Should You Buy a Boat from a Dealer or a Private Seller? When you’ve decided to buy a boat – new or used – you basically have two choices: buy from a dealer (like Colorado Boat Center) or buy from a private seller (like your Uncle Frank or some guy you know at work).
Obviously, we at CBC think it’s a no-brainer, but let’s look at the pluses and minuses.
Confidence
If you buy a boat from a private seller, there’s a lot you don’t know about the boat. How long has the owner had it, and how hard has it been driven? Are there any mechanical problems? Has it been regularly serviced?
Of course, you can ask the seller all these questions, but can you trust the answers? Maybe Uncle Frank is a good guy, but maybe he really wants to unload his boat and kinda-sorta glosses over the answers.
And usually, once you’ve forked over the cash and driven off, you have no recourse if you find something wrong with your new boat. In the private seller world, it’s always a caveat emptor (buyer beware) risk.
A dealer like Colorado Boat Center is an on-going enterprise that has built a reputation in the community for square dealing and standing behind the products we sell. We have carefully curated the brands we sell because we think they’re the best on the market for performance and reliability.
We stand behind the boats we sell, and if something goes wrong, we’ll fix it or advocate for our customers in warranties and dealing with our manufacturers. And we service what we sell, with factory-trained and certified mechanics who are the best in the business.
Knowledge
We know everything about the brands we sell and can answer in-depth questions about them.
We’re happy to offer test drives and we’ll show you all the tricks we know about how to get the best performance out of your boat. CBC is famous for our boating classes for both men and women boaters, teaching even experienced boaters the Rules of the Road and best operation and maintenance practices.
If you come in and can’t find exactly the right boat, we can order one from the factory and work with you to customize it just like you want. Or, we can search our extensive list of used boats to find what you’re looking for. We put our years of brokerage experience in the Colorado boating scene to work for every customer.
Service
As a dealer, we operate a professional service department that can maintain any boat in top condition. But there’s more to service than just operating a wrench!
We will act as your liaison with our manufacturers if your boat needs warranty work.
We will work with every customer to arrange the best financing terms with our network of national and local lenders.
We will handle the paperwork in getting your boat registered and licensed with the Colorado authorities.
We will show you how to operate your vehicle with a trailer and give you some recommendations of great places to put your boat in the water.
We operate a full-service Ship’s Store with all the accessories you need to outfit your boat for both safety and comfort. And we have authorized spare parts for all our brands for do-it-yourselfers.
Community
At Colorado Boat Center, we love boating and our Colorado boating community. Our main goal is to get as many people as we can enjoying the great lifestyle of boating here on the Front Range.
That’s why we stand behind every product we sell. We’ve been a Certified Marine Dealer for decades, which means we agree to do things the right way and abide by the Marine Industry Consumer Bill of Rights.
We’re here for the long haul. The second generation of the Smith family is now running the business, the same way our founders, Tom and Nancy Smith, did when they started CBC in 1990. That’s why we offer the Women Making Waves and the Men in the Know boating classes. And our 24/7 Service plan, which makes it effortless to drop off your boat any time for scheduled service. And our annual Barletta Owners Regatta, bringing our boating family together on the water.
So, should you buy a boat from a dealer or a private seller? Your Uncle Frank may be your favorite uncle and the boat he’s selling may look like a great deal. But when you buy at Colorado Boat Center, you get more than a good deal. You get to be part of a much larger family of boaters and boating enthusiasts. And we think that’s priceless!
