Boat Pricing vs Oil Pricing
 

I saw something on facebook that made me think for a minute. All I have ever heard is that the price of petroleum products used in the manufacturing of boats is the single greatest cause for the increased prices over the past 10 years. If petroleum pricing stays on the same path that it has been on for the past few months, who thinks we will see a drop in the market prices of new boats in the next few years? Personally I think they will not change, but I thought it was a good topic for discussion.

The reality is prices won't go down at all. Then they will go up more when the price of oil rises back to where it was 6 months ago. As long as people are willing to pay the prices they will continue to rise. Simple economics!!

"Petroleum products used in the manufacturing of boats is the single greatest cause for the increased prices over the past 10 years." Not even close. Consider the amount of machined parts that are custom made in boats today and custom electronics, custom carpets etc. Only a few years ago, all boats were pretty generic. You had to put your own tower, own stereo and even your own cruise control. Compare any manufacturers flagship model 10 years ago to today's. If I was to pick a single commodity that has increased the cost of boats over the past years I would say Aluminum. Aluminum prices keep going up and the amour of aluminum in boats keep going up.

I would say that the oil market has very little to do with the increase in boat prices. Will low oil prices affect boat purchases? You bet. A lot of guys buying new boats are in the oil industry and many older people are at least invested in it.

I think what the OP was referring to was what all the Boat Companies Have been using as the excuse to raise prices. For the past 8 years, and at all the boat shows, it's always said that the rising price of the boats is due to the rising costs of oil and petroleum products that are used in the hull. I personally think it's just a good excuse to raise the prices and at NO point are they going to lower the prices. Wakesurfing is the big market and they want big, fancy boats and are willing to pay for them.

Before, when trying to sell a boat based on the wakeboard wake most of the actual buyers (dad's with money) didn't care as much about the actual wake. But now a LOT of the buyers who can afford these boats want the hugest wave possible and as such are willing to pay for it. Boat sales have remained steady (both is sales and price increases) due to this. Of course this is not all the buyers but a large portion of them.

It's funny because all manufacturers charge a delivery fee to dealers. That always goes up when oil/gas prices increase but it never decreases. Same with any service or product that charges a fuel surcharge. Never seen one decrease but always blaming fuel prices and use as an excuse to increase every chance they get. It would be nice if at least some of these residual costs savings would be passed on to the consumer........................but............... ........never gonna happen!!

I agree with everyone here BUT I am still paying $1.25 more per gallon for diesel fuel than gasoline. I do not understand why that is so. Again not gonna happen. Thank God my boat is not diesel.

That was exactly what I was getting at

I think the reason diesel is more is because of the low sulfur emissions signed into law by Bush before he left office. Prob cost more to produce than gas ever since. Personally I think it is a crock but...

Supply and demand. There's more gasoline production capacity than diesel for starters. Plus, gas powered cars are becoming more efficient so there's less demand of what's more available resulting in the price of gas dropping faster relative to the drop in diesel. The oil fields and most industry are almost entirely run on diesel. Then add in the fact that home heating oil is not really different from diesel and winter got started early this year.