Gov. Mike Huckabee has a weekly show on FOX and tomorrow he will be doing his show from Elkhart, IN . He is going to talk about the RV industry. You might want to check it out. Sat at 8:00 PM EST on FOX NEWS. I just found out yesterday that LAZYDAYS RV in Tampa (well known) is closing up...going out of business. Hard to believe. If you have never been there, it is HUGE! You could spend an entire day going through their lot of RVs and not see most of it. They were known for having something like 1,200 RVs on their lot, and they are also known for their service center...they have over 200 service bays.
http://www.lazydays.com/?wt.srch=1&wt.mc_id=Overture%20Lazydays&wt.kw_id=lazydays%20rv&OVRAW=Http%20Lazydays%20RV&OVKEY=http%20lazydays%20rv&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=399662521&OVKWID=620540021
I just saw Edith Wallace and her husband Wayne the other night - they certainly didn't say anything about LazyDays going under - They have had LT debt problems, major layoffs, etc. - but no sign of them bellying up - FWIW
Niles isn't Edith and Wayne one of the areas largest Tomato growers in this area? I know for a fact they aren't hurting financially!
Too bad if they close the place up but with the prices they charge, it's no wonder the smaller shops are doing better!
Ace
Ace - I don't believe Don's had anything to do with Mater's in years, and I don't think the rest of the family ever did. The economy is not slowing him down though - He has been building (for years now), near one of my partners home on the Northwest shore of Lake Thonotosassa, what could be the largest residence/estate in Hillsborough County - He has transplanted hundreds of huge full grown oak trees on the estate which is over 130 acres (i think it's 130) - It's costing millions - Did I ever tell you the story of how Stewart's put them in business - remind me the next time I see you -
I can't find anything about Lazy Days going out of business. It would probably be posted over on the rv.net forums and on RV Industry News if Lazy Days was closing. I do know they are hurting with the RV business the way it is.
The RV dealer nearest my house appears to be closed. I bought a lot of parts there. The rest of the RV dealers are mostly way out in the boonies.
I think your news is not correct. I am a contract driver for Lazydays RV and was there yesterday. They are bringing back over 20 new coaches from the GA. FMCA rally. Don't think they would be buying more coaches if they planed to go out of business. There sales are down, but they still can't keep up with service. At $120.00 per hr. that should keep them going. They have also opened a new sales lot in Orlando under the name of RV Liquidators. This is to help get rid of some of the trade-ins. Lots of the small dealers that were buying there trade-ins are now out of business.
Jack
When you are paying the big bucks on floor planning for 20 million dollars of inventory along the with the long term debt you need deep pockets. Featherlite had deep pockets but not deep enough. good luck
RV service seems like a good business to be in. $120 an hour is more than even a Detroit Diesel dealer gets last I checked.
I know the RV service places here in Minnesota are jam packed in the fall and spring. Everybody going south in the fall and getting ready for summer camping in the spring. I remember calling for an appointment in the middle of winter about four years ago and the guy said to bring it in the same day or the next day. I was shocked as I was used to a week or two wait.
Oops, mixed up my seasons.
If it were only 20 mil it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket. They don't floor plan, but they do have a 137 mil loan. They did have a good show in GA, sold 26 coaches, but they sold over 100 there two years ago. I feel if anyone makes it in the RV business it will be Lazydays. Last year Don Wallace was reported to be one of the wealth's people in Tampa. That was from his sale of Lazydays.
Jack
Jack, I used 20 mil as example that is what most of large dealers carry figure the instrest on 137 mil per day and see if the 120.00 per hr will cover that where they floor plan or not the money comes from some where. This has the Prevost converters in trouble now Prevost no longer floor plans the shell for free any longer so I was told by Bob Lee of Country Coach.They could very easy file chapter 11 to renegotiate their instrest rate on the line of credit it is the All American Way. Fwiw we were all better of last year than we are now at least I was. Good luck
Getting way off topic, but I'm doing better than last year. My salary has been flat for two years now and for at least another year and my job situation is tenuous, but my expenses are also down. My insurance went down almost 10%, my income tax stayed flat, and my my property tax decreased at least 5%. My fuel cost is also down almost 50%. I bought a different car and my payment is down (I'm not in a position to pay cash for a car quite yet.). Food is up, but overall I am spending less on the same income.
I'm hoping to refinance my mortgage in April to save over 10% on my payments after the lower tax deduction is figured in. Yes, it resets my mortgage to 30 years, but it only pushes the end date out four or five years and I can use the savings to prepay the mortgage.
good for you Belfert but we that have work for 45 years and are in the investment markets are doing as well good luck
I forget that a lot of you guys are retired and living on investments that are falling. My 401k has fallen, but I have 25 to 30 years before retirement. My parents are hurting as my dad wants to retire, but health care and a shrinking 401K and IRAs won't allow it now. He will have to wait another two or three years until he qualifies for Medicare and hope his investments recover in the mean time.
I googled them and found this;
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/18/sp-lazydays-rv-stops-paying-interest/news-money/
Jack
If you expect to ever get any straight information from Huckabee you are in for a rude awakening. I can think of no other public figure who knows less about anything in the world than Huckabee. I can think of no one who loves the camera and microphone more.
He was our Gov for eight miserable years and did nothing for the citizens. He was mostly ignorant of what was going on in the world, took credit for passed laws he actually opposed, raised taxes and denied he did, was so thin skinned that he wouldn't allow any reporters in his office from any newspaper that dared print anything even remotely negative about him or what he believed was negative.
He lied throughout his campaign about his record as Gov. He took donations and gifts from his buddies and claimed they were his even though by law they belonged to the state. When he left office he had all the hard drives in state computers removed and destroyed which is against the law.
Just before he left he and his wife registered on the wedding register (He had been married 20+ years at the time!!) of the best local dept store so they could receive going away gifts they could choose ahead of time!!
He had the state police purchase a twin engine turbo prop airplane for state police use which he used as his personal executive aircraft for running around the US, almost anywhere except inside the state. AR is about 300mi wide!! If it was ever used for state police business it was kept a secret.
I can go on and on but you get the idea.
Who else but Fox would hire a guy like this?
Sounds like he must not be a democrat.
Fred M
Well, the rules here are not to bad mouth any business, so I won't. But, if you or anyone you know, ever has reason to use Lazy Days Service department, please contact me first.
Len
Len...actually I think it is not to badmaouth anyone UNLESS you know it to be fact. And I may be wrong on that too.
Jack
Gee, I couldn't see this thread taking a turn.
Totally blindsided me! ::)
Just for the record, there was no harm intended against Lazydays. I had visited them a few times when I started looking for an RV before I realized I would rather have a bus. I heard about their financial struggles, and that show on FOX about the same time. Living here and knowing how large Lazydays is and how many they employ, I know it will hit hard! Just another sign of the difficult times in this economy.
Each time a major player in the rv or coach world takes a hit, we all hurt a little more, the idea isn't whether we would buy anything from them or not, it's more that people depend on them for employment and some people look towards them as a good place to buy or to see rv's, it all falls under the umbrella of seeing whats over the next hill, how a person does it isn't as important as how they enjoy it.
Len,To say Shop X is a bunch of crooks IS bad mouthing. To say that Shop X was 5 days late on a written estimate, charged me 20% more than estimated, didn't fix the original problem and yet broke something....that isn't bad mouthing, that is just repeating history. I think that is OK and I sure appreciate you taking the time.
What Jack said.
thank you!!!!
John