Best Deal RV Show or Dealer? with a trade?

Need opinions on where would I get the best deal. An RV supershow or a dealer? Also, I have an existing camper I have to trade in so using the wholesalers like Lakeshore won't work. I have tried to sell my unit outright but no luck.

Have you tried craigslist? Thats how I sold my camper last fall, full asking price but I had it priced right.

I just traded in my Cougar last weekend. The Colorado RV show is local dealers with factory reps so you get the best of both worlds (I Guess,,) We ended up trading in our Cougar to the dealer and actually had the Heartland rep involved in the deal for our new Road Warrior. You are going to have a heck of a time selling it this time of year and I think you will actually get more trading it in. In Colorado, you get a sales tax credit for the difference. Our Cougar was a 2010 so it was a huge savings. Between the trade-in value and the tax savings, we got more for it in trade than we could ever hope to sell it for. You might want to check the internet dealers too. We purchased our Cougar (actually ordered it) online and it was drop shipped to our house from Keystone.

I don't think it is so much a question of buying from a show vs a dealer. It's more a question of doing some homework ahead of time. Know how much you should be able to negotiate. Don't be rushed into anything. Check out your dealers ratings and/or reviews on the Internet.

All that said, we did order from a show, but we went back a few times before we committed. We also had comparable units priced online from wholesale dealers etc.

I hope this helps. Send me a message if you have any other questions.

I got hooked on the road warrior line at a rv show but was not pleased when the dealer offered us more than our old jayco was worth on trade. It sent up warnings. We went home and found the exact same unit online for over $7000.00 less than the show price. We just sold our jayco on craig's list. Bottom line is that we saved 7 grand sold our unit for 4100 which was twice the NADA trade in value and can not wait to get out hands on our new road warrior 305. We already joined this group as members and reserved a spot at the national rally. Our entire family can not wait to use the new one. I was worried that we would not sell our jayco but at sold in less than 2 weeks and we had a lot of interest in it. I was surprised how many people wanted to look at it or emailed us with questions. All this throw the AFC championship and a snow storm and below zero temps last weekend. We still had people come and look at it.

Lone Wolvin, Definitely do your homework before signing on that dotted line. I have seen on more than one occasion, an MSRP that was typed up by the dealer and the prices seemed higher than Heartlands MSRP. I also understand that is just a "suggested" retail price. I think it's safe to say you should be able to negotiate 25% to 30% below MSRP but don't expect anything over wholesale and maybe even less than that for your trade in.

Spend the effort and sell your old rig yourself....my new unit from Lakeshore was 30% less than buying it locally and they delivered it to my home. I had 10,000 extra match sticks by buying online.

We priced RV's at the shows and checked online. We did get great deals at the shows on 2 of our past owned trailers. We went on line and found a great price at RV Outlet in Danville, VA. Called them got a price which was great. After they gave me a price I told them I had a trade in. They gave us a great price on it. Then, we went to the Tampa RV Show and saw one of the local dealers. Showed him the pricing I got online and asked if he wanted to match it. Between the price of the RV and the trade-in, the online price was way better. The local dealer could not even come close. It was worth the drive to go and pick it up.