JonBailey

I can't tell people what to do but I am just trying to share a little economic wisdom here. I just hate to see a poor working American stiff suffer economic hardships just to dip a line on weekends if the poor guy is not working on weekends too just to pay his rent. It is your money or stack of credit cards, not mine.

We all do agree that boat dealers and boat makers are getting whatever buyers are actually paying for them. The market is strictly in the CONSUMER's hands.

A bare-bones open 16' aluminum fishing boat sans heater, power steering, closed cabin weather protection and air conditioning is hardly a luxury item to me but a serious game-fish-getting/duck-getting tool. The Queen Mary is a LUXURY item but she is a bit overkill for lake, delta or river fishing. You can buy a $10,000 Beretta over/under shotgun made in Italy or a Mossberg 930 autoloader for under $600 made in America that will shoot just as many ducks, doves and pheasants dead. American sportsmen working stiffs need the "Mossberg" of fishing boats!

Back in the 1970's a boat in the class of that Lund would have sold for about half the price of a new Chevy Impala and no more. A new 2014 Nissan Versa car retails for about $11,900 and has a heater, air conditioning, automatic transmission, a 4-cylinder engine, complex suspension, abs brakes, a closed cabin, air bags, stereo, a top speed of over 80 mph unlike that new Lund. I agree, if you can't PAY cash for any boat, don't buy one. New boats are jacked up high because too many guys are buying these things on time. By the way does that new Lund even have a steering wheel?

An old Catholic Irish gent from San Francisco I knew who was a shrewd businessman recommended that part about buying things in pre-owned condition CHEAP from unsuspecting widows. This man had a heart of stone, I admit.

Stop buying new boats until builders and dealers are finally convinced they should sell for considerably less than a new car. They are a total rip-off along with outboards. Buy used. Never pay more than half than comparable new retail for any used boat. Pay cash or DON'T buy it. Your best preowned boat deal will come from a Craigslist classified widow who doesn't know what it is worth. Don't you dare finance outdoor recreation items. It is time America ends this modern-day debt culture. There is no reason under the sun a NEW 16-17-foot aluminum boat as from Lowe, Lund, Klamath, Crestliner, Ranger and others should cost as much as if not more than a NEW automobile. This is a boat that includes a 25-to-50 horse outboard, a steering wheel, navigation lights, a gas gauge, a speedometer, a compass and a trailer. Back in the 1970's, a new boat in that class would have retailed for about HALF what a new full-size Ford, Dodge or Chevrolet sedan retailed back then. These boats, oversized aluminum cans, and their OUTBOARDS are nowhere near mechanically complex like an automobile. Aluminum boats used to be for weekend blue-collar sportsmen on beer budgets and priced like so. After all, beer cans are made of aluminum. The market is dictated by the people. If people wised up and simply don't pay these stupid high prices, builders and dealers will have no choice but to come down in price. About 85% of a new boat retail sale these days is pure profit for builders, outboard makers and dealers combined. They can easily mass produce these floating aluminum things like compact cars and the way the Japanese did cheap motorcycles in the 1960s and 1970s.