Nautique purchase outside of local area

[Dgee]

If you do fall into a grey area I highly recommend contacting Greg Waters at Active Watersports in Portland Oregon. Great guy to deal with who handles all of the Nautique sales. They usually have a excellent selection as well. I can get you his direct contact info if you'd like it.

[GMLIII]

Lake Anna VA is a gray territory.

you have Chessie 3.5hrs to the north and they’re terrible. Even to the folks the sell boats to.

and you have Poplar Pointe 3.5hrs to the south. I’d rather sink my boat in the lake than take to them again.

Then you have Webster Marina 3 hours( south west) from Lake Anna VA on Smith Mountain Lake, VA

[scottb7]

tough problem if your local dealer is small and does not have much inventory...there ought to be a better way to get the customer of such an expensive toy exactly what they want.

[brit_hunsicker]

When did Summit boats become a CC dealer? Just saw them with a dealer search. Assume Marine max LOTO was your dealer before them?

Yeah I think Summit became Nautique dealer within last 5 years. Also, Wichita (allementsauto?) assuming that is what MarineWorld changed to? If that’s the case, I know they used to be Mastercraft and then Malibu and now maybe they have multiple brands? Either way, I don’t feel the consumer should have to pay up because their “local” dealer doesn’t have the boat they want. Good reason for the consumer to buy a demo boat with 50 hours on it and then they are free to buy wherever they want.


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[Free48]

A little frustrating... Both yesterday and today I've left messages with multiple people at Correct Craft in hopes of being designated within a "gray area". So far no one has returned my voice messages.

[Tallredrider]

I will throw another wrinkle in the discussion. I live in north Dallas but have a place on a lake in east Texas, 2 hours away. Neither are gray areas as both have a dealer.

Dallas is within Buxton's territory and my lake is Ski-N--Sports out of Tyler. I have been told "technically" I could purchase from either.

Most dealers are willing to sell as long as they put the registration in a zip code in their area. Even if they know that the selling zip code is just a vacation home or lake house. In your case, I would bet they make you put the selling documents in the zip code in the dealer's territory.

[Phil8uga]

Why does Nautique requires you to buy a 100k+ boat at your local dealer? Who are they protecting? The end user OR the dealer? Also, I would imagine the best Nautique dealers don’t have to worry about this because if you are a good dealer and you provide good service, people will not go to another dealer. A good dealer and a Nautique boat equals a great boat buying experience.


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[GMLIII]

Why does Nautique requires you to buy a 100k+ boat at your local dealer? Who are they protecting? The end user OR the dealer? Also, I would imagine the best Nautique dealers don’t have to worry about this because if you are a good dealer and you provide good service, people will not go to another dealer. A good dealer and a Nautique boat equals a great boat buying experience.


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I would agree , I believe there is a definite bond between dealer network and Nautique and the end user is definitely second fiddle to that relationship.
Dealer first, end user a strong second

[Infinity]

They are protecting their bottom line. They don't want you to get dealers into a bidding war and knocking the prices down.

[nyryan2001]

If only we had a way to know which dealers were consistently good dealers in all aspects.

i can vouch for Buxton in Dallas and TNT in Nashville. Both have bent over backwards to take care of me.

[wakerider107]

How does the dealer know what territory you fall in? Do they go off of drivers license, area boat will be registered, credit app or what?


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Getting the location of boat use is part of the sales qualifying process on the dealerships end. Having been in boat sales, it's pretty clear when people call in price shopping and refuse to give their boating location or lie about it. To those people, I don't give our best price over the phone - sorry, this isn't used car sales.

We prefer to sell our limited inventory to local customers who we can build a relationship with and service in the future. Sure, there are consequences from the manufacturer if we start dishing boats out of territory, but to be honest, that is not what keeps us from selling elsewhere. The initial sale is just the beginning of the relationship with a customer - selling locally provides benefits to the customer and dealership for years - dumping boats out of territory means no follow up service/storage and low chance of future sales for the dealership, AND, potential poor service for the customer.

From the service side of things, most dealerships will be weeks out in their service schedule during summer. Because of this, we HAVE to take care of people who purchased from us first. If you spend 100K would you not expect top notch service? We never turn people away, even new boats that were dropped in our area, but because our service schedule gets so backed up, those people go to the back of the line and that is just how it is.

[wakerider107]

Why does Nautique requires you to buy a 100k+ boat at your local dealer? Who are they protecting? The end user OR the dealer? Also, I would imagine the best Nautique dealers don’t have to worry about this because if you are a good dealer and you provide good service, people will not go to another dealer. A good dealer and a Nautique boat equals a great boat buying experience.


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You are not required to buy at a specific location. By saying this, you are implying that dealerships outside of your territory will tell you they will not sell to you, which is refusal of service - aka lawsuit territory. Anyone who flat out tells you no is clearly not aware of this.

If you find a boat elsewhere, I recommend asking the two dealerships to work together to get you the boat you want. This is common when the local dealership is small and only stocks a few boats while another larger dealership may have the boat you want. Of course, I can't speak for every dealership.

To answer your question, they are protecting both the end user and dealership. The end user benefits by receiving better and faster service and the dealership benefits by having a local customer to service and possibly sell again in the future.

[swc5150]

Then CC pulls a phenomenal local dealership, replacing with MarineMaxx. I'm just fortunate we have a lake home near another great CC dealership (Watercraft Sales), otherwise I don't know that I'd ever buy another Nautique, with the territory restriction. It may be anecdotal evidence, but I'm not the only one in my circle who thinks this.

[Ski-me]

"My dealer" is Watercraft Sales in Three Lakes WI (excellent dealership btw) however I now live in Montana. Our MT dealer which is the only dealer in MT is 6 hours away and has limited inventory. I am not worried about service or warranty simply because we am so isolated. My concern is in regards to purchasing a new boat, Nautiques policy on out of region purchases, and possibly tax implications.

Isn't it like a car sales....where ever you license the boat is where you pay (or in your case, don't pay) sales tax? One great thing about MT!

[GMLIII]

Then CC pulls a phenomenal local dealership, replacing with MarineMaxx. I'm just fortunate we have a lake home near another great CC dealership (Watercraft Sales), otherwise I don't know that I'd ever buy another Nautique, with the territory restriction. It may be anecdotal evidence, but I'm not the only one in my circle who thinks this.

We are fortunate to have a CC dealer on our home lake , but I could not agree with you more