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Thoughts from Midway
Just sold a boat to a Texas customer

 

Midway Marine News

We just sold a used Glastron runabout with outboard Merc engine to a TX customer.  Customer insisted on having a galvanized trailer, so I assume he is planning on using this boat in salt water.  So to accommodate the customer, we had to swap a trailer from another boat.

It was quite the scene in our shop as we had to hoist both boats off of their trailers and swap them.  We had two boats suspended in the air for quite a while while we adjusted the trailer bunks to fit properly under it's new boat.  We got it done without dropping a boat on the floor and the Glastron is headed to TX this weekend.  We hope the new owner is thrilled with his boat, trailer and with Midway.


Boating with your wife and kids.

 Something I have observed when watching families go boating is that the dad generally wants to do all of the driving.  Personally, I would rather have my wife or kids drive the boat while I get to relax and enjoy the ride. There are many benefits to allowing others to drive the boat.  I have six kids and I have raised them on the water every summer. I have always encouraged everyone of them to drive the boat and learn how to safely use all of the controls. By the time my sons were 16 years old, I allowed them to take our boat with their friends to the lake. I had full confidence that they were  fully capable and safe to take their friends boating and keep my boat safe.  There have also been times where my wife has taken our kids and their friends boating without me. We have a short summer season in northern Wyoming and it only makes sense to be able to use the boat as much as possible to get our moneys worth. A dad or husband who thinks he is the only one that can drive the boat is not doing anyone any favors.  The boat is very easy to drive and very easy to load and unload off the trailer once you understand how to do it correctly. 

   So my advice to all dad's, step back and let somebody else drive! 


How we set our boat prices
It's probably best that we start from the beginning on how we do our pricing of boats, transportation, warranty and the DOC/Prep fee.
 
I made the decision a few years back to start putting our bottom cash prices on the web site rather than jacking them up and negotiating the price back down anyway.  This has seemed to work very well for us except in rare situations where some customers absolutely will not buy unless they negotiate.  In these situations, we do loose the sale, but in the other cases, customers seem to appreciate not having to wonder if they are getting the best price possible.  The price is what it is.
 
Now with that being said, we do build transportation and some of the warranty into the price, because, of course those items are not free to us and we have to recover those costs.  On boats selling over $15,000, we offer free transporting for the first 300 miles and we average that cost at $1/mile.  If we transport farther than 300 miles the customer must pay up to $1.50/mile for the extra distance. (depending on actual cost from transporter).  When a customer offers to come pick up their boat, we offer a $300 price break.
 
Warranties are a little more complicated.  for every boat and car we sell, our secretary takes $100 out of the DOC/prep fee and sets it aside in an account to cover future warranty issues.  Although $200 is closer to the actual amount needed to cover unforeseen issues after we sell a car or boat, so we estimate another $100 from the profit of the boat that usually goes toward future repairs.  Bottom line is, we estimate our cost of offering the 30 day warranty at $200.  And if customers do not want a warranty, we offer a price break of $200.
 
The generic term for any dealership's DOC/Prep fee is simply a way to recover a portion of the overhead directly related to the vehicles being sold, specifically Document processing and vehicle preparation.  We average out this fee as $349 on every unit we sell, regardless of the specific costs to specific cars/boats.  It is just not time effective to track exact time and costs of each vehicle/boat.
 
With boats, we have double the title work processing (Boat and Trailer) and it starts when we purchase the boat.  We buy boats from many different states and each state has their own laws regarding titles, registrations, bill of sales, etc..  But Wyoming requires that when necessary, we have to convert documents we receive into WY titles.  This requires scheduling appointments with law enforcement to do inspections of the Boat HIN and Trailer VIN, then going through the required forms and sending them in with fees to get WY titles made.  It may not seem like much but it results in a crazy amount of office hours.  Then when we sell the boats, some title work is simple and some is very complicated and time consuming as we spend time arranging financing, printing all documents, working with the lender on how they want us to file liens, pay the fees etc...  More crazy office hours.  And again, we average the costs, we do not try to track exact time and cost on each vehicle.
 
Prep on boats is easily 3 times the effort and expense as a car.  Every boat and trailer that comes in gets a full mechanical and electrical check out and then it goes to the detail shop for full interior detail and exterior buff and wax, then it heads for the photo studio for pictures and videos.  Then they sit covered outside all winter where they get dirty again and require another detail and final inspection before delivery.  Because we offer the warranty, we take extra precaution to make sure the boat is truly ready to go.  It's a lot less expensive to fix an issue in our shop than pay a different shop to fix it after the sale.  I can assure you that $349 does not even come close to covering a fraction of the actual prep costs, but it does help a little.
 
I suppose we could just raise our boat prices by $300 and have a Doc/prep fee of $50, but the total would be the same anyway.  So I guess that is just a policy we decided on. 
 
So there's the long version explanation of our web prices and DOC/Prep fee.  (Best I can do)
   Because I set our bottom cash prices on the web site and all DOC/Prep fees are $349, I do not allow my sales staff to negotiate these figures other than the $300 transporting and $200 warranty costs.  If I did, then I would be crazy to truly put my bottom price on the web site.

Starting our new promo video

 Today I sat down with my son and daughter-in-law with  Freemoney Films, to decide how to prepare for our new Midway promo video. This video will help people understand Midway's process for purchasing used boats and getting them ready to sell and then transporting them to the new owners. I wrote up the narration for the video and here is the rough draft. 

Are you ready to make memories with your family and friends on the water this summer?
Midway Auto and Marine has the largest selection of new and pre-owned boats in the western united States!
With over 150 boats being sold each year, and transported throughout the united States, Midway has established itself as one of the leading marine dealers in the West.
While most marine dealers focus on their new boat inventory, Midway recognizes the high demand for lower priced, super clean pre-owned boats.
With a network of buyers throughout the US, Midway is able to purchase hundreds of clean pre-owned boats and Freemoney Filmshave them transported in for full mechanical inspection and cosmetic detailing.
Our certified Marine mechanics inspect every mechanical and electrical component on each boat to ensure these boats are ready for dependable use on the water.
Trailers are also fully inspected for reliability so there won't be any surprises down the road.
With Midway's specially trained Detailers, our pre-owned boats look almost brand new with very little signs of wear and tear.
Midway takes pride in making sure our boats are dependable and beautiful and with the help of our State-of-the-Art photo studio, we take the extra time and effort to provide our buyers with professional pictures and videos that show every inch of our boats.
Nearly 85% of the boats Midway sells, are purchased sight-unseen by our customers and their boat is delivered directly to their door.
Customers find Midway's web site to be the most comprehensive and informative Marine web site they have ever seen, which gives them the reassurance that Midway pays attention to the details and stands behind their boats.
And for the past several years, Midway has posted their absolute bottom price right on their web site, so the price you see is the price you pay, Absolutely No games!!
Midway's Sales staff are trained and expected to be courteous and straight forward, no hard selling, no pricing games and will always go the extra mile to provide all the information a customer needs to make an informed and responsible decision.
In Most cases Midway is able to find financing for their customers at better rates, terms and payments than local banks.
Let Midway show you how business should be done in the Marine industry, smart, helpful, honest and straightforward. Are you ready to start building memories with your family and friends? Call Midway today and start your new adventure on the water!
Because we all know, it's not about the boat, it's about your Family!!



While we try to get all details, options and features correct, buyer is responsible to verify condition, options, details and features prior to buying. Midway will not compensate buyer for any incorrect information listed on this web site about item purchased after date of sale.