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Been looking round hoping to get a bargain on nearly new van. Does'nt seem that many bargains out there, I was expecting some mega deals considering the economic climate.

I notice some of the car dealers are doing buy one get one free, etc in desperation, I wonder if the Caravan industry are leaving things too late and will pay the price?

Micky

The caravan & the car trade cannot sell caravans or cars.

So why are caravans(or cars for that matter)not being offered for sale at silly prices?

Simple really, before they sell their products at a loss, the trade will crush said products, this actually makes better sense than selling at a loss.

The buy one get one free car offer was actually buy a Chevrolet 4x4 & get a small Chev(formally Dawoo Matiz)free, which rather puts things in perspective.

Unfortunately no such offer exists on cars that people actually want. & you will probabley find the car you actually want to buy not that cheap either.

As the auctioneer said, I'm selling cars, not giving 'em away.  

Quote: Originally posted by MartyM on 03/3/2009

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The caravan & the car trade cannot sell caravans or cars.

So why are caravans(or cars for that matter)not being offered for sale at silly prices?

Simple really, before they sell their products at a loss, the trade will crush said products, this actually makes better sense than selling at a loss.

The buy one get one free car offer was actually buy a Chevrolet 4x4 & get a small Chev(formally Dawoo Matiz)free, which rather puts things in perspective.

Unfortunately no such offer exists on cars that people actually want. & you will probabley find the car you actually want to buy not that cheap either.

As the auctioneer said, I'm selling cars, not giving 'em away.  

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Dunno about that - you can get tw Kia Magentis' for the price of one, which works out at less than £7,500 per brand new 09 car.  The Magentis is quite a nice large saloon.

Dodge were doing a  2-4-1 offer on one of their big cars (their site is temporarily down so I can't check the model - but it was a 2.4 petrol auto, which might not be everyone's cup of tea at the moment)

I didn't get offered a Matiz when we bought our Captiva last October - but they did reduce the price to less than 16K, which was about 6 grand off retail (not that retail means anything any more)

A Matiz and* the 6K discount would have been nice - but if it was one or the other, I'd take the discount and forgo the Matiz.

As for as the OP goes - I see no reason why caravans should be immune from the general deflationary trend.  OK, there is something of a blip at the moment as people switch from foreign holidays - but even that doesn't explain the reluctance to lower prices on new vans - I suspect that very few 'first timers' are splashing out for brand new vans, preferring cheapish secondhand ones instead.

I was at a dealership last weekend and it was noticeable how few new vans he had - but masses of second hand ones (mostly tat, from what I could see)

There were stickers in the windows of some new Swift's (at £16,000 +) offering a £750 'cash-back' 

Well, whoopee-do!! - I'm afraid that if I was in the market for a soggy Swift (possibly if I'd just banged my head and was suffering from some sort of temporary reasoning disorder)  I'd still be asking for a lot more than a £750 incentive to take on all that grief and trouble  -;)

I would also consider buying new but does'nt really seem any bargains there.

Probably best to wait until later in the year.

Micky

The caravan industry is doing alright at the moment with swift reporting sales at the NEC show being up 14% for touring caravans on last years show, and Lunar reporting sales being up 30%. Lunar have also had record breaking shows recently in Ireland and Scotland. The vans coming off the line are sold vans and not for stock so if you are expecting mega deals I think you will have to hope for an even bigger decline in the economy which I'm sure non of us want really. 

I suppose its fair to say that the reccession aint quite as bad as the BBC news would have us believe, most of us still have secure jobs, the UK caravan industry is quite small & they have probabley tailored supply to meet demand by now. Its pointless producing vans they cant shift.

I'm sure the caravan industry knows what its doing & there have been reccessions before.

Quote: Originally posted by averagejoe on 03/3/2009

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The caravan industry is doing alright at the moment with swift reporting sales at the NEC show being up 14% for touring caravans on last years show, and Lunar reporting sales being up 30%. Lunar have also had record breaking shows recently in Ireland and Scotland. The vans coming off the line are sold vans and not for stock so if you are expecting mega deals I think you will have to hope for an even bigger decline in the economy which I'm sure non of us want really. 

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No-one wants it - but it's inevitable.

By summer, the big pension funds will start failing, by autumn we will be in hands of the IMF who will order the most drastic cuts in public spending that any of us have ever seen.

In January last year, on a forum in a far distant galaxy, I predicted that 2008 would see the start of economic collapse, and that at least one major caravan manufacturer would go bust.

I was duly pelted with abuse and virtual rotten fruit by unbelievers - who  fell strangely silent as the year wore on........

Terrible though it will all be, it's inevitable that  Prophets of doom experience a little schadenfreude when their predictions come to pass -;)

Quote: Originally posted by wineanddine4fun on 03/3/2009

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It doesn't take prophetic insight to predict financial worries in the present climate It does however take prophetic insight to come out on top. Sadly, many companies actually take advantage of restructuring (with layoffs and debt consolidation)whilst citing the economic climate. Entrepreneurs will always turn a bad climate into a fruitful one. As Sir Alex Ferguson quoted "I plan for the worst but expect the best"

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Not in the present climate, right enough - I think I was selling my visionary powers a little short -;) , looking back, it was in 2007 that I first donned my hair shirt and went preaching on the other forum.  That was long before everything began to go down the pan,

Of course, it's not a really matter of 'visionary powers', far from it - just plain old common sense and an appreciation that we were all living in a house of cards that simply had to collapse.

