Best Time to Buy - Event Date: 31 Jul 2017

The lifetime warranty is actually from a company called Warranty Forever.  Most parts are covered (heater, AC radio, TV) but not the RV itself (only the door handles and hinges).  So the common things that happen to RPODS (delamination, leaks, decals coming off, etc ) are NOT covered.  You have to have the RPOD taken to the selling dealer every year for a $150-$200 check.  No check up No more warranty.  It is worth it if is thrown in for free but many dealers use the "free" warranty to charge a few thousand more for a car (yes they mostly sell to car dealers) or RV and when you say but your price is more than x dealer, they say but the "free" lifetime, everything included, no deductible warranty is worth thousands.  I have yet to see a dealer that offers both low prices and Warranty Forever, usually they are the high priced ones since they have to pay a fee to Warranty Forever for every RV/car sold (they cannot pick and choose so even if you do not want it they have to pay for it.  If they sell 100 RVs they must buy 100 policies even if 50 people never want it and don't fill out the paperwork. We did not think it was of value for us when we purchased our RPOD and preferred a lower price and skipped the free warranty dealer.

Couch's prices are for all options except the bike rack and include propane fill and battery.  They deal in bulk and only make a couple of hundred.  Most dealers will not come close to those prices but you never know some will take $500-$1,000 over Couch in order to make a sale.  After all they can order as many as they want.  They may not deal on an RPOD on the lot if they are financing them, but it costs them nothing to put in an order and sell at cost if they wanted.  There is no requirement from Forest River on what price to sell it at only that they do not advertise low prices (some dealers ignore anyway)

Well we also looked at longview in ct and a dealer in Port Jervis Ny. And as you said they won't budge on there price.Then we checked out Pete"s Rv in Burlington Vt and Bingo saved thousands it was well worth the 5 hour drive.

Originally posted by 4Papa Thanks, Richard!  Big help!  And Leo for responding and ditto-ing!  I'm about equidistant from two dealers (Long View in CT and Dufour's in MA), each about an hour to get there. Not great things being said about Long View on this forum but they have twice the stock.  Dufours gets a lot of love from forum Podders but not as much to see.  I'll visit Long View first to get a sense of what model works best for me, given their stock and Dufours to hear where they land on price.  Knowing I'm stuck with one or the other for warranty work means I should have a look-see and questions re their service departments.

Each RV dealership has a "captive audience". There are usually no other dealers of the same models nearby. So they don't move much on price, because travel trailers are not a necessity, they're a luxury. But if a trailer has not moved in a while, they definitely will want to deal.