Does the Xstar still sell well?

I am curious as to what is holding up a new model X-star. It seems to me that all of its competitors have gone through major revisions. Every manufacturer’s flagship boat is either a new model such as the 230, or has had major revisions such as the VLX. Is the xstar still selling so well that Mastercraft refuses to revise it?

I have heard rumors that a new model was in the works, but it has been what...8 years since this model first came out?

Any info on what's going on with an updated model?

2012

2112

Thanks guys. A well of knowledge here for me to sift through.

Wealth of knowlege

Thanks hate. haha. I have actually heard it both ways. At any rate, I'm going to get back trying to make heads or tails of all this information.

Mike, I in fact do know a wealth of info of this new boat. I will say this. It will be cool, it will be bigger and it will blow your wallet to pieces. The current model is pretty darn sweet and there are deals out there to be had.

Woo hoo! I'm excited to see how expensive they can make this thing, I mean they're bad enough right now. What are we thinking a buck and a quarter for a fully loaded Star?

No prob Mike, I just thought I'd add to the information overload in this thread.

Matt, thanks for the update. I was just making fun, hope i didn't offend you. I was just curious as to what the hold up was, but you answered my question and I do appreciate it.

Hate, thanks for the laugh.

I can't imagine that they can justify more than 100K for one. I am sure it will be north of that, considering I have seen 40th Ann. Ed boats go for that. I am looking foward to seeing it though. Hopefully the wake is huge, smooth, rampy and long transitioned. Thanks for the info guys.

Take current star- add 1.5 feet, add current x25 interior influences, bling to the max and give up 125k. the new X-star!

Buy a house, or new boat? Can always get a shower and bathroom on a boat. Gotta love the prices now days

I hear they are putting two supercharged zr1 engines in it and the hull is crafted from one huge diamond.

Now thats some funny stuff

The profit margin on these expensive boats must be ridiculous for MC not necessarily the dealer. They keep building more and more expensive boats. I get them and CC feel like they have to be the ferrari and lambo of the industry but I think they are killing their dealers. I see companies like Axis, Moomba growing if they can keep their boats at a low level as well with Tige and the R20. I have great dealers in my area but not sure how they are going to continue to survive. I know dearlers keep asking MC to build a less expensive boat and MC turns their head to that. Good luck to all the boat dealers out there.

While I agree the pricing is ridiculous, Is MC really marketing these boats towards the perons looking for the reasonably priced boat? Granted I live in a huge market, but the guys I know who own late model MC's dont' really care if gas is $4/gallon, lol. In smaller markets it's gotta be hard to sell these boats, IMO. I agree with the ferrari analogy.......but those dealers still make it Just like a ferrari or lambo owner...I'm sure the 200k plus it takes to own one is quite a bit of money to them, but they are willing to pay it for the prestige and performance...among other things. MC and CC pr4etty much monopolize the ultra luxury ski boat market.......maybe that's where they want to be?

I think your right curtis, last month before i bought the tige i was really close to buying a new x-2. The dealer kept mentioning that there are 2 boat manufacturers ( mc and cc 0 and then there are the others. I can tell you that as far as for asthetics thats not true, the Tige is a much nicer touch and feel boat that the mc. Also the fact tthat they are changing engine companys kinda sketched me out as well. I didnt want to buy a boat with an out dated enging, and i didnt want to buy a boat that is using a new manufacter for there enging either.

I agree but there are TONS of MC dealers in the country. I think there are only 2 or 3 Ferrari dealers in the state of Florida. Also those dealers are allowed to have other less expensive lines. From what I understand and can be very very wrong is MC will not allow their dealers take on other lines? Not sure if thats true or not. They also force their dealers to take X amount of demo boats. I have seen my dealer sit on boats for a long time that are beautiful boats not some horrible color for well over a year. This is a well respected dealer. The idea of Axis and price point boats are great for the dealer. They may make less money but the cost of service is the same. So it will help the dealer. MC tried that with the original X1but they made it so bare by the time you added what the normal wake boarder wanted it was FAR from price point. People don't need stitching and crazy looking vinyl. So many places to cut back and help their dealer. Instead they are going to make another super wake boat that less than 1% of the customers can afford or buy. Just seem dumb to me. I have an 02 X Star and its bare if you ask me but it has everything you could really want other than room.

You can get into a brand new X2 for under 60k. There are 2011 X25s out there right now for under 80k even though the MSRP on such a boat is 115k. It's funny how when talking about so-called budget boats everyone talks about the sales price but as soon as the discussion shifts to MC/Nautique it's all about the MSRP.

Just did a search on boattrader for MC boats for the entire country 1 to 60000 not one X2 came up. Here is what you get when you extend that list to 80k http://www.boattrader.com/search-results/Region-all/NewOrUsed-any/Type-any/Make-MASTERCRAFT/Year-2010,2012/Price-1,80000/Sort-LengthESC/

You can talk what you like msrp or not but these are the prices on new boats from MC. I am pretty much the average boat guy live in a $200k house drive an 08 Toyota Tundra to pull the boat and have a 04 Sienna for daily driver. So if you think the average price of 70-78K is not an insane price for a 20ft boat that gets used mostly weekends you are living a different life than me. My MC dealer said directly to me. MC asks them what can they do for the dealers and my dealers response was make a less expensive boat. I get building a new X Star but how about think about the average guy that wants a SOLID boat with the basics that is 40k msrp. I drive Toyotas not Mercedes and BMW. There is no doubt in my mind that this can be done.

