Looking at my first new boat, a Lowe 20 foot bay boat. The dealer quotes a price of $31,400 with the Lowe factory $1,500 rebate. This is the same price Lowe has when you 'build' the boat on their website. How much off of this price is it reasonable to expect? Also, I intend to add roughly $3,000 worth of upgrades (electronics, trolling motor, bikini, etc). Am I better off to negotiate price and then pay for the upgrades or should I try to get the upgrades 'thrown in' instead of trying to get them to come off the price? I've bought houses and trucks but never boats, so any help is appreciated. I am looking at making a deal on Monday, so time is short. 

If you are ordering the boat it's going to be difficult to negotiate. If you are buying off the showroom floor, you have a better chance of cutting a deal. Higher volume dealers get better pricing from the manufacturers. I'd find 2 or 3 dealers and pit them against each other. As far as the electronics and trolling motor, you may be able to get better pricing online rather than the dealer. I'm guessing you meant Bimini, not bikini. A Bimini top will more than likely be less expensive from the dealer than buying a custom one. I know there are generics out there but they may or may not fit well.

Yes, spell check got me on Bimini. It is on the dealers lot right now. 

 

The boat has a $150 fish finder and a cheap $300 trolling motor that they have not installed yet. I can get credit if I want a different motor and electronics. 

 

As a ballpark, would $3,000 be an amount you would expect to get off of a $30,000 boat?

Again, it really depends on the dealership. If they are a high volume dealer, they can buy boats cheaper from the manufacturer. I bought my boat new in 2013 from a high volume Lund dealer. My final price was approx 17% below the online boat builder. I contacted 4 dealerships within 100 miles. 2 lower volume dealers dropped out right away because they couldn't/wouldn't negotiate against the other 2 high volume dealers. One of which had the boat on their showroom floor, and the other would have had to order it with a 12-16 week build time. The dealer that already had the boat was slightly lower than the one that would have had to order it and he offered to sell my other boat without charging me a commission. I went with him.

 

You may be able to get the dealer to throw in some spiffs like a free boat winterization or installing your graphs for free, or a discount on an extended warranty.