One step boat buyers can take toward becoming more educated consumers is to understand how dealers interact with manufacturers to finance and purchase the boats that they sell to the public.

While practices differ from company to company, most boat builders require their dealers to buy the boats that they sell. This is often done using a system called "showroom financing" or "floorplan financing," in which the dealer borrows money from a bank or other lender to buy boats from the manufacturer and then repays that money when the boats are sold.

In the period between the purchase and the sale – which can be as long as six months – the dealer generally pays only the interest on the loan, rather than principal. The loans are secured by hard assets: the boats.

Manufacturers can manipulate the system to help dealers, offering more favorable terms, help with the interest payments, or direct incentives to buyers. One typical practice, for example, is for manufacturers to offer incentives for dealers to buy boats year around, rather than just during the peak Spring and Summer sales seasons.

In almost every industry, large inventories of unsold goods cost companies money, and marine manufacturing is no different. Floorplan financing allows manufacturers to avoid large, unsold inventories. While dealers do pay financing costs on unsold boats, the system generally allows them to keep inventories lean and adjust to market conditions and seasonal changes.