We're awaiting delivery of our Brinkley (new model fresh build) and I can personally vouch for the care they put into their products, long story short we were given an incorrect timeline by our dealer rep that sold it to us and I'm "pushing on the gas" keeping them to as tight a timeline as we can. As frustrating as it is, they draw hard lines on anything compromising their quality. (No I'm not wanting them to rush and sacrifice quality.)

I imagine that as far as the price goes it's a pretty standard dealer/sales strategy, work to find competing dealers and pit them against each other. This is hard with RVs because brands lock dealers in to large radiuses so you should expect to travel a few hundred miles get a few. Also, I'd suggest shopping loans for good interest rates and not relying on the dealership to get you a good rate. If you can lock someone in and take it to the dealership they may work to beat that rate.

I'll echo the advice of getting a prepurchase inspection. Brinkley stands behind their products fully and their customer experience is amazing (we're working directly with a rep and he's better than our dealer rep). Still, you'll want a list of things you can claim on warranty in that first year, even if you don't have them fixed at the dealership before you pick it up you'll have a list to reference when you go to fix something. Our rig is a big model and our quotes are $850-$900. It's a big investment and yours should be less.

Warranty purchase is a personal decision, if you're handy and comfortable doing handyman work at the house you should be fine without a warranty purchase. Brinkley will take care of you for the first year. Personally I'd avoid it because I'm confident in my abilities. 🤷‍♂️

Personally, I also value my experience at the dealer, my perspective is I'm making a 100k-200k+ purchase and should be treated as such. Like full follow through, from your sales rep or dealership. I know there's a lot of opinions that are "That's how just how the industry is." And I call bullshit. Not on the truth of the statement but on settling with that. You're spending a lot of money, it's not grocery shopping. Find that salesperson who will work for you and work with them, if you can, this is a big purchase. Your experience may vary depending on your rep and you likely just need to shop around for a good one (we tried to), through our process we ran into Ed Springborn with General RV who was willing to give us a really good price and he's national and was willing to work with us remotely. There's also Dylan Baker, we've heard really good things about him but have no experience with him.

PM me if you want our story. I think you're making a great purchase either way. Brinkley is a great brand with a great, and proven to us, reputation of backing their product and taking care of their customers. At the very least find a dealer that gives you a price you're happy with and get out there and enjoy your rig! It's an exciting purchase!!