[C320-list] Call For C320 Pricing Help

[David J Gleason]

John:

Having retired in 99 and wanting to do some cruising, I had a similar
situation.  We owned a Seidelman 299 that was a fast boat, but totally
unsuitable for cruising.  In our searching for what we thought we needed,
we fell in love with the 320.  New was totally out of our price range. 
There were two used ones on the local market.  There was 4 years
difference and 10 grand in price difference.  Both had options that sort
of offset the differences.  We chose the older model, 94, and were able
to add the upgrades we wanted for considerably less than the 10 grand. 
After 7 years of use and the declining difference in depreciation, we
have no regrets.  It would have been great to have purchased the boat
new, but that would not have allowed us to move up to the 320.  We
probably would have ended up with a 28 or 30'.  I ran into the previous
owner who had traded the boat in on a Tartan 41 and had a long
conversation with him.  He went through all the difficulty he had with
his dealer, Catalina and their suppliers trying to get the boat
commissioned and all systems operational.  To support his comments, there
are numerous notes, names and phone numbers in the owners manual he had
made.  The end result I believe is a very personal decision regarding
your financial position and the difficulties you are willing to work
through.  If you go back through some of the threads of this list, you
will find that many members have had difficulties getting their new boats
operational without some difficulties.

Good luck on your choice,

Dave Gleason
Proud Mary, #150


On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:33:54 -0500 "John Frost" <john at frostnet.net>
writes:
> I have been trying to rationalize myself into buying a newish 320 for 
> some
> time now.
> 
> I have retired and want to move up from our 270 while we can still 
> enjoy
> sailing.
> 
> My problem has been the big depreciation I see when I compare the 
> NADA used
> price for an X year old 320 to the price of a new one (as quoted 
> today).
> 
> Looked at that way, depreciation is steep.
> 
>  
> 
> However I have recently realized that the original sale prices of 
> the older
> boats were a lot less than they are now for today's boats, making 
> comparison
> to today's new prices meaningless.
> 
> In fact, the couple of data points I have raise the possibility that 
> the
> boats are not depreciating much at all, compared to their original 
> sales
> price. I have found one pricing guide that gives original retail but 
> it cost
> several hundred $, something I would rather spend on a GPS.
> 
>  
> 
> Now to my question, does anyone have a feel for what typical "as 
> delivered"
> prices were for some of the past years?
> 
> I am hoping this can push me to pull the trigger and buy.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>  
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> John 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
>