Will the Bushmaster ACR Continue to drop in price?

[srkavanagh6621]

Hi I was looking into buying a Bushmaster ACR and couldnt help to notice the drastic decrease in price over the last little while. So heres the question I know there is a lot of mixed feelings going around about the ACR but I like it so im going to buy one but should I wait? Or is 1850 for the enhanced going to be as good as it gets?

 

[courtgreene]

depends. It very well could stop being produced. In that case the price could go up. The odds are strong that if its production continues the price will drop to compete with similar guns/similar purposes for different guns. It's a risk. If you wait and production does stop forcing the price up, there are very similar products available.

 

[nwilliams]

Who knows, if Bushmaster ever wants to make any money off this product then they are going to need to lower the price considerably.

The one at my local shop has been sitting in the same place on the rack since early last summer. I held it once and decided that it was not worth $2,500 so I offered the store $1,500 for it and they just laughed, took the gun away from me and placed it back on the rack. The gun has now become the joke of the shop because even the store manager doesn't think it will ever sell and he says he'll probably never order another one.

Bushmaster lists the MSRP of the basic version on their website for $2,685 and the enhanced version for $3,061. Bushmaster needs to knock $1,200 off the MSRP on both versions if they hope to make this gun a success.

I will admit however that the prices of the ACR's on Gunbroker right now are encouraging, some of them are actually priced fairly reasonably and I might be tempted to buy one sooner than I thought I would. There are some enhanced versions selling for under $2k, that's a start.

 

[Quentin]

I'd wait it out and see what happens at least for another year. These things aren't selling now and likely never will. Why pay so much for something that probably will be an orphan down the road. That money could buy so much more.

 

[Birddog1911]

For that kind of money, you could purchase a top tier AR, optics, mags, BUIS, a nice case, and a bunch of ammo.

I don't like how front heavy it is, and I'm not impressed with the controls. Hell, they just started offering 1/7 rifled barrels.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

The ACR is priced high because it is designed to be an entrant in the M4 Replacement competition. The USG demands most-favored nation status on pricing so Remington/Bushmaster is going to keep the ACR priced high enough to give them maneuverability in this competition.

As a result, I wouldn't expect to see any major price changes until the ACR is knocked out of the competition. If the ACR isn't knocked out of the competition, then prices will probably remain high since production will be going to the military first and it will have a big new selling point.

 

[Birddog1911]

Except Bart, the ACR will not be adopted by the military; especially in today's budget cutting climate. The SCAR was rejected, except for the 7.62 version. It just doesn't offer any significant improvement over the M4, particularly for the cost of replacement.

Like it or not (I like), the M4 is here to stay for some time.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

The SCAR was not rejected. The SCAR-L was just put at the back of the SOCOM priority list because SCAR is funded with SOCOM dollars; but the M4 is funded with big Army dollars.

And I can't speak to what will happen; but the Army is holding the M4 replacement trials. If budget cuts are that important, it would seem odd to have trials when you already know the outcome. And there are more ways to save money than one, improved service life of a rifle and a simplified logistics chain can bring a fair amount of savings.