Selling 2010 Product
Last week while I was preparing to fly home from the RVIA National RV Trade Show I received an interesting e-mail from a Florida dealer. This dealer wanted to know why manufacturers are producing 2010 product now.
Based on the communication I had with this dealer, I wanted to get a discussion going about the pros and cons of producing 2010 product now. Some of the questions we discussed were:
•Does producing 2010 product devalue the 2009 product?
•Should dealers only be allowed to purchase 2010 product at the 2009 Louisville show?
•With the current economic situation is this an opportune time to hold off on producing for next year?
•Does anyone really benefit from producing 2010 product now?
I would like to encourage a discussion on this topic and would like to hear from as many interested parties as possible.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Also dealers that sell on sites such as ebay and other sites for a couple hundred over how can you stock the inventory. All dealers need to get together and ban the dealers with such little margain to advertise them. Big dealers have no idea how much business they are losing.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Does anybody know the reason GE got fined so much money?
August 18th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
With GE raising everybodys interest rate for the past year to whatever they want, how can anybody stay in business? GE is the one that has to be put on hold too
December 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Considering that, in general, dealers’ inventories are too high for the present retail activity and aged - the worst thing manufactures could do is an early model year change over. It only creates a steeper hill for our dealer partners to climb. If manufactures REALLY wanted to help dealers right now, they would continue to produce 2009 model year products until next November.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Counter,
You are right, there are 2 sides to every story. I think both manufacturers and dealers are responsible for the situation with early intros. I agree also, that mafgs should use the utmost caution when selecting dealers. I brought up my point to express a different side of the story.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Jonathan summed it up nicely and said it the best. What exactly would it take for RVIA to mandate a change on the competitive clause issue and get this changed NOW? There’s got to be a solution!
December 10th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Mark, if, as you claim, dealers are abusing the state repurchase requirements, perhaps the manufacturer should consider being a little more thoughtful when selecting dealers in those states. Likewise, maybe manufacturers shouldn’t wholesale mass numbers of units to large chains and destroy a competing local dealer’s market. There are always two sides to the story.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
The reason that certain manufacturers are coming out with 2010 product right now might be that in a lot of states dealers have banned together to pass laws that require manufacturers to buy back the dealers inventory back for no other reason than that dealer wants them to. Most of those laws require current and one previous model year to be repurchased. Some of the laws further state that the current model year starts when the first current model unit hits a dealers lot in that state. So, in a way, the dealers have boght this on themselves.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am
In the past manufacturers have been expelled for violations. A stand must be taken to establish guide lines on this issue so some sort of deterent can be in place. This is the only way the problem will be addressed once and for all.
The bottom line is that any early model year introduction makes all of us, and the industry, look unscrupulous. During these trying we need the consumers confidence in us all more than ever.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
A history lesson from the manufacturer’s point of view, this issue has been around for a long time. Both RVIA and RVDA made efforts on this years ago to get a reasonable model year introduction date - RVIA could not enforce it against the manufacturers since model year introduction is a competitive issue (and therefore anti-trust)and RVDA could not have its dealers boycott manufacturers who skipped a year (anti-trust boycott). However, there was an active education component for manufacturers and dealers about the harms this causes the industry. Some listened, and many did not. The result was that some of the strongest RV manufacturers who listened lost millions because they independently decided to hold off and just roll out the current model year; but other RV manufacturers jumped ahead and took advantage of this and although many RV dealers chose not to buy from those RV manufacturers, other RV dealers did - and they gained a competitive advantage - and good RV dealers lost out on sales. Unless the RV industry develops some legislative barriers to entry to keep out the irresponsible parties on both sides, nothing will change.
December 9th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I rented a small warehouse last week and am starting production of an entry level travel trailer to be brand named the “Early”. A 20 foot model will be designated the “Real” with the 22 foot version to be the “Very” The first finished product to be offered [next month]will be 2019 models. I also plan to submit my 2019 Federal tax return in two weeks and I have applied for a 22nd century drivers license.
Just kidding.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Luxury coaches probably started this so many years back and there have been many agreements broken. Go RVDA, but more than likely the “government” will step in if they can get their individual names on a bill and then it will be fixed. They always do such a good job—- yeh right!