I firmly believe that we have yet to see the worst of the storm - I honestly don't think that we can fully appreciate he enormity of what is set to happen.   Suffice it to say that there will be utter turmoil and truly frightening social breakdown.

The government are not quite as stupid as we might take them for and have been planning for just such a social catastrophe - 10,000 extra tazar guns to keep a rioting population under control is almost certainly among the more benign measures they will implement.

Imagine a bankrupt society, no pensions, no benefits (or, at the very best, cut to the bone) millions out of work, feral gangs roaming in search of food and property, drug addicts without their methadone, young lads without the slightest prospect of work rampaging and stealing almost at will, your friendly local supermarket turned into a food ration distribution centre with armed police overseeing the endless queues - in short, and end to pretty well everything we have become used to in recent years.

Just *what* sort of force will be employed in an attempt to keep the lid on that boiling pot can only be guessed at.

Next Tuesday we begin our final descent into the abyss as the government starts to 'create' monetary credits (the 21st century equivalent of printing oodles of banknotes) in a last ditch effort to avert disaster..

This really *is* a major sign of impending economic collapse, and its significance cannot really be overstated.

I'm not at all sure that it will be possible for anyone to come out on top this time (except the oligarchy, of course)   Yes, we've had recessions, down-turns, slumps...you name it - but this is very different and will usher in unimaginable changes to our society.

The fact is, the money that you and I might have in the bank simply doesn't exist.  whether it's £10, or £10,0000, or  £10,000,000 - it's just not there, it's an illusion, a sleight of hand, just binary code on a screen.  There is absolutely nothing whatsoever to back it up, other than the assurances of discredited financial institutions.

There is no difference between the government's latest tactic of creating financial credits for the banks, and the illusory creation of 'money' by offering consumer credit - both have nothing tangible behind them, and are merely self-fueling forest fires that require more, and more, and more of this empty 'money' to keep going.

Seriously - the only possible remedy will be the creation of a new financial system with a new currency (certainly a pan European one, possibly even wider) which will relegate all present currencies to the dustbin.  Savings will disappear, pension funds will be obliterated, and (until the new system establishes itself) barter of goods will become a way of life for tens of millions.

'Grim' is not the word for what;s coming.........

Anyway , for the moment - enjoy your hols  -;)

Virtual rotten fruit duly pelted, Returnee.

We aint gonna get Zimbabwe here, before that we would get random South American countries & their economies still function, their people still work & eat.

As you say not much money actually exists in £20 notes, but thats only paper & gold is only metal, it has as much notional value as the figures that appear on your internet banking page on your PC.

Its about confidence & belief, people have always worked, traded & generated wealth, why? because they desire to do so, ok, you always have greedy gits, like bankers &/or criminals who want what they havent earned, & get it but the vast majority of us work for a living & we still have jobs, we just get on with it.

Various countries are different, over the centries, this country seems to have achieved position & status in the world far beyond what you would think from its size. Why is that, summat to do with the people that live here maybe?

Which brings us neatly back to the OP, why, if the economy is in meltdown arnt they selling half price caravans?

As I said earlier, possibly because things aint quite so bad as they appear on the BBC news.

If that is all you have to think about Returnee at 1 am in the morning then I would suggest that you returnee back into your obviuos miserable existance!

Things are not good but we have been here before especially after the war. Nobody is saying it will be as bad as that. We need a recession to clear out all the none profitable companies and freeloaders. It happens now and again. I agree that this looked as if it was coming in 2007 the only regret is that the idiots running the country at the time did not control the banks. The reason was that most of them were making a fortune out of it.

Never mind, they will all be gone at the next election only to be replaced by another lot!!!

Quote: Originally posted by MartyM on 03/3/2009

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I suppose its fair to say that the reccession aint quite as bad as the BBC news would have us believe, most of us still have secure jobs, the UK caravan industry is quite small & they have probabley tailored supply to meet demand by now. Its pointless producing vans they cant shift.

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I don't know about "most of us still have secure jobs" - I don't think such a thing really exists, certainly not for more than 12 months ahead, except in a few cases - but I think if you are in work, and you have a little money put by, things aren't too bad.

In fact, many things are cheaper than they have been for ages. For the majority of people, the "boom years" of the last decade just meant prices going up, the country getting more crowded, and the chance to see a few people in the city and the boardroom creaming off vast sums.

The problem now comes if you lose your job - because there are fewer vacancies around - or if you need credit for a major purchase. Or if you're trying to survive on your savings, or your pension.

However, I agree with Returnee - the Bank of England's move on "quantitive easing" is very worrying, and undermines the whole economy. It's been proved that we can't trust the bankers to run the economy, so why are we trusting them to this? Mind you, I don't quite agree with his predictions of a "Mad Max" style, post-amageddon future being just around the corner!

Well if all that drivel is to be believed ,the original question about bargain caravans is irrelevant as we will just pitch up at any dealers and take whatever takes our fancy from there premises , as long as we have looted enough petrol to go in the big  motor we took from the garage down the road ,

Welcome to the New World, where everything is free