Has anyone ever noticed how when oil prices go up, and businesses raise prices, even if oil goes down, the price stays up? Funny how that works.
The average guy cannot justify spending close to 50K or more on a bass boat, especially one he's going to get tired of long before its paid for. I'm not the average boat buyer. The last new boat I bought was in 1987, and it was a Ranger top of the line, Bass Masters Classic. I kept that boat 17 years till it burned up in a fire. I probably would have bought a new boat in 2004, had it not been for purchasing my Lake Place in 2002. For the last 3 years I have wanted to buy a new boat. Each year I look at the boat shows, and each year the price goes up. This year I finally decided to take the plunge, but there is no way I am going to spend over 50K on a new boat, so I ended up buying a two year old boat and saving myself about 16K. I know I do not have a new boat, or a new boat warranty, but more than likely I'll pick up an extended warranty and at my age, this is more than likely the last boat I will ever buy. There is just no way I am financing a boat over 5 years, period.

PS, I was as brand loyal to Ranger as anyone, until they priced me out of the market, so I switched to a Bass Cat, and I'm tickled pink with the boat.

SO I finally have to tell my father he is right?! Great! He told me that greed and debt would ruin the US. The domino effect is in full motion. Maybe we should actually save our money up to buy something instead of slapping out the Credit Card and Loan papers. (I am guilty as heck)

I hope that the families of all the struggling companies pull through these tough times. It has to be rough. As for the companies I think your pockets were deep enough.....no need for the additional gouge at us for the last few years. Sorry but you asked for it.

John

Funny thing is in the south some boat sales are up.

YEah look at the price of a top notch bass boat, and a top notch center console same length same manufacture everything.

a little carpet, etc does not cost 20 grand.

thats no lie... but the loss of the carpet in the bass boat, is made up with all the extra stainless hardware in the CC

Guess I will go put a coat of wax on my 10 year old paid for Champion.

So if "easy financing" straps someone with a 15 year boat payment, what makes them think that person will be back in 3 or 4 years with a reasonable/possible trade?

You couldn't strap me to a 15 year boat payment unless I was living in it!

Doing the math on that 180 will make you want to do a 180!

Roger that!

I think the Ranger contingency program just went right out the window. People say this will have no effect on FLW because it's a separate company. What do you think will happen when there is no more Ranger money?

I hate to see all this happen because of the people that loose jobs/income. But in a way I'm glad because the market has gotten overly ridiculous in the last 10 years. It's the same problem that happened with housing. Boats are a commodity and lenders were throwing money at people with ridiculous terms. My 4 yr old could have bought a new boat and financed it for 15 years. Do you think the people buying these boats with those kind of terms care what the sticker price is? All they were worried about is the monthly payment and how good they looked. The combination of those two is what drove the prices up.

Here is an interesting opinion.

http://bassfan.com/opinion_article.asp?ID=126

dang....just boat a big champ at the boat show.....oh well........

It sure will change the makeup of the FLW!

How can it not?

Wasn't it Irwin Jacobs that said "we don't run the FLW to make money, we run the FLW to sell Rangers".

Yep, and never like the guy, he's slimy.

And I never understood his reasoning behind the statement....oh well.

Maybe he knows something we don't!