Lund Dealers

I am starting the process of buying a new Lund boat and I am looking for thoughts or opinions on which dealer would be the better route. I have a Rapid Marine close to me but I know Nelson marine sells Lund as well. Looking to stay close to the metro area. Looking for knowledgeable sales staff who would be willing to help with all the questions I may have and not push me into something I don’t want. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

In the metro those dealers are your choices. Personally I haven’t had the best experiences at Nelson. Not bad, I’d say they were more indifferent than anything else.

blackbay wrote:

Personally I haven’t had the best experiences at Nelson.

X2

Although the Sales staff is important to me, The quality of the service Dept. is a far bigger factor to me. I had 1 service experience with both. The one with Nelson’s was not the best. The one with Rapid was Excellent.

Service is definitely a big one as well. Luckily Rapid has a dealer 15 mins from me which is a big plus. I might have to take a drive out to Nelson’s just to check out the boats. They have more of the models currently in stock that I want to compare. Any experiences on ordering? I know it might not be the best time to have to order but I cant really start the process until next month at least.

Rapid has several dealers. They may bring one from another location to the dealer close to you if you ask, or most likely have one on site that hasn’t been rigged yet they can show you. Ask them and they should be able to help you out.

I bought my 2020 Lund 1875 from Rapid Marine in Shakopee last year. They gave me more for trade in on my 20-year old Lund than Nelson would.
I don’t know how they are for service but I can’t recommend them for rigging. I would use Fish Electronics or somebody else next time. What should have been 2 trips (one to drop off the electronics after the boat was delivered and one to pick up the boat) turned in to 4.
PM me if you want the details.

I do not have a trade in. So it really comes down to service in all areas.

I bought my 2013 Lund in Grand Rapids and had most of my Service work done by Rapid in Rodgers and experience was decent ( not bad but not perfect either) but I know that Service Manager has since left and I plan to go to Ham Lake next.

If I used Rapid Marine again I would go to the Ham Lake location. I think that’s the original location.

I haven’t bought from either but did price boats from both when I was in the market. With the boat market now my guess is pricing across dealers will be a wash. I’d agree that service is most important and having the dealer close is handy. You can also ask if they have specific dealer incentives – some will throw in extra’s or may include the rigging in the cost of electronics, talon, kicker, etc.

Ham Lake seems like it might be my first stop. They have the model I am looking at in most of the configurations in stock. (SS, sport, different sizes) It would be worth asking about special dealer incentives though, especially if I am looking other places. Nothing says I cant buy somewhere and service at the other. I am new to the boat buying process thorough a dealer so all of the info is greatly appreciated.

Lund1775 wrote:

Ham Lake seems like it might be my first stop. They have the model I am looking at in most of the configurations in stock. (SS, sport, different sizes) It would be worth asking about special dealer incentives though, especially if I am looking other places. Nothing says I cant buy somewhere and service at the other. I am new to the boat buying process thorough a dealer so all of the info is greatly appreciated.

You certainly can do that. However, the dealership is going to take care of their customers FIRST and fill in with other work as needed. If you are going to write the check for a new rig find the dealer that can service your needs the best. Ask yourself this…..if I had a warranty call 2 weeks before the 4th of July with a big family weekend planned who could help me. The boating season is short in Minnesota, the payments last a full 12 months yearly. Don’t be the guy paying for a boat he can’t get fixed.

I haven’t bought a boat from Rapid Marine but I brought my Ranger in for winterization service October 2019 at the Rogers, MN location and they completed the job in a timely manner. I would use them again in the future.

I would assume that all the Rapid dealers would price their boats the same, so you shouldn’t have to check Ham Lake and also shop a store closer to you. For example an 1875 Impact with a 150 should cost the same at each store. The differences would be in add on packages, trolling motors, graphs…

I understand that, I’m just talking about current inventory. If Rapid Shakopee doesn’t have the model in stock I would like to get into the correct size to make sure it’s what I am wanting. Will for sure check Shakopee before going out further. Going off of online inventory Shakopee doesn’t have what I am looking for from what I can see.

I would call Rapid to see what they have in stock. I was just at the Ham Lake location today and they a bunch of the specific model I was looking for in stock but only had 2 posted on their website.

If you are going to want to order a boat from Lund, the model I was looking at would have had a delivery date of July at the earliest. It sounded like some of the models are already sold out for the 2021 season.

That makes sense that they wouldn’t have every boat online. Curious what model you are looking at buckmastermn.

I have personally had a great experience with rapid.
Sales, rigging, parts, service, maintenance and all.
Shakopee pulled the boat I wanted from another stores inventory.
Purchased in January – March 2012.

“However, the dealership is going to take care of their customers FIRST and fill in with other work as needed.”

I think this is changing… Dealers make so little money anymore on the actual sale of boats (especially when you back out the high costs of going to multiple Boat Shows). Where they make most of the money is in the rigging and servicing of boats/motors. I’m not sure they care that much about where the boat was bought, to a degree. I bought my Lund at one of their dealerships, but take it to a different one (that doesn’t even sell Lund/Merc) that does great work and I’ve never felt like less of a priority to them.

I bought my 2010 1725 Rebel Sport from Rapid Marine in St. Cloud new in 2011. They were great to deal with. As for service, I have only had to take mine in once so far, and that was at Ray’s Marine in Bemidji (lake place is there). No problems there either.

1875 Impact xs

I just bought a 2021 1675ss Impact only one they had and they didn’t know when they were getting any more.

My experience at Rapid in Shakopee was good.
I had them rig the boat but in hindsight I would have ALL OF my electronics work done at Fish Lectronics – my two cents