Mid Size Power Boats

New -vs- Used Boats

Used boat sales outrank new boat sales by well over a 10:1 margin. The reason is because new boats are so expensive and used boats are truly great values.

First time boat buyers are prone toward purchasing new boats.

Their reasoning is usually that they don’t want to “buy into other people’s problems.” Their thinking is that if they buy a new boat, they won’t have any problems. That is unlikely.

Experienced boat buyers have a different philosophy. Theirs is that the first couple years loss in value isn’t worth the price; that if they can buy a late model boat for half or two thirds of the new boat price, they are thousands of dollars ahead, even when the used boat may have problems to be fixed.

For example, consider a boat that sells for $100,000 new and $80,000 two years later. That $20,000 saving could cover a lot of repairs with many thousands left over.

True, with a new boat you have a warranty but the question becomes one of how much is that worth?

If the product doesn’t have a certain degree of quality, a warranty becomes like a Band-Aid over a wound.

It’s trouble enough taking a car back to the dealer for warranty work, but with a boat, this can be a lot more troublesome when the dealer is not located nearby.

The fact of the matter is that used boats are usually tremendously good values, so if you find yourself stretching the limits of your budget to get what you want out of a new boat, you’ll probably be able to get all that you want out of a used one without breaking the bank or stretching yourself too thin.

What to Expect From a New Boat Purchase

Being hand made items, and generally being rather complex, it had long been expected that new boats will have some “bugs” to be worked out.

As with all other products, boats are not extensively tested after they are finished. Like it or not, that job falls to the buyer.

With larger yachts a process of “fitting out” is planned for. The larger the yacht, the longer it takes and the more things need to be dealt with.

But with larger yachts, there is always a captain and crew who deal with most of these issues, not the owner. In the mid size boat range, rare is the owner who can afford a paid professional, so he’s stuck with doing it himself.

Depending on boat size and complexity, one should expect that there will be a small number of problems and defects that need to be corrected.

But since you’re paying big money for a product, the number of problems and defects should be small. Even so, many of these glitches are going to pop up over a period of time, and you should expect that and be prepared to deal with them.

To give you a general idea, the typical new forty footer usually takes about a month to accomplish fitting out, which includes installation of additions and options.

During this period of time, if the owner is around much, he’ll discover shortcomings and get them corrected while the service people are still working on the boat.

The usual process is that the owner takes delivery of the boat, operates it for about a month and then makes a list of all the problems.

When the list is made, he calls the dealer who then sends out a crew, or the boat is brought back to the dealer where the problems are fixed.

You should not expect that the boat will be delivered to you half finished, or without a final check out to insure that the boat is ready. See Chapter fourteen The Art of the Deal, for more on this subject.

- End of Chapter 1 -