Alumacraft boat order

I ordered a trophy 205, 9 weeks ago. Boat still isn’t being built. If your planning on ordering a new boat and want it before summer. I would order it now

I heard 12 to 14 weeks…

To be efficient I’ve heard they make one model at a time, which makes sense.

I took a tour a few years back and was allowed to take a photo of a pre assembled Alumacraft.

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Brian Klawitter wrote:

I took a tour a few years back and was allowed to take a photo of a pre assembled Alumacraft.

That reminds me of the picture you posted when you toured the Spam facility,,,,,,

HRG

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Hot Runr Guy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Brian Klawitter wrote:</div>
I took a tour a few years back and was allowed to take a photo of a pre assembled Alumacraft.

That reminds me of the picture you posted when you toured the Spam facility,,,,,,

HRG

Meow……….funny but……OK, it’s just funny

I don’t even want to see the pics of the Hamm’s tour.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I don’t even want to see the pics of the Hamm’s tour.

The original recycling,,,,

HRG

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David Blais wrote:

I ordered a trophy 205, 9 weeks ago. Boat still isn’t being built. If your planning on ordering a new boat and want it before summer. I would order it now

What was the promised delivery date?

Grouse

I ordered my boat today. I will let you all know what they say when they come back with a production date.

There wasn’t a promised delivery date. But it just came in. Now to get it all rigged! I almost forgot I had to wait 3 months

There are seemingly annual issues with people putting-in orders during boat show season and not getting their rig anytime close to the opener.

I would never pay a dime on an order without a clearly stated delivery date and the procedures stated for if/when that doesn’t occur. For what today’s new overpriced boats cost compared to a 1 or 2 year old slightly used rig…the new boats should be delivered to your driveway, fueled up, and have a complimentary case of Hamm’s on board.

Let me tell you about my buying/pricing experience… After a good 6 months of searching craigslist, facebook marketplace and walleye central, a few things became very clear.

1. The new boat prices are exaggerated… and
2. Used boats are more overpriced than new boats.

My intuition is that both of these are being caused by the same thing, or combination of things. Normally, a depreciating asset will be on a curve. Meaning that the majority of the depreciation will take place in the first 5 years of the asset lifecycle, then it will lose a little bit a year until it is fully depreciated. That is not the case with walleye/fishing boats. My research when looking for a used boat is that the walleye boat market for the rig itself (minus electronics which have a very short product lifecycle) are not on a curve but on a flat decline of about $2k to $4k per year (based on the model selling price) for greater than 10 to 15 years.
The first reason I think this is happening is because walleye/fishing boat owners take good care of their boats and keep their boats a long time. That creates a low supply/high demand in the used boat market and keeps prices up.
The second reason this is happening is because lenders are lending for boats up to 10, 12 and 15 years now. This creates a lot more ability to purchase boats by people who normally wouldn’t have the disposable income to do it. The demand from this demographic is raising the prices drastically. It also keeps used boat prices high because if the boat isn’t taken care of and ages, they want a new one and realize they still owe quite a bit. When they advertise it, they ask what they owe which is higher than the value should be. Since the market has a low supply, they could get a premium price.

The good news is that the market will eventually correct itself much like the housing market did in 2007/2008. The prices will drop. When? who knows. When they run out of suckers who will take out a 10, 15 and 20 year loan on an asset that should have a 5 year depreciation curve.

If you ever get a chance, watch “The Big Short”. Its a great movie on how banks manipulate markets and take advantage of people who don’t know any better or make poor financial management decisions.

Anyway… I bought new. Yes, I overpaid but I want to make memories now and I will not overpay for a used boat that could have potentially been mistreated.

Over paying is over paying. If you bought a boat you like that always the only thing that matters.

Update… They must not be too far behind. My order was placed on Jan 2. and my production date is Jan 30.

What did you order

T Pro 195 ..

David Blais wrote:

I ordered a trophy 205, 9 weeks ago. Boat still isn’t being built. If your planning on ordering a new boat and want it before summer. I would order it now

Since I have never purchased a new boat can I ask the following questions…

1. When a custom boat is “ordered” how much money is put down? Is it 100% and does this vary with boat manufactures (Lund, Alumacraft, Skeeter, etc.)?

2. Even if the payments to the dealer are made in installments I assume all of it will be made at some date prior to delivery. Is this true?

3. When you guys sign your purchase agreements for your new custom boats do you include a promise delivery date stated clearly in the contract? If full payment is made up front a promised date would mean nothing to me if they can’t hit the actual deliver date. Also, I would hope your not making payments on it before it is actually delivered too.

4. Is there any financial penalty clearly stated in the contract where if the promised delivery date is not met there is discount (for example, 1% per week discount or termination of purchase agreement altogether).

You generally pay 10% down when ordering. The balance is due upon delivery. The boat dealers do not carry the paper. Thats handled through a finance company same as a car. I would assume you can write a cut-off date into the contract where as if the boat isn’t delivered by x date the contract is void and you get a refund although I’ve never done it or know anybody who has done it.

Each and every dealer is different so you would need to talk to them to see how they handle things. The financing company will not cut any deals. They just are interested in the money.

1. I put money down, but not 10%. As dutchboy said, its probably up to the dealer.
2. It functions the same as a car. 100% payment upon delivery whether you finance or pay cash.
3. I don’t think they can give you a promised delivery date when you order as they don’t know what the backlog of work is for the factory. I’m sure they can check and give you a round about figure. I would never pay in full for something I ordered. I would at least give it a walk around and check it visually before taking possession. Take tons of photos. Only after it passes delivery inspection would I pay in full.
4. I don’t think any dealer in the world would accept the terms of a penalty for late delivery. 99% of the time being late from a promised delivery date is because of a factory breakdown.. or things that are out of their control.

Just think of it the same as ordering a car…

David Blais wrote:

I ordered a trophy 205, 9 weeks ago. Boat still isn’t being built. If your planning on ordering a new boat and want it before summer. I would order it now

Is yours delivered yet? Who did you order from? did they give you a manufacturing date?

timjamison11 wrote:

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4. I don’t think any dealer in the world would accept the terms of a penalty for late delivery. 99% of the time being late from a promised delivery date is because of a factory breakdown.. or things that are out of their control.

Just think of it the same as ordering a car…

I have never order ordered a car so I don’t know that Purchase Agreement process very well.

However, what I do know from 25 years of experience working in Supply Chain, Manufacturing Engineering, Lean Systems, and Continuous Improvement is Promise Date Service Level (PDSL) is 100% controllable from “the factory”. Period. They choose not to change because they haven’t been forced to. For now, customers just accept long Factory Lead Times and 1% PDSL (99% of the time late to promised delivery). Order now and hope to get new boat 6 months later. This was how manufacturing was done in the 1980s.

I don’t know anything about boat manufacturing but other more complicated industries (automotive and aerospace) have figured out how to close the gap between actual delivery dates vs. promised delivery dates and reduce Lead Times. It’s solvable. I promise it is.

Maybe boat manufactures could learn a thing or two from Toyota.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System

Every dealer has boats sitting on the sales floor. If you need a boat today go find a dealer that has a boat that will fit your needs, hand them a fistfull of cash and drive away with it. Now if you want a certain color scheme or something else you will special order. Kinda like McDonalds. If you can’t wait or deem yourself to special to wait buy the floor model and go boating. Or, you can buy a Toyota and go shore fishing I suppose.