dealers reputaion/review

[LSVLance]

Back to the topic of the thread...I think I read that the Original poster has already ordered his boat, but I thought I'd chime in with my experience of the dealer in question.

I tried several times to buy a boat from Midwest Marine after hooking up with one of their salesmen at the local boat show. Of course, times were tough back then, I knew it and I was bottom fishing... I noticed several of their slightly used boats fell into the category I was looking for, and I offered some pretty low offers on a couple of them. I also tried to make a deal with them on several of their leftover 2009 boats. The salesman's communication left a lot to be desired and frankly they just didn't seem to be that interested in selling a boat. It didn't take long for me to give up on them.

Now, right down the highway from them I found a most excellent dealer, who was not only very interested in selling a boat...but for the first time in as long as I could remember when shopping for a new car\truck\boat\motorcycle, I did NOT feel like punching the salesman in the face by the time I left the lot. Pros Choice Marine in Warsaw Missouri sells boats all over the Country and is the most well run dealership I've ever seen. Not only did they shoot me a VERY fair price on my leftover 2009 boat, but the one time I needed service on it, they fit me into their schedule without an appointment and had me fixed up within a couple of hours. And I'll tell you how good the price they shot me on my boat was...I paid their asking price for it... I NEVER pay asking price for any substantial purchase I make. After giving me the price, the salesman looked at me and said "Pretty good price..isn't it?" and I just nodded... He and I both knew it was a deal and I just couldn't bring myself to ask for any better of a deal.

I know that Triton's Cypress Cay line isn't very well known nation wide...but they are built on the same line as Harris Kay's Flote Boats and can be bought from Pros Choice at very reasonable prices.

Just wanted to plug my favorite MO dealer in case it'll help any future potential buyers find the boat and dealer of their dreams.

[JohnO]

And I'll chime in on buying non-local.

After deciding which boat I wanted and doing my research I went to My local dealer (up in Indianapolis, 80 miles away). I made an offer on the boat based on last years model price, some inflation amount, and the price of the additions I was looking for.

I think I offered something like 32K (expecting to end up around 37 or so). They responded 42K. I counter offerred 35K. They counter offerred 41.5K.

I walked out.

I then emailed every Manitou dealer within 500 miles with my specs and my expected price. Casey's Cove Marina on Crooked Lake in Angola IN came in at about 35K (without additions). I figured a 200 plus mile drive to get the boat was well worth saving 7K on it. (7K buys a lot of gas).

Went back to my local guy to see if he would match it and he was not at all interested in playing. "I'll sell you that boat at 41.5K".

So I did the deal with Casey's Cove, made some additions, bought a trailer from them and the final price was 40K. Absolutely wonderful people to deal with. (I highly reccommend them). The local guys will never see me.

What is the most likely thing to fail on a pontoon? The motor. I had a 5 star Yamaha service center 15 miles from me on my main lake. Anything on the pontoon itself I could get fixed local (calling a Manitou dealer for parts etc).

Service has not been a problem in any way.

So, for me, buying non-local made a whole lot of sense. I saved 7K+, did not have to deal with a dealer who wanted to take advantage of me, and got my pontoon built exactly as I wanted it.

[bassn386]

This may be a little late, but we bought our 2011 Benni from Midwest Marine in Harrisonville. Yes, their pricing was waaay below Kelly's Port at Lake of the Ozarks (approximately &10K for the same boat). We dealt with John Myatt who did not act like a used car salesman. He answered all of our questions and we did not get to pricing until we knew what we wanted on the boat. Even though we had previously owned a pontoon (1993 Suncruiser Jamaica 240) we knew toons had changed in the 11 years since we sold ours for a Four Winns Horizon 240. John asked us how/where we would be using the boat and pointed out some popular options that would be good to have, especially at Lake of the Ozarks. I did not want an I/O because I didn't want to have to deal with winterizing the block. John also pointed out the extra cost as well as extra weight of the I/O.
He even found us a buyer for our Four Winns.
Our next door neighbor purchased a Champion Bass Boat from MIdwest Marine several years ago and whenever they had a warranty issue, MM stepped right up to take care of the problem.
I can tell you they sell a ton of Benningtons!!. The week we ordered ours, they sold 5 more boats. When we went to see our boat last Friday, (they are holding in for us until Spring) they had at least a dozen new Benni's in the yard and all but one or two are sold. One was sold to someone from Oklahoma who was coming to pick it up that day.

[cncmaster]

Thx Bassn
It's not late at all.
I have never met John but so far I think he's a great guy. And now with ur experience
I'm more comfortable. Our boat will arrive spring time we look forward to good times on it .
Thx again

[bassn386]

cnc, where will you be running your Benni?
We're at Lake of the Ozarks; if you are there, let me know and we'll try to meet up somewhere this Spring or Summer. We're close to the 55 MM on the Osage arm.

[cncmaster]

sorry friend, wish i could i hear its a nice lake. I am in California and will most likeley use it here at the local lakes and head to havasue and lake mead a few time a year.

Just happen to get the best deal from John.

[curtiscapk]

cnc are they shipping or you picking up?

[cncmaster]

they or someone will bring it to Havasue.

[bassn386]

I'll be seeing John at the KC Sport, Boat & Travel show this weekend. I'll have some fun tweaking him about delivering a boat to Havasu. He doesn't normally do the delivery, but I'll tell him you specifically requested that he deliver the boat.
Have fun with it. I'm sure we'll both be giving updates (bragging) about our fantastic toons on this site.

[cncmaster]

Bassn, Tell him that your buddy from cali. has been trying to get hold of you. and the message is i miss u love aram. lol he will have a good laugh out of it. then tell him that you will be delivering the boat to me and see what he says.

Once i got him in trouble by textting he's cell phone and signing off by love aram and he's wife got hold of the cell phone and ....POOR GUY.

Real nice guy, he put up with me for 5months before i pulled the trigger. i well mostly my wife changed the model of the boat at least 4 times not to mention the options list.

Glad she dose not get on this site, if she only finds out how much this toon is costing us . hahahaha lol. she"s off by 10K

PS I am still looking for a delivery options don't have one yet. he did recommend someone and i talked to him but it was a while back and not sure if i still can find he's contact info.

[bassn386]

cnc, I got to John at the KC show this weekend. They were incredibly busy. They had at least 8-9 Benni's lined up and there were people in almost every one. I took one of my son's and his family by to show them an approximation of what we bought. I think I might have sold two boats for them while I was there.
There was another couple trying to decide between a Benni and a Tracker pontoon. I don't think they had any idea of the differences and were just price-shopping. I went back and talked to them for a little bit-don't know if I did any good.
I told John I would haul your boat to Havasu for $5/mile and he almost took me up on it! I was only kidding; there is no way I would volunteer to pull that beast more than 1,300 miles, regardless of how much I was getting.