My wife and I are considering purchasing a boat...thinking the end of a season deal possibly? We are looking for an open bow/deck boat in the 24 to 26 foot range. We want high quality and reliabilty. Our maximum price would be about $55,000 and a 2007 used or new boat would be fine as well...as long as it has low hours.

I came across a 2007 Sea Ray Sundeck listed for 45,900. It has 1 hour on it and it is considered a brokerage deal? from the dealer. They said this just means we wont pay sales tax since they are a third party. They said the guy bought it for a condo business deal and it was there to entertain clients. I guess the guy sold the condos before he ever actually had to use the boat....according to the dealer.

The boat has the 350 mag..300 hp with stainless props, the boat cover and the usual options...no trailer though.

I was thinking of over 34,000. This is because I have seen the same boat with the same options listed for the 45,000 mark. I also figure since its the end of the year they will not want to sit on the boat and I would guesstimate that this would be around the price next year once the newer models come in. Is this correct rational or am I dreaming? I think we would only get a boat if we could get a steal so nothing lost if it doesn't work.

Any other boats that would be in this same $ amount that are considered as good as Sea Rays?

Thanks

I would think that in the 24' range you should be able to find a very nice boat in the low 40,000 range. To step up to 26 or longer may take more $$$ or go a little older.

Take a look at Chapparal, Azure, Regal, Four Wynns. All are considered middle to upper tier and are well made. I personnally like the Azure 258 and the Chapparal 256. I think they offer the best bang for the $$$, just my opinion.

You can usually take 20-25% off the MSRP so if it is listed new at $50,000 you can probably get out the door for around $40,000. It may get better than that towards winter, but no guaranties.

Welcome to the board.

That really opens a can of worms. Here are some more discussions, but you may want to make a bowl of popcorn first ....

Help With Deck Boat Selection

Happy customers in the 20' to 29' large runabouts

Personal ranking of boat manufacturers

Kelly Cook
(self appointed BABC librarian)

thanks for the fast reply! so in your opinion what would be a good price for the sea ray I mentioned? If purchased now. Also, what is a typical discount off of a used boat?

Also, is the Sea Ray considered better quality than the ones you mentioned or equivalent?

Add this to your favorites: http://www.nadaguides.com/default.aspx?L...tc=mr&any=0
I always have this open in another browser. It makes shopping a little easier although the prices vary by area and state.

thank you. Here is the boat I am looking at. What do you think a good price range to get the boat would be? What do you think it would be listed at..roughly...at the beginning of next year's season?

is 300 hp decently fast for this size boat? any thoughts on this engine or boat?

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/2007-SEA-RAY-240-SUNDECK-93265160

According to the link I gave you average retail for that boat is around $40,000. I think if you got it for that out the door it would be a good deal.

It is hard to say how much the price may drop in the off season. It may not go much lower if it is not costing them much to keep it.

Here is a handy loan amortizer: http://www.yona.com/loan/

Plug in your loan amount and choose how many payments and it tells you the payment amount as well as how much interest you will pay.

I just plugged in 40,000 and 15 yrs for a payment of around $350. That gets you paying over 24,000 in interest. The same loan for 7 yrs has a payment of around $550 and only costs 11,000 in interest.

I would look hard at the financing since it could cost alot more than you stand to gain by making a good deal on the selling price.

And 300 horse is fine for that boat although the 375 horse big block will get similar fuel mileage and not have to work as hard. Plan on spending alot more for that motor though.

That is a very nice boat...and with only 1 hour on it, it is already priced pretty fairly. Offering $34k I think is a pipe dream. If he was willing to sell it for that...the brokering dealer would have taken it off his hands already for that.

Be careful about offering too low an initial price. Insulting someone will make them not even counter offer and not want to sell you the boat. I know this from experience.

The top selling and exciting Deck Boats right now are the Four Winns SL 242 new design and the Chap. 224 or 244 new series. Both of these made light years steps in these designs.

For 2007 the Sea Ray then new 260 SunDeck (not the old 260) was the leading design. That boat needs a 496 to run in a top notch manner. For the prior years the top designs tend to rotate amoung about 4-6 boat builders.

If its the old 240 watch the future resale. That model is no longer the apple of Sea Ray's eye.

also see...

http://www.boatingabc.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/404558/1.html

what do you mean by the old 2007 sea ray? How can I tell?

Not sure about the new vs. old 240 Sundeck. As far as the 300HP motor, it depends on what you want to do and your personal power requirements. Some people want to go fast and have a lot of power and some are satisfied with adequate.

The 300HP would probably be adequate but not a screamer. I have a 23 ft Tahoe deckboat that weighs 4000lbs. It has the 260HP Fuel Injected 5.0L. It will do about 40mph lightly loaded. Today we had 8 people on it. Five full sized adults all 200lbs plus 3 teenagers each ranging from 100lbs to 135, plus gear for 8. All of the adults were able to ski, with me weighing in at 260.

If you want a 50mph boat you will need a larger engine, if you want something that will be adequate the 300hp will probably be fine. General rule of thumb is get the biggest engine you can afford.