Choosing an Airstream dealer

[AKristine]

Good morning -- Greetings from Cape Cod!

In 2014, I am going to purchase an Airstream (my first), and so far, the 25ft Flying CloudFB Twin is looking to be my favorite. My plan is to have one of the twins removed and a desk installed. Anyway, in today's world of Internet shopping, dealership location will not be a factor in selecting someone to work with. Service, fair and honest pricing and patience will be my criteria--I will drive to another region of the country if needed. Since I don't have the confidence to purchase a used Airstream, I've decided to stick with a new one. Any thoughts and/or suggestions you can make would be deeply appreciated.

All good wishes.
AKristine

[Wayne&Sam]

Colonial Airstream in NJ.

We have been very happy with them and they have a good selection in stock.

[Protagonist]

What I did was this:
1 - Visit my closest Airstream dealer to do walk-throughs and test drives.
2 - Pick the model, layout, and options I wanted.
3 - Contact EVERY dealer within the range that I was willing to travel. In my case, that was five different dealers, from Texas to Florida.
4 - Give all of them the same criteria, and ask for e-mailed quotes (so you have something in writing for when you go to finalize the deal).
4a - Make sure that the price they're quoting is for the exact unit you asked about, and not just something ALMOST what you're looking for. In my case, one dealer was quoting on an Interstate, but with a different interior layout because he didn't have what I wanted in stock. That took him out of the competition, even though he had a good price otherwise.
5 - Select the best quote, and go back to all of the others and ask if they can beat the lowest quote already received.
6 - Repeat until they all say, "Nope. I can't beat that."
7 - Buy from the lowest one. Or, in my case, there were two that were willing to go the same price, but no lower. When two have the same price, closest wins, because it costs less to travel there, and there are fewer "sunk" costs that way.

I'm not saying that's the best way to buy an RV. It's just the way I did it. I managed to get a respectable but not outstanding 20% off MSRP this way, so I'm happy with the result.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by AKristine

Good morning -- Greetings from Cape Cod!

In 2014, I am going to purchase an Airstream (my first), and so far, the 25ft Flying CloudFB Twin is looking to be my favorite. My plan is to have one of the twins removed and a desk installed. Anyway, in today's world of Internet shopping, dealership location will not be a factor in selecting someone to work with. Service, fair and honest pricing and patience will be my criteria--I will drive to another region of the country if needed. Since I don't have the confidence to purchase a used Airstream, I've decided to stick with a new one. Any thoughts and/or suggestions you can make would be deeply appreciated.

All good wishes.
AKristine

Select a dealer that has a "fair" price, and that's services the trailer before and "AFTER" the sale.

Typically, a real low price will get you the trailer, most likely not PDI properly, and never wants to see you again, until your ready to buy another trailer.

That forces you to find a good dealer that also has a good or better service department.

Bottom line. The lowest price is not always the best "long term" deal.

In your part of the country, Colonial has a better than great reputation.

Andy

[murreywalker]

If I lived in your part of the country, or anywhere within a 1000 mile radius, Colonial would be the "goto" dealer.

You won't go wrong! I know I didn't, and I traveled a bit further than you would. ;-)

[SteveSueMac]

Airstream of New England isn't far from you. So far they've treated me pretty well though no doubt Colonial in NJ has more experience and selection.