2 Attachment(s)
My Purchase Experience - Redding Yamaha Sea-Doo
This isn't an overall positive or negative review, mostly intended to relay my personal experiences in dealing with Redding Yamaha Sea-Doo in Redding, CA, when I purchased my 2019 Spyder F3 from them.
My sales rep was Shad. We communicated mainly via text, so I have a record of most of my communication with him. I live 3 hours away from this dealer, but they are by far the closest to me, so I figured I'd try them first. They had one 2019 F3 left, a bare-bones base model with zero extras (which was coincidentally exactly what I was looking for). I also told them I had a trade-in. a 2009 Yamaha XVS950 that was in fair-poor condition. I asked them to make up a quote for me (attached is a pic of the quote). Their quote was $18,762.48 out the door. Worth noting from their quote at this point is their freight charges of $1,295, and the trade-in offer of $1,595. I countered with $17,500, which was MSRP + sales tax ($1,160, thanks CA) + $350 for doc/misc fees, for a total of $17,500. Eventually we settled on $17,700.
I rode my old bike out to the dealership, met up with Shad. Initial conversation was polite, Shad was courteous. But once we got to the trade-in, there was a problem. They claimed my trade-in was in worse condition than they had assumed, and could only offer me $400 for it. This was eventually negotiated up to $600. Rest of the purchasing process was pretty quick, overall took around 10 minutes. Ryan, their finance manager, handled most of the financial transaction side of things, with the exception of negotiating the trade-in. I should mention that I had talked to Ryan a couple of times over the phone when I was considering financing through BRP (I eventually decided to finance through my bank instead), and he was quite helpful.
Next was the walkaround & product delivery. They had washed the F3 shortly before I had arrived. Should also note here that while they had some inventory indoors, most of their inventory (including all their Can-Ams, save one) was stored outdoors & uncovered. Shad admitted that he didn't sell many F3's, and as a result didn't know much about them compared to other models they sold. This turned out to be true - a few minutes into the delivery and I had already discovered that I knew more about the questions I asked than he did, even though I had never actually seen an F3 in-person. This wasn't as big of a deal for me, as I had done my research, and he knew enough that he could guide me through starting it for the first time & basic controls, so despite his lack of knowledge there were no problems getting me comfortable riding it for the first time. I rode off their lot, stopped at a gas station after going a few blocks (it had about 1/3 of a tank on delivery), then hit the road & rode the three hours back home with no other issues.
So what was the overall takeaway? I liked the employees there, on a personal level. They were all nice people. And the sales price was okay. Not great, but I didn't feel like I was being ripped off either. Obviously, the biggest issue was the trade-in. While initially most would probably say it was obvious I was taken for three rides that day, including the rides to & from the dealership, I'll be honest, my trade-in was rough. I knew they weren't going to give me the full $1,600 before I even left my house. While mechanically it was fine, the bike was covered in rust from when I lived on the coast & didn't have a garage. Not to mention, I replaced a ton of parts with aftermarket crap (was my first bike, I was in my early twenties when I got it, you know how it goes), so they would have had to replace a lot to get it sellable. It also wasn't smoggable with the intake/exhaust setup I had on it, so there's that too. But, I'll let people draw their own conclusions.