December 8th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
With internet sales it’s hard to look to just your state for any help, but…I surely don’t know why any dealer selling or advertising a 2010 “title” isn’t turned in for fraud by other dealers. I am sure the states attorney in the sellers state would respond. Likewise I would think the attorney general in the manufacturers state would respond as well against the manufacturer. And, how about the floor plan lenders…should they not be concerned? When does a unit have a “birthday” anymore!
You can’t leave this to the manufacturers…the dealers must act to stop it.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
The only missing link here David is that if you don’t buy the manufacturer’s current model year, the dealer down the road will and you will spend months defending your price while your competitor takes in the easy profits. It has to start on the manufacturing level.
December 8th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
This has always been a problem. Just from reading the above comments it is obvious that virtualy all RV Dealers do not want these early model year introductions. It is to bad that RVIA does not get it.
Larry Schaffer
Rivers RV
December 8th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Please correct me if my thought process is wrong, but I believe dealers have more control over this situation than they want to admit. Dealers fail to use their control for a similar reason as the manufacturers roll out the new year way too early. Money. Use supply and demand as the control. If you refuse to buy a 2010 unit in November/December of 2008 the manufacturers will get the point and stop trying to push it on the industry. The customer has the control and you (the dealers) are the customer in this case. As long as dealers buy the product, whatever the year may be, the manufacturers will keep trying to sell you more product, earlier. Once you let manufacturers know you aren’t going to buy it, everyone can work together to set a roll out date that is better for everyone in the long run.
December 8th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
There is no “good” reason to introduce the new models until Louisville, period. A few greedy manufacturers years ago started introducing models earlier in order to get a jump on everyone else and it has gone downhill ever since. The dealer never benefits from this practice. The manufaturer who beats everyone else to the punch is the only beneficiary. The dealer in the meanwhile is stuck having to discount currrent model inventory during his busiest (in most cases) time of the year in order to not get stuck with “last year’s inventory”. Utterly ridiculous. I know manufacturers are not allowed to collaborate and agree on an announcement date, but certainly something can be worked out within the auspices of RVIA to accomplish the same. This would be a perfect time to fix an age old problem. Let’s cut this stupidity out now while we have an opportunity. This would also go a long way in assuring the industry of a good turn out at Louisville. It would also save a lot of the money that is currently being spent by manufacturers in hosting open houses prior to Louisville. This money could be put back into the product.
December 8th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I am the dealer who sent the email. We are faced with the situation of having 2010 models due here in January. These are floorplans that we needed but they didn’t have 2009 available. This will devalue the current inventory the minute they hit the lot. I was hoping that when Weekend Warrior went away that the need to be a year ahead would go away. If ever there is a time that we need to get caught on the current year, this is it. We are sitting with yards full of 08 and 09 product. We shouldn’t have to be worried about 2010! They should be introduced at Louisville and no sooner. This would make it much easier for us to manage our inventories.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I think they should stay at least close to the year that we are currently in. Now if you buy something in early 2009 and the manufacture says it is a 2010 is it really a 2010? Remember years ago when car manufacturers had their new car showings in the fall of the year, the anticipation and excitement was there, it was exciting.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I would like to go back to the way it was years ago, new product could not be introduced before Louisville. this was “off season for most dealers and we had a chance to sell down to acceptable levels before model year change. Now we find ourselves discounting current inventory during our peak season so we don’t get caught in this trap. Anyway other way of doing it hurts profits!
December 8th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Some of us still remember the Fleetwood 2002, 2002 1/2 then skipping to the 2004.
Guess why in part I am no longer a Fleetwood dealer after 22 years of loyalty!!!
December 8th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Let me guess…..was it Fleetwood with the 2010’s. I really think the industry needs to put in force a rule, that the next model year cannot be released before, say July 1st.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Just when I thought it could not get any worse. I seriously hope we will NOT see 2010 models with dealers nationwide over flowing with 2008’s and in some unfortinate cases 2007’s. Nothing is to be gained by making the current dealer inventory obsolete. I would love to see RVDA step up (for once) and tell the manufacturers to make decisions for the good of the industry instead of the good of themselves. I have been an RV dealer for over 35 years and this is not the time for stupidity!
Jeff Fisher
B&R Camper Sales, Inc.