Fair Warning:
I know boats depreciate horribly. I know Trade-In Value provided by dealerships/brokers are horrible.
I know I am in the S. Florida market and center console jet boats are not marketable. With that being said...I think the following should prepare FSH owners for the
harsh reality facing them whenever they decide to try and unload their FSH boats.
I have been trying to obtain trade-in values from multiple dealers/brokers here in S. Florida as well as other dealers throughout the state of Florida. I have even reached out to dealers/brokers in S. Carolina, Texas, Maryland, Pennsylvania & New York.
1# Most have never heard of this boat and don't know anything about it.
2# Those that do know about the boat don't even want to consider it for trade in.
3# Those that have first hand experience with the boat won't ever touch/deal for it again.
I have learned that I am not the only FSH owner who is already trying to unload/trade-in their boat. A few dealerships have already had other FSH owners calling to get values and wanting to purchase a new/different boat. A few dealerships have accepted FSH trade-ins and those that have say they will never do it again. They site the difficulty in marketing and selling the boat. Buyers who are looking for a used center console are NOT looking for a jet boat version. The dealers that accepted them as trade-ins stated that they had to liquidate the boat to a 3rd party wholesaler and either broke even or took a small loss.
I get the same reaction when I tell them what my trade in boat is...either a small chuckle or a sigh followed by "eh, I dunno, thats a tough one".
I was able to obtain only 2 quotes out of the dozen of attempts I made and both dealers emphasized their desire to not even take it as a trade in and preferred to consign it only. Both quotes will be listed at the bottom of this post.
I gave the same info and pictures to every dealer/broker that would at least look at it and consider it, before ultimately saying they would not accept it as a trade in or just never responding at all, even after I followed up after.
- It has 150hrs on the engine.
- 10hr, 50hr, 100hr & 150hr scheduled maintenance has been performed at Riva Yamaha and I have all the records to show.
- It has a 5 year extended warranty that I purchased from Yamaha (YES) and it is transferable.
- It has a single axle trailer
- I installed/replaced all of the stock plastic rod holders with metal flush mount rod holders.
- I installed 2 additional rod holders in the gunnels (1 port & 1 Starboard)
- It has a Garmin 74dv GPS/Chart plotter/Fish finder and a thru hull transducer.
- I have gunnel mount outriggers available for the boat
Now before I get to the only 2 quotes I could obtain, let me break down my initial costs when I purchased the boat 9 months ago (Sept. 2015).
- Boat $31,999
- Extended warranty $2,500
- FL 6% sales tax on boat & warranty was $2,069
- Garmin & Transducer installed was $1,500
- Metal holders were $400
- Outriggers were $1,000
Roughly comes to $38,668 total costs for equipment, warranty & boat purchase.
The quotes received for trade-in were $18,500 & $19,200
I expected there to be significant depreciation due to the short term in which I am trying to re-sell. I expected there to be difficulty marketing and lack of interest in the boat. I expected the lack of knowledge about the boat from the dealers.
I did not expect there to be complete refusal to even consider the boat for trade-in nor did I expect the market value/lack of interest to be below $20,000.
I knew it was going to be bad, but I had no idea how bad it truly is. This was the worst financial decision I've made...hopefully it will be the last.
NOTE: This has been my experience only and I am not saying it will be everyones experience. Others may very well and probably will fair better than I. Time will tell.
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