Boat Deals at the Detroit International Boat Show
Focus has been on the decline in automotive sales. But if you think that is bad, wait until you check out the boat deals over at the Detroit International Boat Show. Boats are normally not the ideal form of transportation for everyday commuters since they can often be seen spending 95% of their life sitting in a slip or next to a garage or in winter storage.
With that in mind, you can imagine the savings people can get in considering a boat purchase. Comparing their prices now compared to a normal economy, the prices are expected to be way below the standard price for companies and boat owners aching to make a sale.
In most states boats like that are owned by upper-middle-class, white-collar workers and small-business owners. But in Michigan the owner is just as likely to be a prosperous blue-collar worker.
Doug Glendening, a salesman for Lakeside Marine, was showing Pursuit and Tiara boats that are the equivalent of BMW and Lexus in the auto industry. A 31-foot Pursuit Sport equipped with twin 250-horsepower Yamaha outboards was listed for $197,000. One selling point was fuel economy — 1.79 miles per gallon while cruising at about 29 miles per hour.
Glendening said the toughest challenge now is qualifying buyers for loans. “But we’re finding that even though (attendance) is down, qualified people are coming out to the shows,” he said. “We’re selling boats 12 months a year.”
(Source) Freep