sidechoke67
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
- Messages
- 244
I am/will be shopping for a 17' or so bowrider this Spring. My question is, when buying a used boat (thinking 1997 or newer), how important is it to buy locally?
Would you travel 4 or more hours to buy a used boat, or do you consider that too risky? I assume that an outboard would generally be a safer purchase than an I/O(?) Are there any other concerns you can think of if you were traveling to buy a boat?
I saw a boat I liked, listed by a dealer who is about 4 hours from me. The dealer said I can put 85% down on the boat, then test drive it in the Spring to decide if I really want it. If not, he said that they would refund my money. I thought this sounded good, and mentioned it to a friend of mine. My friend said that I was naive to think the dealership would really give me my money back in the Spring if I didn't like the boat. This got me thinking about how much weight to put on buying something close by versus traveling.
Thanks for any thoughts!
Would you travel 4 or more hours to buy a used boat, or do you consider that too risky? I assume that an outboard would generally be a safer purchase than an I/O(?) Are there any other concerns you can think of if you were traveling to buy a boat?
I saw a boat I liked, listed by a dealer who is about 4 hours from me. The dealer said I can put 85% down on the boat, then test drive it in the Spring to decide if I really want it. If not, he said that they would refund my money. I thought this sounded good, and mentioned it to a friend of mine. My friend said that I was naive to think the dealership would really give me my money back in the Spring if I didn't like the boat. This got me thinking about how much weight to put on buying something close by versus traveling.
Thanks for any thoughts!