Any creative ways to save money on Hobie kayaks online?

Hobies tend to go for a set retail price, but has anyone seen any creative ways to get one slightly cheaper online? Examples would be free shipping, bonus equipment, bonus credit card rewards, statement credit on card for ordering with company, loyalty rewards programs, etc. For example, sometimes Discover has some awesome statement credit partnerships with companies. But I don't know what programs I am missing out on if I don't have the rewards/credit card.

We don't need to discuss any interstate tax savings.

Thanks!

Nope,
Other than pick up, no shipping and as you mentioned sales tax from out of state which is significant savings on a 2k to 6k purchase. Often I will get an introductory CC card to take advantage of for such a large purchase, often for airline miles, haven't paid for a flight to and from Costa Rica in over 5 years.
Hobie controls minimum prices, region and shipping costs with all it's distributors.
Used and demos are a different story, see my thread on my used purchase from a dealer. This can be bad for a dealer if not done to the highest of standards and nobody wants to lose their distributorship rights from Hobie. At least the ones doing it right. Hobie sets the tone on very high standards of service and distributors are expected to follow their example.

_________________
Mark
Tandem Island- 2013
2 - Sports - 2014

Good luck with that
One thing that most people don't realize is Hobie kayaks hold their value better than anything else I have seen out there.

Places like Florida near the ocean where I live, there are kayaks sitting in every other yard, I suspect kayaks for the vast majority of people are like those expensive exercise machines, people buy them with good intentions, use them for a short time then they just sit in a back room somewhere until they want to sell them to make space two yrs later. If you go on craigs list you can see dozens of kayaks that are a couple years old for $50 bucks that you can put your fist thru (pretty hard to sell, in reality they are worth zero).
I think Hobies kayaks are in a different category, most people that buy Hobies kayaks, have been thru the learning experience and are serious buyers who actually use the equipment and plan to continue with the lifestyle on a regular basis, almost never a whim purchase.
In my opinion Hobies kayaks are second to none, and most people who buy them plan to use them and do not want to get rid of them, that's why there is almost no resale market, used Hobies are very rare and get scooped up very quickly. I have yet to see a used Mirage drive on craigslist.... the ones I have seen are very old and beat up (more than 5 yrs old), and they are asking over $400 bucks (new they are over $600 I think)
I think of owning a Hobie as a renting experience, I buy it, get to use it for a couple years, then I can sell it for almost as much as I bought it for, then buy my next one (as long as you take care of your stuff).
Very popular boats like the Tandem Island most of the time sell within a couple days (I'm on my 3rd one now).
I do not recommend buying a new Hobie on line, the support you get from the local dealer is invaluable (your paying the same price regardless), yea you might save a couple bucks on state sales tax, but your only hurting yourself in the long run avoiding state taxes, that money goes to better schools, roads, boat launches, kayak parks, etc provided by your state for you, if they have no money, you get nothin...
Bob

I think some local dealers will give you a discount on accessories they have in stock since they cannot discount the Hobie kayaks.
So +1 for dealer purchase.

If your fortunate to have a local dealer nearby, that's always your best option. He'll have the knowledge, accessories & if you ever have a problem.....the answers!

My local dealer, Jerry @ Captain Kayak, has always gone over the top for his customers. I've recommended countless people to him & have never heard or experienced an issue. Tough to find this kind of personal service & customer care from an on-line dealer.

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Bob
Proud member Kayak Fishing Association of New York

Use Citi
Double cash CC
You will get 2% cash back.
You also can find 0% APR CC and pay parts of Hobie each month.
And also, you could find some discount gift cards if your dealer issues them.

My local dealer has sale for old models only.

There are no online only Hobie dealers. It's just local dealers with physical stores selling online also. One of the better, for me, that is, is Ack located in Austin, TX. Excellent service.

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Mark
Tandem Island- 2013
2 - Sports - 2014

Not online. Boat show prices are as good as it gets and some dealers will give a 10% discount on parts bought with the boat at purchase.

The one way I can think of is to buy a leftover model from your dealer. I got lucky and found a new, leftover 2013 Outback from a local dealer late last year and saved literally many hundreds of dollars. It might take a bit of searching and some luck, but there are some out there. Of course, if you want a 2015 with the new seat and other changes, you are out of luck, but for me, I saved enough to put a new Jackson Kayak Seat on mine, upgrade to turbo fins, sailing rudder and add the new GT upgrades to the Mirage drive and I still came out hundreds ahead. Good luck with your search!

If you haven't kayaked before and are just looking to try it out, you can probably find a used kayak for $50 bucks on craigs list. Try it out and see if you even like kayaking (it's not for everyone). When we first started out we just rented kayaks until we were sure this was the lifestyle we wanted. That was nine years ago and we have been out pretty much every weekend since. Once we understood what it was all about and what you can do, we now only use Hobie mirage kayaks for good reasons to us personally. But everyone needs to make those decisions themselves IMO, we can't tell you what to buy, we can only share how we feel.
Hope this helps
FE

Agreed. I had been looking at buying for a long time and I always figured that I'd be buying online. I finally got to the point where I was tired at looking at web sites and just wanted to talk to a live person, face to face, for a change so I took off work a little early and drove over to the closest dealer in my area. I didn't go in there with the intention of purchasing a boat. I just wanted to actually look at them in person and I had a couple of questions that the generic answers I got off the web weren't satisfying me. So, I popped in and the young man that greeted me in the showroom was very polite and professional. We got around to talking price on various accessories when he dropped the proverbial straw. There was a fishing show going on in our area. Fishing isn't really my thing so I hadn't paid any attention to that but he told me that he could offer me the show prices at the dealer too since they were operating a display at the event. That is something he didn't have to do and I wouldn't have known the difference either way so I'm very appreciative to him for it. Bottom line is, I got the boat and accessories for the show prices that worked out to a 15% discount. Needless to say, I jumped on that. I also decided to pick the boat up myself instead of having it shipped to the house. Traffic between the two can be ridiculous and I didn't want to bother with it but really, $189 for shipping or less than $15 gas for the round trip (?), and the traffic didn't turn out to be that bad that day anyway! Worked for me!

That brings up another thing that many Hobie dealers do (well ours in Sarasota Fl does anyway). Every month they have what they call demo days at a local lake where they take all their kayaks to the lake and people can try them out, this is what we did before buying anything. There are many different types of kayaks for many different purposes ( it's mind boggling). Talked with the expert about what we like to do (what we thought at the time anyway (not knowing a darn thing it turns out).
We tried out a half dozen different kayak and several different brands as well, he highlighted the pros acn cons of each type (sit in, sit on, fishing, expedition, recreational, etc the list goes on and on). We actually spent a couple months researching everything and went to several demo days as we learned enough to make a decision on what the heck to buy. Living in Florida right near the ocean where we can kayak all year round kind of made our decision for us (probably the #1 kayak area in the world why not enjoy it is our thought). Plus it is great exercise and gets us out in the real nature. We settled on a Hobie Revolution 13 and an Oasis, best thing we ever bought in our lives. It actually changed our lives. Living in south Florida and the keys our life pretty much revolves around kayaking and snorkeling and diving, we are much more aware of nature now and enjoy every minute we are out pretty much every weekend all year round.
Good luck.
FE

thanks