Welcome to our forum.
As others have said, prices will vary from dealer to dealer, and different parts of the country/world. My best advice is to go to the dealer with checkbook or visa in hand, and ask if for their best price if you purchase right now. At least with me, I would get you my best price at that point. Some dealers offer better prices for check versus credit card, so might ask about that too. I have been selling Arctic Spas since 2002. The cedar cabinets hold up and weather very well as long as you treat them. I still have customers with spas from that year, and the cabinets look very good still. Just like anything you put outside, if you don't take care of it, it will weather. But, there is as maintenance free cabinet option if you don't want to stain the cedar.
What many new buyers don't realize is that you're not simply buying the hot tub and walking away, you're also buying a warranty package from the dealer to service the spa if necessary. The thing is, every dealer in the country operates on a different profit margin - the cost of living changes greatly depending where you live in the country, as does the cost of operating a business. No dealer is going to care if you say you saw someone pay $1500+ less for the same spa across the country. Hell I visited two different hotspring dealers equidistant from my home and the price for the same make/model/year spa was about 20% cheaper from the one dealer over the other (no haggling necessary, these were their advertised sale prices) - that's because the two dealers had very different business models. The important thing to remember is that your dealer is going to be the company servicing your spa for any warranty service over the next few years. You want to ensure you can trust them to do the job right - do they have technicians in-house or do they outsource? Do those technicians service all spas or just one brand exclusively? What are the call out charges? The dealer you buy from is just as important as the brand. If you don't like the dealer but like the spa, try looking up any other regional Arctic dealers within 100 miles of your location and give them a call - tell them exactly what you're looking for and ask for a price, sometimes they're happy enough to give a price over the phone without having to drive an hour+ to the showroom.