College Buy Back Program......

I go to Georgia State University, we have a Wakeboard Club and our school is looking at buying a new boat, particularly a Malibu.

When i was at the boat show last January in Atlanta, a Malibu Rep told me of a program that exists for colleges.

Anyways the program allows the colleges to trade in there boat every year for a new one. I think they call it the College Swap Program or something..

Does anyone know anything about a similiar program with Malibu or any other manufacturer?

Mastercraft does it. I just read an article on it. It didnt' mention any specifics.

call Malibu and ask

We do it at sac state with Correct Craft. Right now were riding a 210, but not for long considering it looks like theyll be dropping it.

wait do you guys pay for the boat or do they just loan it to you... how much do you pay a year for this??

Not sure on the cost factors because I dont run the program, but I believe theres no charge to the school.. dont quote me on that though. Hopefully someone more educated on the buisness side of it can chime in.

Yea, I want to get Texas A&M signed up. We asked Tige (since they are in Abilene) and they said to talk to dealers, they were just trying to get us off their back.

What happened to your MC deal through JOA? Did that go away when JOA lost the MC dealership in Atlanta? I was director of your club for years. Send me a private message if you want to keep this off the web, which might be wise, as i don't know what's going on back there lately. Tell J. Krafka and J. Stewart that Jimmy says Hi. If Kummer is still around, tell him I said what's up and he's a pimp!

The MC deal was hard to beat, but if your situation is such that it went away and cannot be salvaged, and truly you are faced with the unfortunate need to shop for another deal, I would also talk to Supra/Moomba. They are fairly close to you in Tennessee, and my experience is that they are motivated to increase product exposue and market share. Plus, it's arguably a better boat for the money (NOT to start a boat war thread, so please no flames for that comment, they're both great boats). When it comes down to it, you really just need to see which company can offer you the best deal on a decent boat that meets your needs, plus you MUST consider where the boat will be serviced and what type of relationship you will have with the dealership. You cannot afford to have your program on hold for weeks at a time during the summer because there is a warrantee issue with the boat but the local dealer says their service department is backed up for three weeks. Trust me, that can easily happen if you are not skillful in negotiating with your service dept. Gotta keep those "Touch the Earth" programs running, you don't want Jennifer pissed at you.

(Message edited by dococ on November 02, 2006)

I know that most of the Wisconsin schools and some others in the Midwest are doing something through Malibu. Someone up there set up some sort of corporation to help out the ski teams get boats. I think they pay kind of a lease fee to cover the boats and then turn them back in at the end of the year. Other schools work through dealers. I would assume most have some sort of payment plan, I really can't see many people giving a brand new boat to a bunch of college kids, but I could be wrong. I know when I was at K-State and we were looking at a boat about 4 years ago it was very hard to even get a special deal set up.

Yea, we def had a greeat deal through JOA but since they got booted by mastercraft we are looking at other options.

Nick - Do you think you could get me some contact info for the dealers up there? Or some sort of contact info....

I am not quite sure if I can get you info on the dealers there, but I will try to hook you up with one of the Presidents of the schools involved. Let me look around for an e-mail and I'll get back to you.

San Diego State buys 4 or 5 new 210's every year with all the options and 2 206's. At the end of the year they sell them. With the discounted price they get from CC they do not lose much money. Again, this is a large school with quite a budget but that is how they do it. Sell the boats privately or through a dealer every year.

you guys in the sates do not know how lucky you are to get this sort of support from schools. In the UK the kids are lucky to get a maths book of their own and you guys are getting loaded x stars and wakeboarding clubs. This is the reason why the USA does better in sport than the majority of the world. support from day 1!!!!!

Mark, not everyone gets that kind of support. My club is riding a 1983 Ski Nautique. Luckily we got some fatsack pumps and board racks sponsored. We also got a tower for dealer cost. I go to Texas A&M, we have 50,000 students and that is the best we have done so far. We are still a new club, but we will see how things go in the next few years.

Leo

I appreciate that not everyone gets that type of support and get new boats each years etc. I am talking more about the fact that you get support from schools and colleges that help promote and progress various sports. As a non american but with family in the states I was always jealous of the opportunities that were on offer. When you watch world sporting events like the olympics or or similar, USA often dominate because so much support is given to their atheletes.

i am still lookin for information on any program that can be used to purchase a boat for our univeristy....any help would be greatly appreciated!

At UM not only will they not get us a boat but they won't even let us get one if we raise the money for it because of insurance reasons. Now that sucks

sorry hear that manny....come to Georgia State!!

alex, where do they use them? the bay? and how come i never knew about a 'state wake/ski club?

It depends on the time of the year, during the spring, the main bay is open so they launch from the SDSU Aquatic Center which is in Mission Beach. During the fall and winter, the main bay is restricted to 5 mph for the old man sailors. We wouldn't want to ruin their water now would we, plus the fact that you will pretty much die if you go in the water 2-3 days after a storm. Anyways, during the 5 mph times, it is up the bay further towards PB. Look up the aquatic center on google and you can see where it is at. They probably have their 07's parked out front if you want to drive by there and check them out.