopping and my dealer's smart enough to know that. Did I haggle til I was blue in the face, YEP. Did it save me lots compared to other dealers - YEP! Did I enjoy every minute of it? YEP! Now Randy might not have, but I had a ball. Kudos to Randy Burmaster of Ken Feagin, who just recently, 4 years after the sale, went out of his way to keep me happy yet again. Poor fella didn't know what he was getting into when he replied to my first email inquiry all those years ago!

You can only be shafted if you let yourself be - there's to much information only fingertips away. Do your reasearch, get references on the dealers you've narrowed it down to and SHOP! Don't buy the first thing you see! It's easy to get references for the dealers out there, the ones on the web anyway. Do your homework and find one that will stand behind their product as much as possible after the sale. Then haggle as much as you can. It never hurts to ask and they can always say no. I personally love nothing better than to get something as cheap as I possibly can. Get quotes from multiple dealers on the same trailer and use that to get the best price. Sometimes your dealer of choice can match the price, sometimes they cant. They all have different overhead expenses and have different factors figuring into how much they need to make. In the price game though, don't forget to take into account the dealer's reputation & location. It's not all about the bottom $ and sometimes the trailer a little closer to home can be a better deal, even if it costs a little more.  That's just my $.02 worth, for whatever good it is :-)

In addition, djesse, you may work at a trailer dealership but you CLEARLY do not work in sales. You show me a trailer that sells for 35-40% profit or is even marked up that much and I will quit my job to come work for that company because they obviously know something that everyone else doesn't know! You're simply wrong. There is a pretty standard mark up on trailers across the board. And as was stated by previous posters that knew what they were talking about, it all depends on the dealership as to how much room you have to negotiate. Sometimes its not about how much you can get off of the sticker price... its about customer service.

Edited by Covert Cowboy 2007-06-05 3:09 PM