Negotiating with trailer dealers

[Speed Sport Engineering]

For those who have purchased new trailers, have you had any luck negotiating better prices or is everything take it or leave it? I'm considering a new made to order Pace, Haulmark, or ATC and wondering if the quoted price is the bottom.

Thanks!

[stonebridge20]

No idea about negotiating prices but go with the ATC if you can swing it.

[Jayeff]

For those who have purchased new trailers, have you had any luck negotiating better prices or is everything take it or leave it? I'm considering a new made to order Pace, Haulmark, or ATC and wondering if the quoted price is the bottom.

Thanks!

Depends on the dealer. I found the bottom line to be very similar and there is a multiplicity of brands. You can't get educated in 30 minutes. Don't depend on a brands previous reputation, a number of them have been bought out by private equity firms.

[DanW]

If you are having the dealer add accessories such as electrical, lighting, cabinets and custom work, you may have some room to negotiate. After the sale, the accessories get very expensive.

[Daryl DeArman]

For those who have purchased new trailers, have you had any luck negotiating better prices or is everything take it or leave it? I'm considering a new made to order Pace, Haulmark, or ATC and wondering if the quoted price is the bottom.

Thanks!

You can absolutely negotiate. Depending on the trailer there may or may not be a whole lot of meat on the bone. The take it or leave it part is easy. Leave it. If they let you walk when not paying list find another dealer.

I'm relying on memory here so my numbers may be a bit off. I believe I paid about 15% below list when buying 2 new trailers at the same time (a 16' x 7' tandem axle and a 20' x 102"). May or may not have been all the discount I could have negotiated, but it was about 15% more than if I hadn't negotiated a bit. Maybe the next guy got 20%, maybe I was lucky. No idea.

[TimH]

Somebody mentioned last year that when buying a new trailer you should take with you a long piece of angle iron to make sure the wheels all point in the same direction...

[Jorma]

I've done pretty well in the past negotiating prices on new trailers. Once I settled on a particular make, model and options, I sent e-mails to every dealer in the country and told them I was going to order one....what's the best price they could do. The range of prices (from the dealers that responded) was significant. I don't remember actual numbers, but it was worth the effort. Keep in mind if you're going to require much service after the sale this might not be a good strategy. In one case I picked the trailer up at the factory since it was much closer to me than the dealer I actually purchased the trailer from.
Mike M.

[Raceworks]

For those who have purchased new trailers, have you had any luck negotiating better prices or is everything take it or leave it? I'm considering a new made to order Pace, Haulmark, or ATC and wondering if the quoted price is the bottom.

Thanks!

Check out InTech as well. Similar to ATC but better build quality in my experience.

[Raceworks]

Somebody mentioned last year that when buying a new trailer you should take with you a long piece of angle iron to make sure the wheels all point in the same direction...

Or simply don't buy a Pace.

[EACIII]

Where you buy it from does make a difference. In Conn everything is over priced. I picked my ATC up from a dealer in PA and saved thousands.

Ed

[GregSmith]

Mike,
You might want to check out Millenium Trailers in Indiana. From my shopping experience a year ago I think their quality is at least as good if not better than Haulmark or Pace (both made in the same plant, btw). Millenium models I’ve seen at the track seemed to be finished off nicer than many other brands and are priced competitively.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I'm 100 to 120 miles from lots of dealers in LA. My local dealer had one of the trailers I wanted but was about 15% higher.
Basic Pace 20ft. I called the local dealer and just said "I'd like to do local business with you but I can't justify paying that much over the LA dealers." In a hour I had an out the door quote on a 10k gvw model that was less than the LA dealers 7k model.

Paperwork by email. 2 days later I was able to pick it up on my lunch hour.

My original plan was to buy an ATC, but they raised their prices over 25% from December 17 to January 18.
Which put the cost almost double the Pace. I couldn't justify having that much capital sitting as much as it does.
Sure, you save gas on the aluminum, but when you tow 6 times a year it'll take 30 years to break even.

[Jtovo]

I went through the build / spec process with the owner of trailer manufacturer. And I went through the same process with a dealer. Both this year. The markup from manufacturer to dealer was 25%. This was for an apples to apples trailer for racing.

[BruceRace]

Check out "Intech".........they look like good quality

[Speed Sport Engineering]

I went through the build / spec process with the owner of trailer manufacturer. And I went through the same process with a dealer. Both this year. The markup from manufacturer to dealer was 25%. This was for an apples to apples trailer for racing.

Thank you - this is useful information.

I'm 100 to 120 miles from lots of dealers in LA. My local dealer had one of the trailers I wanted but was about 15% higher.
Basic Pace 20ft. I called the local dealer and just said "I'd like to do local business with you but I can't justify paying that much over the LA dealers." In a hour I had an out the door quote on a 10k gvw model that was less than the LA dealers 7k model.

Paperwork by email. 2 days later I was able to pick it up on my lunch hour.

My original plan was to buy an ATC, but they raised their prices over 25% from December 17 to January 18.
Which put the cost almost double the Pace. I couldn't justify having that much capital sitting as much as it does.
Sure, you save gas on the aluminum, but when you tow 6 times a year it'll take 30 years to break even.

When I received the quote on the ATC I just about fell out of my chair.

