A couple of weeks ago I was looking at a D-1 Latitude (sister tub to the Meridan) at a Massachusetts dealer. It included their circ pump/ozone upgrade and i-pod dock with speakers and I got him to $7,800 all in. A week later I was in a Maine showroom and found a 2012 Nautilus (same size as Meridan but from the Reflections series) with an opening asking price of $8,300. There's also a New Hampshire dealer who will sell me either a Meridan or a Latitude for $7,195 -- not a bad price, but I think they're more interested in selling pool tables and paito furniture so I'd probably not buy there...
All in all, given that these tubs were shipped all the way to the east coast, I'd think you sould be able to get your guy to sparpen his pencil quite a bit.