Don't want to stray too far from the OP but if you've got a 205V XStar I consider you to be an exceptional boat guy. The average boat guy is the one who zips around my lake all day while pulling a tube.

My 60k quote was based on the special my local dealer is running right now. Bare-bones X2 with Tower and ballast for 57k out the door.

200k House I wish. That doesn't even buy a condo up here. My 35 year old house that is approx 2k sqft is worth close to $ 390k.

Either way MC obviously has a market and people are buying them. I'm always amazed that if you tool the money for any new wake boat what that can buy you on the ocean side of boats. $100k can buy you one nice cruiser compared to run about boat.

I have seen first hand what MC's pricing strategy has done to my local dealer. To stay healthy, they have resorted to the following:

1) Added MB Sports to their dealership. This debunks the myth that MC won't allow their dealers to carry other lines. Another example is the MC dealer in SLC; they added Centurion. I think what we're seeing is that these dealers are not willing to give up the $50K boat market just because MC thinks their boats are worth $100K. So if MC won't give them a boat they can market for $50K, they will go get one somewhere else. I know that the local dealer here has sold a ton of the MB's. Those could have all been MC sales, if only they had a $50k boat.

2) Created a "price-point" MC X-2 by taking a Maristar 200, ordering them with ballast, X2 graphics, and analog gauges (no BIG screen in the dash) and putting a reverse arch Samson tower on them. They sell this for $63K... still too much, imho. I think it's sad that they have to resort to this. Wake up MC!

The bottom line is that this dealer is not willing to follow MC down the path to $100K only boats. So they have gotten creative.

My step dad got a new '08 X2 in '09 for $59k.

I do agree, though. IMO $40k is not an entry level boat. I paid $27k for my first Sanger in '02. Brand new, and stock to stock it would stomp the wake of an X2. That said, the X2 is the nicer of the two boats.

I love the new X25, and I'm sure the new Star will be wicked, but I think I'd be priced out of that market. I think they've gotten too wrapped up in the long terms on loans. Just because you can afford the payment doesn't mean you can afford the boat. A 15 year loan is rediculous IMO. The way we use our boats we'd have over 2000 hours on it by the time it was paid for.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Mastercraft is going after the uber rich family now. They aren't even trying to compete with the other brands, they are trying to create their own segment or battle Cobalt for some of their market.

DBC, that X2 is awesome. I like that better then the normal ones.

I think Brett is right. I can't see the differences that justify the higher price though.

I've got so much money, I'm going to buy a diamond crystal speed boat and paint it gold - Ronnie Dobbs.

Looks like the X2 above is on a Boatmate trailer too. MC thinks pretty highly of their trailers as well!

Good ideas on the part of that dealer.

@ Shawn well I guess I would say average boat guy for WW. Hahahha. Thats a good deal on the X2 your talking about. I look at an X2 and almost pulled the trigger I just liked the wake on my 205vXstar than I did the X2. Love the space in the X2. My fav MC is the X25. Wish they had a way to pear that down like Tige just did with the RZR and R20. I am here to tell you they got it right on those two boats. The R20 is a lot of boat for the money and will give the X2 a run for its money and not really apples to apples comparison that would be more of the RZR. I have yet to be in an Axis A20 I plan on demoing the R20 and A20 this summer.

Originally Posted by ixfe

Created a "price-point" MC X-2 ... They sell this for $63K...

Ha! I could buy maybe 1/2 of that boat if I sold everything we own accept the house.

The local MC dealer here picked up Axis to try and stay competitive. MC will not allow you to carry Malibu or CC. Other brands are ok with them from what I heard. I believe the local guys were told that if they picked up Malibu after the Axis, that MC would be pulled.

Right now the Xstar isn't selling that well but I'm sure the new one will make a similar impact as the 2004. I don't think it's going to go down in price, just like everything else. But we've heard this "new Xstar" rumor for the past few years.

Originally Posted by bcrider

200k House I wish. That doesn't even buy a condo up here. My 35 year old house that is approx 2k sqft is worth close to $ 390k.

Either way MC obviously has a market and people are buying them. I'm always amazed that if you tool the money for any new wake boat what that can buy you on the ocean side of boats. $100k can buy you one nice cruiser compared to run about boat.

I hear you on that one... heck in Downtown Core in Toronto a 850 sq foot 2 bedroom condo will run you north of $400k!

I heard that they will only offer gel options in flake and they will use either 24k Gold flake, real Platinum flakes, or real Silver flakes.....this will give it that extra "sparkle" you just cant get anywhere else....

It sucks they price them so high, because at my lake, the only people we see with anything Mastercraft that isnt old....are typically total cooks. The boats look really sweet, but the price isnt justified. I think it sucks that it is a sport specific boat that is being marketed towards the wealthiest "image" driven people rather than the people who are really into the sports. at least thats how it seems around the lake i frequent.

We are a dealer of Nautique, Sea Ray, Meridian, Boston Whaler, etc. This trend in pricing is happening throughout the industry. Cost of materials went up during the downturn due to tier 3 suppliers going out of business for these companies. A 31 foot Sea Ray cruiser was SELLING for 100K in 2008 and is now SELLING for 160 K. Even a Sea Ray runabout has gone up from 20K to 25K since 2008.

High end product will always sell and will hit a leveling point, but when our customers hit the water they are happy they spent the extra money. As dealers we add to entire experience and do what we can to make the consumer enjoy their time on water. Even here in MN, our customers can justify the money based on what CHATTWAKE said in another thread, the time on the water is like going to Disney for a week.

We have found success in our strategies and are happy to carry the high end product. I look forward to seeing a new X-Star, should be exciting.