I've done pretty well in the past negotiating prices on new trailers. Once I settled on a particular make, model and options, I sent e-mails to every dealer in the country and told them I was going to order one....what's the best price they could do. The range of prices (from the dealers that responded) was significant. I don't remember actual numbers, but it was worth the effort. Keep in mind if you're going to require much service after the sale this might not be a good strategy. In one case I picked the trailer up at the factory since it was much closer to me than the dealer I actually purchased the trailer from.
Mike M.

You can absolutely negotiate. Depending on the trailer there may or may not be a whole lot of meat on the bone. The take it or leave it part is easy. Leave it. If they let you walk when not paying list find another dealer.

I'm relying on memory here so my numbers may be a bit off. I believe I paid about 15% below list when buying 2 new trailers at the same time (a 16' x 7' tandem axle and a 20' x 102"). May or may not have been all the discount I could have negotiated, but it was about 15% more than if I hadn't negotiated a bit. Maybe the next guy got 20%, maybe I was lucky. No idea.

Thank you - this is the type of information I was looking for.

For those who have chimed in with other manufactures to look at - thanks, I'll review them all prior to making a decision.

[tstrong]

Mike, I have to caveat this with my experience was over 15 yrs ago but when I bought my trailer I got 3 quotes for the exact same trailer. One from the factory in UT, on from a large dealer here in Los Angeles, and one from a tiny dealer in nowhere NV that obviously had very low overhead. I don’t know how much of a break the manufacturers give the dealer, but the dealer in LA was about 10% above the manucturer and the dealer in NV started at 10% less than the factory and I got him to give me almost another 10% off (20 % below dealer). That said I didn’t “negotiate the factory or LA dealer quote so maybe they would have take additional off as well. So, as most have commented I think it pays to shop around and negotiate. Good luck, Todd

[tstrong]

Correction 20% below factory

[Daryl DeArman]

I sure don't like when manufacturers sell direct to consumer when they have a dealership network. They are competing against the dealerships who are trying earn a living selling their product. Their wholesale prices oftentimes provide such little margin for dealers as well. Pretty soon you'll be able to buy a 53' x 102" Featherlite stacker on Amazon.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Check out InTech as well. Similar to ATC but better build quality in my experience.

Check out "Intech".........they look like good quality

I looked at them. Great quality - probably a step better than ATC. But the cost.....

I talked to a dealer in NoCal and his 20ft models started at $25k. Sure they were loaded.
I told him I couldn't justify that. He told me everything else was crap and implied I was an idiot for buying anything else.
I asked if he could quote me a bare basic (no cabinets, etc) and he said no.

[Lotus7]

I was flexible with what I needed and could live with, and got a nice all-aluminum Sundowner gooseneck, 3 years old but never sold, right off the dealer lot for 25% off list price of an identical current-year trailer sitting beside it (and got 5 new tires included). I figure with the little we use these trailers, age is irrelevant.

[TimH]

I was flexible with what I needed and could live with, and got a nice all-aluminum Sundowner gooseneck, 3 years old but never sold, right off the dealer lot for 25% off list price of an identical current-year trailer sitting beside it (and got 5 new tires included). I figure with the little we use these trailers, age is irrelevant.

Except the tires, of course. They degrade just sitting there.

[Brandon Dixon]

I looked at them. Great quality - probably a step better than ATC. But the cost.....

I talked to a dealer in NoCal and his 20ft models started at $25k. Sure they were loaded.
I told him I couldn't justify that. He told me everything else was crap and implied I was an idiot for buying anything else.
I asked if he could quote me a bare basic (no cabinets, etc) and he said no.

I'll second the InTechtrailer recommendation. If your dealer won't quote what you want, orwon't give you a good price, call Brad at RPM trailers (877) 776-8812. They are about 2miles from Road Atlanta and quote very aggressive pricing on new InTech. Customordering a trailer was a great experience with Brad and InTech.

[Eric Cruz]

I'll second the InTechtrailer recommendation. If your dealer won't quote what you want, orwon't give you a good price, call Brad at RPM trailers (877) 776-8812. They are about 2miles from Road Atlanta and quote very aggressive pricing on new InTech. Customordering a trailer was a great experience with Brad and InTech.

Absolutely agree with Brandon. I bought a 40' gooseneck InTech through Brad last year. VERY custom, and Brad knows how to spec them out to the end result you want like nothing I've ever seen. And he knocked 9% off list without even being asked. I'm in VA and we went to the Indiana factory to pick it up, but he adds so much value to the purchase I'd go back through him (located on Hwy. 53 right after you get off I-85 on the way to Road Atlanta) in a heartbeat. If you can swallow the cost and decide on InTech, going through RPM is a no-brainer. He is the largest InTech dealer in the country and pretty much helped build InTech. Framing and build quality like no other trailer, IMO.

Best regards,
Eric

[cory mcleod]

I was able to pick my trailer up at the factory in GA, which saved be in two ways. First, I was able to buy it from a dealer in SC, who gave me a better price than my local dealer. Also, it was cheaper for me to pick it up than to pay the trailer company to ship it to the local dealer. I lived in Memphis, TN, at the time.

Not sure where you are in WI, but I think most trailer manufacturers still have plants in northern IN.

Cory