Campers delivered with no PDI

[Artemus Gordon]

I have two friends who bought their fivers out of state. Both made their deals and had them delivered. Both got no PDI and delivery drivers knew "nothing" about the rigs!

I bought mine in Texas, but I elected to drive to Texas to take deliver at the dealership. Took half day for PDI and then two days at nearby park to get acquainted with RV. I saved a large amount of money and felt it was worth my time to pick it up. I urged both buddies not to buy without inspections. Both were assured by Keystone the drivers would know everything and local dealer would help out....that did not happen. I ended up getting the local Keystone dealer to help them out. They don't sell Montana or Cougar, but got permission to fix warranty items on these two units. Nearly all the issues would have been caught in even a simple limited PDI inspection. Now in another thread, one of our newest members gets their RV delivered the same way. I believe you should be able to buy anywhere, but that dealer needs to take responsibility for PDI.

I have been able to teach them about the controls, but no manual will take place of one on one training. I put responsibility firmly in selling dealers court. My post is not meat to make people feel stupid, it's meant to demonstrate these RVs are somewhat complex and they need to have the full support of selling dealers included in the $2500.00 delivery fees!

[DQDick]

I agree, but if you accept the rig that way then IMHO it's on you. Keystone and the dealers will do as little as you let them get away with.

[dieselguy]

I sure wish I had the stellar dealer relationship and expertise a few of you here on the MOC tout. I've dealt with 3 different dealers over the years ... 2 of them high volume. In 2010 when I bought my last Montana having owned 2 Montanas prior ... I was showing the tech that was with me during the PDI some things. He was relatively new and had to go back and forth to a senior tech for some of my questions. In the real world, a dealership is not going to assign a senior tech to a PDI when they can better utilize him in a repair bay. Believing an RV delivery driver would be knowlegable of what he's delivering should be a stretch of anyone's imagination. Depending on a local dealer to step in on a PDI of an out of town purchase is an even farther stretch of imagination. I'm with Dick ... if you are involved in a purchase as described, you surely should figure on bare bones delivery no matter what it cost you.

[richfaa]

The two local dealers we have purchased RV's from do have a experienced tech dedicated to the PDI however many do not. The Transporter delivers many different brands and may not even know what model he is picking up. They do a walk around and check for damage. It has been awhile so things may have changed with the transporter. The dealership usually checks for damage when the rv is delivered before he signs for it and you pay for a PDI know it or not. The quality of the PDI depends on the buyer. We do not sign a paper till we do our own PDI and are satisfied. we used the PDI here on this forum as a guideline PDI and gave it to the dealer to check before we did our PDI.It took two days and we drove out of the lot with a perfect PDI not to say it did not call apart a few months later. You are the buyer, it is your Money you should not pay until you are satisfied.

[JandC]

Generally speaking when you hear the statement "Both were assured by Keystone the drivers would know everything and local dealer would help out...." You should know that the story is not going to end well for this buyer.

If there is one thing I have learned is that Keystone has absolutely no control over their dealers. Keystone may try to make it sound like they have this great big family of happy dealers out there, but most of us realize that dealers generally don't support purchases from their competitors.

[Recumbent]

A personal on site PDI is a must. For us the best PDI was by Northgate RV in Ringgold, GA owned by Billy Yates. The RV up fully hooked up with slides extended for a week and checked each day to verify that everything was operating correctly. Then they had an experienced RV family (husband & wife) spend several hours making sure everything worked and that we knew how to work it.

[Rondo]

I'm with Recumbent! I feel that a PDI should be performed on spot of the dealer. If you have to have the unit delivered do so but go to the purchasing dealer and make the PDI there. If you find things that need attention the unit is there for them to fix then and now.

Where we purchased out Montana's the dealership has several Service Techs that do the PDI with the customer and they are well versed in the operation of the units. If you have questions, in most cases they have an answer for you and if they don't know the answer they will go back to the Service Manager and get the answer/s or bring him out to answer our questions.

We took two of the PDI check lists with us for our last PDI on our 2013 and went over everything from top to bottom, end to end, and inside nearly every cranny we could. We even took screw drivers and flashlights with us to check things out behind the walls in the basement and other places. Surprising what you find when you do that and it's surprising the looks on the faces of the techs when we do this also.

Thanks to the Forum and our fellow MOC members there have been plenty of posts that give us all things to do and look for in the PDI. Going through the factory and the assembly line in Goshen at the Fall Rally really helps also because you can see what is behind those walls and what to look for also on the PDI. We've helped numerous buyers from our dealership with their PDI and they have been newbies and quite experienced previous owners and we always find things that even the tech has not checked.

[DarMar]

Believing that a delivery driver knows enough to do a PDI is a long stretch of the imagination as well as expecting any other dealership other than the selling one to do a PDI.

If you are going to buy from a distance you had better be prepared to travel to do the PDI and travel back to have many other items looked after. Heck, you may even have to deal with damage done in transit.

[1retired06]

In our experience, dealers know less about these rigs than me. Walk thrus often a joke,. Why would anyone think a transporter is interested in anything except the next transport. Time is money, he gets paid to move from A to B.

[CORattler]

Isn't that the truth!

quote:Originally posted by DQDick

Keystone and the dealers will do as little as you let them get away with.

[CORattler]

That was the only way we got our items discovered on our PDI fixed.
You hold the cards before you sign & hand over the money. After that, the dealer holds the cards.

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

You are the buyer, it is your Money you should not pay until you are satisfied.

[WaltBennett]

I simply cannot comprehend how any rational person would buy anything this expensive without at least walking through it. They must just have too much money on their hands and don't care.