Best Time to Buy - Event Date: 31 Jul 2017

Good News.  RV buying is not like car buying.  There are no end of year clearance sales in the summer to get rid of the 2017 models and make room for the 2018.  That does not mean  an individual dealer will not have sales.  The only time there are "authorized" sales from the manufacturer are between August and March when there are the large RV shows  (Raleigh NC show is end of August, Tampa is January).  At these shows there is dealer pricing marked on all RVs and these are usually the best prices.  I have never seen these prices lowered except if there is a single dealer who for whatever reason has to sell at cost or even below but this is extremely rare and I do not know of anyone who bought at that price so cannot say if it is real.  That being said if you want one now go to a wholesaler (such as Couch's nation).  Their prices are LOWER than the RV shows. They currently are selling 180/179 for 14,9/15.1. I would then try to bargain your way with your local dealer to get close to that price as possible.  Our dealer was $500 over Couch but he was 100 miles away.  Our "local" dealer was thousands over and would not budge.  Keep in mind most local dealers will not perform warranty work if you bought the RPOD somewhere else.  Forest River has big brochures that says BUY LOCAL with 11 bullet points why you should buy local.  Good luck

Thanks, Richard!  Big help!  And Leo for responding and ditto-ing!  I'm about equidistant from two dealers (Long View in CT and Dufour's in MA), each about an hour to get there. Not great things being said about Long View on this forum but they have twice the stock.  Dufours gets a lot of love from forum Podders but not as much to see.  I'll visit Long View first to get a sense of what model works best for me, given their stock and Dufours to hear where they land on price. 

Knowing I'm stuck with one or the other for warranty work means I should have a look-see and questions re their service departments.

By coincidence Longview was one of the dealers we contacted both by phone and email.  When I mentioned Couch's price I never heard from them with a quote.  If you decide to buy local and agree to pay more I would still recommend waiting them out for a better deal.  I know that Longview still had Green models left when the Blue ones hit the market so they did come down on the advertised price on RV Trader. Stoltzfus in Adamstown PA may be a four hour drive for you and that is where we bought from.

Long View came in at $17K for a 180.  They do boast a Lifetime Warranty on major parts and the dealer is a member in something called "Priority RV Network".  A bit surprising is the premium they're asking for the 180 given the large stock on hand (and presumably, volume) that they do.  I'll visit Dufours and see what they come up with.

If I'm still looking through fall, I might wait until January to see what's what in the Boston show.

Richard Cindy:
Would you know if the prices quoted for the 179/180 ($5.1K/$14.9K) at Couch's are for fully optioned out units?  I'm trying to compare apples to apples (including factoring in distance).  Also, are most Pods shipped to dealers with full options?  I've seen nothing so far with just standard features.