Ok, so heres the deal, i thought id post this on here and might get some help. So im looking to get a new boat. I currently have a 1997 Sunsetter LX with tower and all that jazz but im looking to upgrade. After a chat with my brother (with whom i will be splitting the boat with), we decided to try dealers first before private parties. We want to do this because i want to make everything quick and easy and so i can trade my boat in as well. We are looking to get either a correct craft (air nautique or such), another malibu, a Supra or a mastercraft. We are also willing to accomodate a Moomba and perhaps a Tige. We are looking to spend 25K with or without trade-in value. We live in Minnesota and willing to drive pretty much anywhere depending on how sick the deal is! Just wanted to post this on here and hopefully get help from a wakeworld enthusiast! Thanks in advance!

check mninboard.com or waterskis.com (Midwest MC). Good people at both places.

If you'd consider a Centurion, I'd certainly be interested in talking to you. We're out of St. Louis and have a couple '07 left. You can e-mail me at <a href="mailto:don@classicmarinellc.com">don@classic marinellc.com</a>

You should get a hold of Mark at Wakewater Sports in Glyndon, MN (Nautique dealer). He is a heck of a guy and has never steered me wrong. The number is on their website.

<a href="http://www.redlinewatersports.com" target="_blank">www.redlinewatersports.com</a> ask for mike they have my old 06 X2 for a super deal. Spend a bit more to get a super boat.

buy form a dealer in your area. if a warranty issue comes up its a lot easier to just take it back to that dealer and tell them to fix it, rather than buying it out of town and taking it to your local dealer and having them tell you to stick that boat were the sun doesn't shine. i know it seems harsh but if a dealer didn't sell the boat they aren't going to warranty it. or well most of them wont. you might want to check out tiges new Z1. its not of the web. yet but i'm leaving tomorrow for the dealermeeting so i'll try and get some shots of it then. its a 21 foot v-drive, v nose, but has all the sharp sexy lines like the RZ2 and RZ4 has. from what my rep is telling me its suppose to be going for around 48k with the normal upgrades that a dealer would order for their in-stock boats. but then you do have to add on tax, license, freight, and prep onto that 48. from what i'm hearing thats what the price will be around but i'm not totally sure yet. we haven't got the price sheets yet on it so it could be a little more or a little less but i'll try to get some pics and post them when i get back.

Ryan excuse me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure dealers get paid on warranty work from the manufacture. Why would you not want to keep your service department busy. This is America a free market, and nobody should be made to purchase at a higher price or not be able to get what they want because there local dealer doesn't have it in stock. The way some dealers try to use scare tactics to get business instead of keeping the customers best interest at heart is bull if you ask me. <BR> I'm for supporting your local market but sometimes you have to go out of your area to get what your looking for.

its a slippery slope though because one dealer could just count on doing volumes in sales with little margin, basically cutting out sales from other dealers. I do see what you are saying Paul though but there are definitely two sides to everything.

fortfremont marine (wisconsin) has a brand new 07 Mobius LSV for like 35k.... and a Outback V for like 32k..... if i didnt just get a boat, i would jump on that

It seems like two issues are being discussed: sales and service. In terms of service, I agree with Paul. My dealership would never turn away work for our service department just because the customer didn't buy a boat from us. Our thought would be to give you them best service possible in the hopes that a few years from now, they do buy a boat from us. The problem arises when you're at the height of the season and your service department is slammed. If you have two customers who come in for service: one you've never met but he apparently has a model you sell and one who's bought one, two or three boats from you and is a loyal service customer which one do you give priority service to? And by priority, I don't mean to imply a different level/quality of service. I mean which customer do you squeeze into your already full schedule and which one do you put off for a week or two for when your service schedule frees up?

Don, well put.......I think most customers would understand and respect that. The dealer I'm currently dealing with has the same philosophy. I guess I'm lucky because this does not sound like it's the norm everywhere.

Thanks for the help guys im gonna check out a lot of options. <BR> <BR>Don, im sending you a mail.

well let me explain a little more on the not buying from us no warranty subject. what Don is saying is exactly what we do at my fam's dealership. in the high point of the season 2 people come in for service and both want their boats for the weekend but we only have enough room for one boat we're going to fix the boat that we sold to the customre first. not the one the that the guy bought somewhere else so he could save 800 bucks. most of the time if someone comes in for service and didn't buy the boat from us, if its a long process to fix it we're going to tell them it'll have to wait antill the season slows down. if its only going to take an hour we'll try to fit it in. we're always constantly busy during the summer in our service department. and Paul you were a little wrong about getting paid for the servicing warranty items.ITS KIND OF LONG BUT JUST READ IT. we only get paid about 75% of our shop labor rate. jsut to give you an idea the other day i was fixing a deck boat with a brovo3 stern drive on it. long story short it would only go into reverce(when the boat was in neutral it would shoot into reverce, in forward shoot into reverce, and put it into reverce and it had reverce) we had to drive up to the lake to pick up the boat because there was no way the customer was going to be able to load this 26 foot deck boat that only had reverce so me and my dad did it. it took an hour to drive there 30 mins to load it and another hour to drive back. it then took 3 hours to trouble shoot and fix the problem. MerCruiser told us for the 5-1/2 hours it took to resolve the problem, they would only pay us 2 hours because thats how long it takes their guys to fix that problem, and they wouldn't pay us for picking up the boat. soooo if we're getting paid that type of money to do the work why would we want to warranty a boat that some guy spent his 50 grand somewhere else but he's too lazy to drive back there to get it serviced. if he's brings it in for a non warranty service we put him in the line just like any other customer. its a little confusing but unless your part of a dealership and get too see all the dollar amounts of how much you make on something and how much you don't make on something its a little hard to understand.

don your on the money, not a dealer here. bought my sanger from one dealer, worse thing ever, made one trip back to them they f-d my boat up. took my boat to dealer 2 they where dialed and on it. a year later i have a brand new vlx from dealer 2. customer service is what will get me to write a check.