Sell it then promise to fix it....seriously

I went to an RV Show a few years ago. A new TT at the show had a few broken items ( hinges, cabinet doors and a couple other things), and came to the show that way. And no, it wasn't a CW Dealer.

DW and I were amazed that the problems we saw two weeks earlier at the dealership remained.

My first RV under contract was a used MH. It had a problem which was to be fixed prior to delivery. A few weeks later and a bad fix job was attempted. The contract was canceled, and deposit returned. This was at a private dealer.

Our dealer actually did some upgrades to our unit BEFORE anyone bought it to improve the chances of it selling. Hell, they had it on consignment at first and decided to buy it from the owners. Guess what? It worked!

Dog Folks wrote:

John S. wrote:
Well, lazydays did go into Chapter 11. So it is starting out fresh so they might not be the best example. It is sad that dealers keep junk there then fix it. It has to do with who pays for it. I think the fault lays with the manufacturers who ship out the junk not ready to be sold. If it was ready and the trip to the dealer caused the damage, what does it say of the structural integrity of the unit.

Chapter 11 was in 2009 and again in 2013.

Don't know if it's correct, but we were told by an older gentleman, who had been in the game a very long time, that LD was on it's 3rd or 4th filing by the time, In his words, "Monaco took them down", in 2009.

As for all the issues with used stuff looking like garbage on the lot. IMHO, I think it's an absolute blessing. A few years back we spent a ten day stretch in southern Fl. looking for a mid-priced unit. Many suitable coaches were passed over since they were obviously abused by their owners. I want to see how the PO "lived". If the furniture and cabinets are dirty and banged up, there is no reason to think that they lived like slobs, yet were obsessive about maintenance. For us the amazing part is that four out of five coaches took a two minute walk thru to know that it wasn't the one. Filthy interiors, owner's DIY "upgrades" that were awful and devalued the unit, Body damage, twisted ill fitting slides, stress cracks on the skin, sagging belt lines in high end 6-8 YO coaches, etc....

Lots of surprising things to see out there on the lot, OTOH,lots of ways to "put a silk dress on a pig", by the time it leaves a good detailing shop, I learned that I'm a big fan of the unwashed truth in this case.

As for dealing with CW on any RV, good luck. We had a blowout argument earlier this year with a sales manager that just couldn't believe that we were being so unreasonable and refusing delivery on a new Travel Trailer with crash damage FRONT AND BACK. The rear corner had been back into and the corner molding was crushed. The front cap must of struck a road sign or something, as it had two small chunks out of the gel coat, about 10' high on the front corner, and the cap was so stressed that the edge had cracked open, and there were glass mat fiber strands hanging out of the crack. After a loud discussion with this guy, it was clear that he was completely void of any moral compass, and was only interested in moving the unit, and could care less if we, or the next customer ended up with a new, and extensively damaged RV. Given this, and that fact that most sales staff we ever had an serious conversations with seem to have CW careers that can be measured in weeks, IMHE, it is a real good place to avoid.

John S. wrote:
Well, lazydays did go into Chapter 11. So it is starting out fresh so they might not be the best example. It is sad that dealers keep junk there then fix it. It has to do with who pays for it. I think the fault lays with the manufacturers who ship out the junk not ready to be sold. If it was ready and the trip to the dealer caused the damage, what does it say of the structural integrity of the unit.

Chapter 11 was in 2009 and again in 2013.

Well, lazydays did go into Chapter 11. So it is starting out fresh so they might not be the best example. It is sad that dealers keep junk there then fix it. It has to do with who pays for it. I think the fault lays with the manufacturers who ship out the junk not ready to be sold. If it was ready and the trip to the dealer caused the damage, what does it say of the structural integrity of the unit.

krivanj wrote:
We had the same thing at LaMesa in Sarasota, FL. Test drove a 2008 Itasca DP and liked it, but nothing seemed to work, dash AC, blower motor, lots more. Salesman insisted all would be fixed if we bought it. Sure made me not really want it, after all. Went to Lazydays and every unit we looked at looked new, and they still took three days on it and found all kinds of things to fix. Much more impressive system.

LazyDays is one shining example that doing things the right way CAN be profitable.

I also went to CW to look at a pusher. Salesman only showed us one model maybe a year or two old. I said, how about that one? oh, you guys probably wouldn't like that one. He just wanted to sell us the one unit. CW is a nice store to get RV stuff through.

To the OP's experience I would want to know how long the two coaches he looked had been sitting there since delivery. If they had arrived that week I could understand (maybe) why they were dirty and not tidied up. But I would be really concerned about the quality of manufacturing if trim pieces and windshield wipers were falling off during the drive from the factory to the dealer.

As a one time car salesman I would never show a vehicle that had just arrived on the transport and hadn't been cleaned even if it meant a possible sale. First impressions are lasting impressions so do it right the first time by cleaning the rig, snapping trim back on and tag the rag off the windshield wiper arm.

We had the same thing at LaMesa in Sarasota, FL. Test drove a 2008 Itasca DP and liked it, but nothing seemed to work, dash AC, blower motor, lots more. Salesman insisted all would be fixed if we bought it. Sure made me not really want it, after all. Went to Lazydays and every unit we looked at looked new, and they still took three days on it and found all kinds of things to fix. Much more impressive system.

We've been frequenting several dealers for the last few months while shopping. Looked at new and used. CW was the only place where we observed used units with obvious defects, units not cleaned inside or out, and even personal property and food inside some. The way some of them looked we wondered if they were not repo's or estate sales.

At other places the used units were at least emptied out and reasonably clean.