Interesting info from the dealer on what boats are selling.

[Andy S]

I think Yamaha pricing strategy is very smart. I believe most consumers see the sticker price of a Yamaha compared to the sticker price of other boat brands and think what a deal but what they don't realize is that the other brands with a little negotiating come way off the MSRP. The negotiated price on the other brands narrows the price gap pretty dramatically. For instance my Cobalt boat show price was 27% below MSRP, bringing it close the the 242's and that is for a boat almost 2' longer.

Also, more and more car dealers are using the no-haggle method of selling cars, so more and more consumers are getting away from the art of negotiating for a better deal.

 

[Mainah]

The RV market is very much the same. If you don't get at least 25 percent off MSRP on a new RV you just made a salesmans month.

 

[Water4fire]

Guys I have owned a few boats. Actually way to many. One big reason for my purchase of the smaller boats was it fit in my garage at the time. My garage was 20 feet deep and I do not like to store my toys outside. Now we live on property and have a big shop outside the Garage and have a larger boat. It was never about money for me, but I just am very anal and want to take good care of them and store them in the garage. Price points IMO are very nice for what you get with Yamaha. the 1.8L's are amazing motors. The little chain Issue's are far and few. Put it into perspective. I have 3 new PWC and paid just about as much for them as a new boat. SUXs. Also all the top brand V-drives that everyone loves are about 100K.
$50 for a 24ft/r is ok with me.

 

[Ronnie]

I agree that $50k for a 24' boat is a fair price but with the current Yamaha lineup only one model, the SX, even comes close to that. It comes with a tower for A few thousand more more but all 242s have "no haggle" msrps of $60k plus even though all 240s have the same eninges (with some improvements) that they have had since 2010. I am not blaming Yamaha for charging what the maker will bear but they have priced me out of their market for a 242 of any kind. Assuming I am not alone the reason Yamaha or at least some of their dealers are not selling as many 24's is that the are over priced/out of budget for guys like me.

 

[robert843]

I think Yamaha pricing strategy is very smart. I believe most consumers see the sticker price of a Yamaha compared to the sticker price of other boat brands and think what a deal but what they don't realize is that the other brands with a little negotiating come way off the MSRP. The negotiated price on the other brands narrows the price gap pretty dramatically. For instance my Cobalt boat show price was 27% below MSRP, bringing it close the the 242's and that is for a boat almost 2' longer.

Also, more and more car dealers are using the no-haggle method of selling cars, so more and more consumers are getting away from the art of negotiating for a better deal.

Many others are following suit in this now Yamaha did start a trend with this in the boating industry. Robalo, Bayliner, Tahoe, Mako, Chaparral, and even Sea Ray have started offering what they call real deal pricing on many of the their more popular models. Where now you can go to there web site and see their no haggle pricing. Don't get me wrong depending on the dealer there is always some wiggle room even on the current year Yamahas.

 

[2nazt]

I think pricing is getting higher than should be. I mean look at the defects and lack of quality control and lack of attention to detail along the way. They are still a great boat and very useful and a jack of all trades but I think they need to start paying attention to build quality or they will lose customers. You start to expect a lot of a 60 thousand dollar plus boat and that should be expected.

 

[Benny Sibbitt]

I facebook messaged Yamaha yesterday telling them about the problems and concerns we as buyers have with the leak and sealing issues and how the factory is dropping the ball
My boat is in the shop now for the leaking issue and wrong hours displayed on my connext screen after screen replacment, and trailer vibration problems.
I urge others to send their concerns also.
Someone responded to me and said they will share with Yamaha mangers?
Maybe this will help? Ha!

 

[OCMD]

All I know is with the current new pricing, the sell price of my pristine 2008 SX230 is equal or greater to that which I paid for it in 2013. I do know, with the current Yamaha pricing, if I were to buy new (I never will as it makes no financial sense to me) I would not be looking at a Yamaha. For that type of coin, for "A few dollars more" (a great Clint movie) I would buy a boat that is much tighter on the build quality.

 

[Jaime]

So went to my local dealer today to walk around a left over 2016 242 limited e serries and a 2017 ar240. Seen a bunch of great deals on left over e series boats and wanted to see if it was worth the extra couple grand even though I sadly admit the more I comb over the forum on the newer model issues it starting to steer my towards an outboard deck boat more and more but that's another subject. They only had one 2017 24ft model there and when I asked when they expected to get more they told me they didn't. They had two left over 16 models and the dealer said in the last two years they have seen a significant change in what is selling and the 19 and 21 ft models have been more requested they said which they admitted was a big change from 2012-15 where the 24ft models were the bigger draw. This makes me wonder if Yamaha had finally started to price them selves out in the 24ft market to where people are looking at other brands more in that size range. I just though it was interesting to here them admit there had been a shift.

Agree with your post, I have 4 local dealers near me and they seem to have a lot of 242 leftover.. On a personal note this is my 1st jetboat ever after owning over 8 boats with outboard ranging from 24' to 33' and there is nothing like an outboard, the only positive thing is that you get a lot for your $ on a Yamaha 24'