RE: Freebies for your PU

[slowpez]

 
With all the polls re: how much we paid for our PU and which brand, I began to wonder what the dealer threw in as an incentive to buy.  For instance, the dealer gave us an air conditioner, sway bar, brake controller, 3-way fridge, screened porch, interior draperies, sheets for both beds, fan-light, hanging suitcase, and the vanity shelf/mirror.  
 

[popupcop]

 slowpez
Is it really free or do they just add the freebies into the standard price?  I hear from time to time Coleman runs a promotion where some stuff is thrown in.  I don t recall getting anything though.

[NCSunshine]

 slowpez
We could have gotten a screen room for 1 cent but opted for the AAR for $50.  
 
 We got the a/c, fridge, abs gas/tire covers, camper caddie, sheet sets, extra plug in bunk lights, vanity, TV wired plus sway bar and brake controller, didn t cost any more than the price they had but figure it was already in it.

[garym053]

 slowpez
We got an awning, the decor package and $800.00 off the sticker price of $4500.00. I m hoping they will still be giving money off when we go to the " Dark Side"  in a year or two and buy a TT, as I won t be trading my PU!!! THAT S for camping, the TT is for traveling cheaply!

[mikewilley]

 slowpez
I m not sure what I got for " free" , but I got about 20% off list for my camper + all the options.  I m a happy camper []

[jawilson]

 slowpez
As is the case with everything else, there s no free lunch.
 
 While researching PU s I found a wide variety of " tricks"  dealers play to get you to think their deal is better then someone else s. But when you scrutinize the deals, and calculate the numbers yourself, you soon come to realize that no one is really giving you something for nothing (it pays sometimes to be as analytical as I am, because it makes it easier to see through some of this stuff).
 
 There s no freebies for the major stuff, like refrigerators, A/C s and the like. What about the little things like bunk-end lights, sheets, drapes, etc? Seems like a lot of the manufacturers throw those in as standard, or part of a " convenience package" , to try and hide it s actual cost. And since every manufacturer has a vastly different set of standard features it becomes quite difficult to do a head-to-head comparison. You wonder if they do that deliberately.
 
 What I ve also noticed is a number of people mention getting a " starter pack"  from there dealers, but this seems to be highly dependent upon the dealer. A starter pack is usually items the manufacturer doesn t sell, but you still need to have anyway. Things like a water pressure regulator, grey water tank, white water hose, etc. But this is far from a certainty, because of the 6 dealers I visited (all selling a different brand of popup) not a single one offered a starter pack.
 
 Confused yet? []

[Acts 2:38 girl]

 slowpez
I have to agree with jawilson.  There s no free lunch!  Our friends bought a brand new Jayco a few years ago and and were charged $500. each for thier heater and fridge.  This was thier " deal"   Thanks, but no thanks!  We bought our two heaters for $13. each at Walmart (end of season), and if we really wanted to mount them in the cabinets I m sure DH has the knowlwdge to do it!  I don t understand why someone would spend that much $ on heaters.  Is there some benefit I don t know about with a propane heater?

[LoveOurBayside]

 slowpez
Yes, I agree nothing is free.  The " buy this one today"   sign on our camper said the battery, box and mount were free, as well as noted the Coleman package for 2002 which was two chairs, Paque Tent, and King Sized Slumber bag.  When we asked about that they told us we could have it but they would have to backdate our sale to March 31  cause the promotion ended then, and then we ended up getting the floor model Paque because they didn t have any more (which later I found was missing a few pieces, but nothing essential to our use.)  I was bummed when I heard some of the packages other people got.  (And were we the only ones that didn t get the Thank you cookies???)   I wouldn t have minded a " free"  or even reduced price on an air conditioner - maybe we would have gotten one!   In hindsight I think we paid way to much for our hitchwork, controller and sway bar so it hurts to hear people say they got stuff like that for free.   Regardless, we are very happy with our camper!

[wynot]

 slowpez
Buying a camper is like buying a car, only worse.
 
 Any time our salesman saw a hem or haw, the  what can I throw in?  became worse.  Like DW and I were talking about the other day, I believe these campers become a hard sell item because they aren t necessary purchases, so the salepeople work a prospect HARD.
 
 Probably one of the reasons our dealer knocks off 10% in the parts store only on the day of purchase, sounds like a good deal, but if you don t know what you NEED, they stand a chance of getting you later for more money.

[LoveOurBayside]

 wynot

 

ORIGINAL:  wynot
 
 Probably one of the reasons our dealer knocks off 10% in the parts store only on the day of purchase, sounds like a good deal, but if you don t know what you NEED, they stand a chance of getting you later for more money.
 

 It s funny, we got the same 10% off but they also provided us with a list of " nice to haves" .  In the end we only bought a couple of things since our PUT friends had clued us in that most of what we needed could be found for less at Wally World.  We haven t been back to that dealer since - not worth the 1 hour drive each way.  
 
 

[whippetwrun]

 slowpez
No freebies here.  But we did get the Mesa for the price we wanted with the options we wanted form our dealer even though the other 2 dealers I spoke with smirked - one of them just said there was no way they could make that price work, the other actually tried but was still 500 over without adding AC.
 
 So we were happy with the whole deal even without " freebies" .

[Miss-Teri]

 slowpez
We got our pop-up at invoice (we have a copy of the invoice to prove it) as the dealer was getting out of selling pop-ups.  He also sold us the AAR for $50 as an added incentive because the Coleman dealer that we were also considering had a deal on a screen room for that price.  They also installed the hardware for the AAR for free.  Then he insisted on getting the detailing that had peeled a bit from weather redone under warranty before we took it home, and he did all the usual detailing and cleaning.  They also did the wiring for us for free.
 This was a quality dealer and if we ever trade up to a TT (kicking and screaming - I love my PU), we will go there.  They are about 75 miles away, but no one in the Oklahoma City metro area seemed to have any intention of selling a PU, so the travel was worth it.