Here is my recent shopping for a new machine experience.
I live in SoCal so you would think I had a lot of choices...but when I narrowed down the brand I wanted I had much fewer, so I expanded my search area and found a few more. I went to 5 different stores. I drove over 50 miles to one.
The prices varied but not really all that much. 2 did not do trade-ins and 1 has a monopoly in the area by having a lot of stores. They were my worst experience because it was most like going to an auto dealership.
One was nice and friendly and thought I wanted to buy from them even though they were about 30 mins away. However, trying to get them on the phone was a real trick. I finally talked to them again and agreed on a price, then they didn't have any in stock, was going to find me one locally and call me back....I called twice to see what the status was and then I got tired of wondering and figured I better move on. I did...and bought one at a different store (one that didn't do trade-ins)
Turned out they gave me the same price w/o the trade-in and now I have my other machine to sell and when that happens I will have gotten a very sweet deal. BTW - that store called me about 2.5 weeks later to say my machine was in....they ordered it new. Told them sorry...you never returned my calls and so I assumed they didn't like me.
Overall - machine dealers are very much like used car salesmen in my book. I hope to never buy again.